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Bradby experience Who wants to go all the way to Kandy to see a bunch of guys trying to kill each other for a ball, was what I usually said. This year, after much persuasion and many threats, they finally got me to agree to join them for the Kandy leg. An excellent chance to get away from everything, they enthused. Did they say get away from it all? Not only did I meet so many people whom I would never have bumped into in Colombo or avoided at all costs, looked like half of Colombo was here in Kandy. The hotels were full weeks ahead. Never are the Colombo hotels booked out when the Colombo leg is on and never do so many people descend en masse on the capital. Therefore, I had to come to the conclusion that Bradby Kandy was a good excuse for Colombo folk to go on holiday. ‘It will be really fun’ was something my friends also said. And fun it certainly was.Having a reasonably good understanding of the game and only needing a refresher course, provided by my friends on the way to Kandy, I was raring to go. The drive to Kandy in the early hours of the morning was, should I say, interesting. There is a history to this encounter I realised. One Royalist relived the days when they would go to Kandy on train. There was a time when they would board the train to go to Kandy and they would call it the Royal Express. “It was just us as no one else was on that train,” he said. So, they would have a whale of a time getting into all sorts of mischief which included getting the conductor a bit drunk so he kept putting out the wrong flags. Ah, those were the days. On to the match now. Well, we never went for the junior one but we were there for the seniors and what a match it was. One thing we all failed to realise was that we were in the middle of hordes of Trinity supporters. Enter the Royal rugger team and we give a loud cheer only to realise that the people around us are giving us looks. In trot the Trinity team and they are cheering so loud, we’re deafened. Alright, that’s that and the match is underway, an exciting start with people screaming out instructions, how the game should be played how it could have been done better (I doubt if the players ever hear these, but what the heck!). A few supporters turn a bit sour when the referee’s decisions favour the opposing side. Rugger is really easy to follow. A few minutes into the game and you get the hang of it. Just scream with everyone else and also remember to feel sorry for the guy who has the ball. When someone gets the ball, everyone will just pounce on him with no mercy. That is rugger. Then also remember that you should be ready to stand up during a crucial moment in the match as everyone would be standing up screaming and trying to get a better look. All in all, it was a close finish or should I say luck went the Royalists’ way as they just managed to scrape through beating Trinity 13-11. Trinity should have won as they were leading most of the time. Well that’s it - one hour of excitement and tension. Or so I thought. The match has been won and lost but come night-time and everyone’s partying. Even the losers ’cos there is always the comforting thought that there is always the second leg and the loss was marginal anyway. As for me,
I am waiting for the second leg too. And as for next year’s
Bradby, Kandy, no second thoughts, count me in. |
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It
was a bit amazing that considering how rugby crazy my friends were,
I had not really taken much of an interest in the sport so far.
The Bradby is undoubtedly one of the most looked forward to events
in the calendar for all rugger fans. Not surprisingly, my friends
went for it faithfully every year and so far had managed to drag
me to the Colombo leg (most of the time) but never to Kandy.
