The Royal Collage Jumping Club (RCJC)

The Royal Collage Jumping Club (RCJC)

We have RCCC, RCHC, RCRFC and so many. It is time to make an RCJC and award colours for 'jumping'.

Jumping is a sport unique to RC; No other school has it. It is played between the Collage prefects and the 'jumpers'

[I have visited many schools during school hours - the gates are widely open; any one can go and come as they please. In RC the gates are closed; so 'jumping' became a sport.]

It has been a tradition unique to Royal Collage. The 'Jumpers' really have no agenda... but jumping is the thrill.

There are many places to 'jump'. Through the 1) Tennis courts 2) Over the Swimming Pool walls 3) Through Grounds 4) Via the Hostel into Thurstan 5) same route via the University 6) Through the Rajya Bhasha (Bash) and many more holes.

We the 'jumpers' keep maintaining those exits by clearing the fences and glass shards on the walls and wire while the prefects and the  collage keep mending them.

If any one gets RCJC colours ever it is the Grandmaster of Jumping - Kapila Dharmaratne. He was a Master Jumper.

One day he tells me 'Let's Jump" I ask from where? He says we don't have to jump. We just walk. The bastard had observed that a lady teacher brings the Junior School kids to the swimming pool through a door that separates the RC from Royal Junior School (RJS).

At the time RC and RJS were separate entities.She keeps that door unlocked. We just walked through that door into RJS and out!

I had my own technique. I jump through the Boake Gate right under the nose of the Principal Mr. L D H Peiris while he is watching me from his office while I jump!  :-)

This is the technique: Mr. Aziz was the security guard at the Boake Gate (the only one that is open). I know Aziz.

Sportsmen are excused from Collage after the team meeting with the DP if there is a match in the afternoon.

That is recorded in the SRB (Student's Record Book) officially. Show it to Aziz and he will let you go.

Sometimes the parents request the son to be excused for some reason; it is also in the SRB. Once approved by the class master & the sectional head you show it to Aziz... he will let you go home.

I have neither a match in the afternoon nor a wedding nor a funeral at home but a Re. 1/- Note inside my SRB!

Aziz pockets the 1 Rupee and studiously goes through my SRB and lets me go; all within plain sight of the Principal!

It was not real 'jumping'! It was a test of my smartness and the failure of the system.

I really did not like paying Aziz 1 buck just to get out. I stopped it. However my system works!

Then one day about 5 of us ran to the university wall and jumped. The prefects came in hot pursuit. I was just over the wall when someone grabbed my shoe...

I looked back... Eran Wickremaratne... my hockey captain and a good friend. I sleep on the next bed in his room at the church.

"Give my bloody shoe"; "If you want your shoe come to the Prefects's Room."

So I aborted my 'jump' that day and got my shoe back from Eran.

[This RC Prefects Room is sacrosanct territory; not even the Principal will ever enter it without being invited - That is how RC used to be]

Another day again about 5 of us 'jumped'. Walking along the Reid Avenue we spotted a prefect on a bicycle. A timid Tamil prefect we know.

There are huge trees on the Reid Avenue. We lined up against one radially. Then we kept moving as the cycle came close. It did not pass the tree.

The prefect had also spotted us and he has stopped the cycle opposite the tree. He did not say many words. He collected our 5 SRBs and went back to Collage. We went home.

The next day I used my influence with Eran to get those 5 SRBs back!

Another day 4 guys jumped over the Swimming Pool Wall. We can see them from 12 MS1  on the 2nd floor. The prefects got the gate opened and are now looking for them.

We see everybody from the 2nd Floor. These 4 guys are hiding behind some bushes in the carpark and the cops are looking for them on the Reid Avenue.

We signalled them to stay where they are... they understood.

All we need is a bus. 122, 123 128 on the Reid Avenue. The stop is just opposite Collage.

The prefects were lost.... then a bus came... we told them from top. all 4 ran and boarded the bus... A very successful 'Jump'

I should have been the coach for RCJC! So how could I be nominated for an RC prefectship?     :-)

But this takes the cake!

The Grand Master of 'Jumping' Kapila was absent from class for about 4 days and I was observing that the prefects have got a plan now. They cover exit holes from 10 AM or so.

When Kapila returned to class he said lets jump. I said it is impossible now. I showed him the troop movements of the prefects now from the top floor window. No chance.

He was confident. " You come with me" says he. So we went at 10:30.

He took me through the Royal Collage Hostel into the toilets.

I was a Hosteller for some 18 months and I know every inch of this hostel. This is a dangerous place to be during school hours!

He took me to the toilets bordering the wall to the Thurstan Collage. (The walls are separated by about 3 feet)

He upturned one bucket and I looked outside. He is on another bucket also looking outside. We are like 2 poxed out monkeys!

There are about 4 prefects sitting on the old pavilion within 10 meters.

We can't directly jump into Thurstan. We have to first jump into our grounds right in front of these prefects and then do another jump into Thurstan.

So we waited patiently perched on buckets. Now these fucking prefects started singing.

They sang till about 1:15 PM. Then they left. Finally we did our 'jump'

The school is over at 1.30 PM. By the time we went to the bus stop school had closed.

We would have been better off sitting in class than standing on toilet buckets and listening to the music of RC prefects!   :-)

Priyantha Dias [RC 1963 - 1976]