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The oldest living cricket captain of St. Anthony's College, Katugastota, Ronald Ratwatte, passed away at the age of 92 at Galkanda Waluwa, Menikhinna and his funeral took place last Saturday (February 6th) at the Mahiyawa Cemetery before a large crowd of friends and relations.

Ratwatte captained St. Anthony's College in 1929 and at that time their home town rivals Trinity College had chalked up 11 consecutive wins from 1917. In the 1929 big match played at the Bogambara grounds (there was no Asgiriya grounds at that time) the Antonians under the captaincy of Ronald Ratwatte not only stopped the marauding lions but also chalked up a victory. Trinity was that year captained by the late S. H. Odayar snr. and included late Dr. K. B. Sangakkara and Sirisena Bandaranayake who is the oldest living Trinity Lion.

Ronald Ratwatte is one of the few Ratwattes to attend S.t Anthony's College as they are usually linked with Trinity. Late Ronald's younger brother Sydney played for Trinity and was a triple lion winning his lion in boxing, rugger and cricket in 1932. In fact the two brothers played for the opposite sides. Sydney passed away in 1992 at the age of 84.

It is said as school boys both Sydney and Ronald Ratwatte used to walk from their ancestral home at Menikhinna to Kandy and Katugastota - a distance of 8 miles, as there was hardly any public transport at that time. Perhaps the stamina which they built up from the long trek to and from school stood in good stead for them in later years in life, and they made good use of it in the field of sports.

These facts were made available by the self made statistician of the hill capital Ford Merril Gunatillake whose father in law was the famed cricket coach the late John Halangoda.