The 1990 Bradby and some great Trinity come backs

In the history of the Bradby Shield, only three Trinity teams have come from behind after losing the first leg to win the shield.

- BY DILHAN PERERA

In the first ever Bradby Shield encounter in 1945, Trinity led by Robert Sourjah lost the first leg 0-3 to Royal led by C.D.L. Fernando and came back to take the second leg 6-0 at Bogambara.

The next occasion was in 1962 when Trinity led by Noel Brohier lost to Royal 0-5 in the first leg, but came back to beat U.L. Kaluarachchi's Royalists 9-0 at Bogambara.

Finally Athula Unantenne’s Trinity side of 1972 having lost the first leg 8-9, came back to beat G.D.S Gunasekera’s Royalists 10-3 at Nittawela. Royal has achieved this feat only twice in 1979 and 1998.

If historical statistics mean anything the odds are stacked heavily against this year’s Trinity team as they prepare for the second leg of the 67th Bradby Shield encounter. Out of the three Trinity teams that have made come backs to win the Bradby, all three have done it at home in Kandy and no Trinity team has come back to erase an eight point deficit. So if Murad Ramzeen’s boys are capable of pulling off a great comeback this Saturday it will be history in the making.

We shift our attention to 1990 which was the last time that Trinity won the battle but lost the war in the Bradby. There are several uncanny similarities on both sides between the 1990 and 2011 teams, some of which I will attempt to highlight.