Continued From - Chilhood Days 1
The middle school from Grade 6 upwards was a part of the main college leading up to university entrance and was located on a different site from the primary school. It had a much larger and more diverse population of students. As many children joined Dharmasoka from other schools after completing their primary education, we came across a large number of children attending school from villages adjoining Ambalangoda, extending from Bentota to Rathgama along the coastline and from Elpitiya to Baddegama towards the interior.
As there were limited classrooms in the permanent buildings Grade 6 classes were accommodated in temporary sheds having half walls and cadjan thatched roofs. Under these conditions the teachers had a tough time keeping the attention of the students focused on class work and we had a lot of fun particularly during rainy weather. There were also plenty of opportunities for extra-curricular activities including cricket, volleyball, football, badminton, table tennis, athletics and cadetting. Giving 2nd place to my studies I took part in almost all these sports, but finally concentrated on athletics and cadetting. Of course everyone was crazy over cricket and many played the less risky version with the softball.
Every sub-area of Ambalangoda had its local soft ball cricket team and I was a member of the Patabendimulla team. My strength was in bowling and sometimes I used to open the bowling spell. We used to play not only against teams from other areas of Ambalangoda such as Bogahawatte, Andadola, Kaluwadumulla, Polwatte, Mahambalangoda, Delduwa, but occasionally also with teams from other villages like Kosgoda, Ahungalla and Hikkaduwa. Such activities enabled me to develop a large group of friends not only from my hometown but from the adjoining villages as well. Eventually once I reached the age of 17 the cricket coach observed my potential as a bowler and encouraged me to come for college cricket practice with the hard bowl. This opportunity to build a career in cricket was unfortunately short lived. One day I was fielding at very close range at silly point at practice and a strong shot from a batsman directly hit my solar plexus region and I lost consciousness. I had to be carried out of the field in an unconsciousness state and recovered only after some time. By the time I got home that evening news of this episode has reached my parents and that was the end of my possible cricket career.
I pursued with vigour my interests in athletics and cadetting. My most favourite event in athletics was the high jump and in this I was quite successful. I created a new College open record for this event in 1960 and this was broken only in 1978. I was also placed in this event at the Southern Schools sports meet in 1958, qualified to contest at the all island Public Schools meet in Colombo where the event was won by Nagalingam Ethirveerasigham who eventually won a Gold medal at the Asian Games. My other two events in athletics were the javelin throw and 400 metres, but never got beyond getting placed at the college inter house sports meets.
Continued - Childhood Days 3
