Hi Cathedralites,
Back Row: Noel Ezekiel, Vijay Shivdasani,
the late Brian Abraham, Viney Sethi, Hussain
Seated: Vijay Nayar, Jaffar Hussain, Jimmy Tata, Ernest Haskell,
Nalin Dharia, Ashok Kapur, Elijah Elias
Seated on ground: Jacob Matthan (scorer)
I wonder if the Lemondrop Cricket Tournament is still in existence.
It was our cricket championship in the cramped confines of the quad. The stumps were painted on the stone column, the one just before the place where the stairs come down. The run up for the bowlers was from the steps of the Sports Store Room to the Steel Girder at the edge of the lunch/PT shed. Of course, to start playing we had to wait till all the tables were cleared after lunch, and then the competition began.
Playing with a tennis ball, it may have looked easy, but the pace that some of the bowlers got on that short run up was really something. I remember 58er Nalin Dharia, 59er Ooky (Elijah Elias) and 59er Trevor Newnes who certainly whipped up a lot of pace. Or there was the fantastic off-spin of 56er / 58er Earnest Haskell, 59er Vijay Nayar and 59er Noel Ezekiel.
The real big hitter was 57er / 58er Jimmy Tata. If the ball went on top of the roof, there were the few anxious moments while all the fielders waited till it rolled down the steel sloping roof. More often than usual it dropped where there was no-one underneath to catch it.
I often wondered why it was called the Lemondrop Cricket Tournament - was it because of the way the ball would drop of the roof? If I remember correctly, it was a six a side competition. Our class had two teams. Our star batsmen was Ashok Kapur who consistently kept our scores high. There was always some great running between the wickets, as the few minutes we had per game really put pressure on both sides to go for the runs. Present day one day cricket on the international arena probably got its beginnings from such half hour cliff-hangers that we used to have in the school.
Being a leg-break bowler, it was difficult to get many wickets but it kept the runs down as there was not much room for stroke play on the leg side. Not so many left-handers were around in our day. I could get quite a mean turn of the cement quad floor and did get a fair share of the spoils. Did not get much batting, however, as our opening pair usually struck off the runs!!
Going to another topic, I hope that the Bombay crowd will soon have the History Page of the school up on the web. In my other webletter for my other alma mater, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, we are very fortunate that a couple of guys have put up a complete history of the college covering its 115 years existence. That link now has a permanent presence on my page. Stephanians all around the world were excited and extremely pleased - just as I am sure that Cathedralites world-wide will be pleased and eternally grateful if someone in Bombay would take the trouble to put up our school history page on the web.
More in a fortnight,
Your Cathedralite friend
Jacob Matthan
1959 Savage House Captain
Oulu, Finland
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