Sport Rugby Union | Timeline 1945 – present | |
Tournament format Annual two-legged encounter Participants Royal College
Trinity College Current champion 72nd encounter tied and shield shared (1 win each - Scores 35 all) Most successful Trinity: 39 wins
Royal: 31 wins | ||
The Bradby Shield Encounter - commonly known as "The Bradby" - is the blue ribbon of Sri Lanka's school rugby union season. It is played annually between two schools in the country and traditional rivals Royal College, Colombo, and Trinity College, Kandy. The encounter consists of two legs, one being played in the Royal College Sports Complex in Colombo, and the other in Trinity College Rugby Stadium in Pallekele. The winner is decided on the aggregate of the scores from these two matches, usually played a few weeks apart. The Bradby is generally played in late May or early June and is the most watched rugby match in the country, drawing more spectators than either inter-club or international fixtures.It is also an important social event of the Sri Lanka's elite drawing over 20,000 spectators and watched live on television by millions more.
Contents
History
Royal College and Trinity College were the first elite schools in Sri Lanka to take up the sport of rugby union, and the first historic match between these schools was played on the 31st of July, 1920. This was made a yearly encounter, with Trinity College winning for the first 21 years, until the Royalists recorded their first victory in 1941. In 1945, the principal of Royal College, E.L. Bradby, put forward the idea of playing an annual two-match series, to which the principal of Trinity College, Mr C. E. Simithraaratchy, readily agreed. To ensure the success of the series, Principal Bradby offered a shield which was to be held for a period of one year by the winner of the series. The series has been played annually and uninterrupted ever since.
The Shield
The Shield, designed and made by Kandyan silversmiths was donated by Principal E.L. Bradby on his departure from Ceylon in 1945. It is a wooden disk decorated with intricate traditional Kandyan silver works.
On winning the series, the shield is presented to the winning teams captain at an award ceremony held on the playing field immediately following the end of the second leg. The winning team is then privileged to hand the shield over to their school, where it is kept on display until next year, where it will again be up for grabs.
Venue
One leg of the Bradby Shield Encounter is played in Colombo and the other in Kandy. The venue for the game in Colombo had been Sugathadasa Stadium until matches were transferred to the Royal College Rugby Ground in the early 2000s. The Kandy venue was the Bogambara Stadium, but the second leg of the 68th Bradby in 2012 was played in Trinity's home ground; Pallekelle Stadium
Past winners
Matches 20
Matches 20
Matches 19
Matches 20
Matches 20
Matches 20
Matches 20
Matches 4
Bradby Shield Tally
Overall Bradby Shield Matches Record
The Souvenir
Since 1977, the Interact Club of Royal College publishes the "Bradby Shield Souvenir" to mark the Colombo leg of the match.
Bradby Express
The Bradby Express was the name given to the normal Intercit Express train service provided by the Sri Lanka Railways which was filled with students and old boys from both schools heading for the Kandy leg of the encounter - hence the name the Bradby Express. Originating from the 1950s it was continued annually until the mid-1980s when it was stopped due to security concerns with the escalation of the Sri Lankan Civil War and the Insurrection 1987-89.
The Royal College Group of 2007 booked a private train, and named it The Bradby Express for the Royalists traveling up for the encounter. It should be noted that the current train is not the traditional Bradby Express in that it is neither the normal intercity train, nor does it cater to an equal number of passengers from both colleges, as did the old train.