Page 4 - 15TH ROYAL-THOMIAN SOUVENIR_Neat

“ a stroll down

memory lane”

Founder President - ORUAE

Dear Royalists and Thomians,

It gives me great pleasure to pen a few lines for the souvenir of the "15th
Desert Roy-Tho in 2017", and I applaud the organizing committee's request for
same.
This is the most exciting annual event for all of you in the UAE, as it was for all
of us, many years ago!! I hope, we have "Repaid the debt we owed" the Royal
fraternity, (if I may borrow the phrase from the RC college song) by launching
such an event, before we moved along our chosen trajectory in life !

Today, the Roy-Tho is a great, well organized event, as it has always been, but
a stroll down memory lane is inevitable when I, as the Founder President of the
ORUAE, reminisce of our humble beginnings at the old Dubai Exiles grounds,
which is now part of Dubai's prime real estate!

The Old Royalists were one of the first to set up a Sri Lankan schools old boys
group in the UAE and after a couple of meetings,(which turned into family
gatherings), we managed to convince a few Thomians to come together and
give us some opposition on the cricket field! This led to the formation of the
Old Thomians group in the UAE. The same goes for the Old Trinitians too, who
really came fired up to oppose us, at the mention of the word "Bradby" !!
All this has now led to a new level of dynamism which has pushed other
Sri Lankan schools to stage their big matches in the UAE, too !!

The first Roy-Tho was a hilarious affair, full of fun, laughter, children’s games,
jokes and pranks , where merriment came first and cricket, a far off second !
This tradition continued for the next few years, as we had quite a few characters
from both sides, who were so naughty and funny,(even funnier after a few
glasses of holy water!) keeping the crowds in continuous laughter !!

We also had a legendary commentary team, who always got their "words in a
twist”, more often than not, to the amusement of the ladies! Their interpretations
of the ball catching positions -long leg, short leg, silly point, leg before wicket,
and fine leg, gave the ladies who came to the match many happy moments!!