As two top class cricketing schools met once again, on the 15^th and 16^th of January 2015, expectations were high on both camps, especially for Royal, as this was their first Trophy match for the season. The 1^st XI Cricket encounter between Royal College and Ananda College was for the L. D. H. Peiris Memorial Challenge Trophy.  The trophy named after Late Mr. L. David H. Peiris was an Anandian who was the Principal of Royal College from 1972 to 1980, whose regime was known as the Golden Era of Royal College.

Both Royal and Ananda had many areas to look into as this was a crucial encounter in their road towards the big match, for Royal, the 136^th Battle of the Blues against the Thomains and for Ananda, the 86^th Battle of the Maroons against the Nalandians. The toss however went in favour of Royal College, when skipper Harith Samamrasinghe won his first toss for the year and opted to take first use of the Anandian turf. The decision proved to work well for Royal as the opening partnership exceeded 100 runs, with both the openers Hasitha Samarasinghe and Naveen Widanapathirana reaching Half Centuries. However the opening partnership was broken shortly before lunch and Royal were 140 for 1 by lunch with Naveen Widanapathirana and Vice Captain Geeshath Panditharathne batting for Royal.

Session 2 on day 1 however went in favour of the home side when the Anandian bowlers managed to gain back to back breakthroughs and get wickets at regular intervals, ultimately bowling Royal out for 229. Thiran Danapala the wicket-keeper batsman scored a valuable half century, well supported by the tail, which helped Royal go past the 200 mark. Day 1 concluded with Ananda College scoring 136 for the loss of 3 wickets, trailing Royal by 93 runs.

Day two too started off favouring the home side as they excelled to 196 for the loss of 4 wickets at the end of the 14^th over for the day. The Royal bowlers however managed to get wickets from time to time not allowing space for a major partnership. Skipper Harith Samarasinghe managed to clinch his first five wicket haul for the year as he got rid of the Anandian number 8 batsman. At lunch Ananda College were 279 for the loss of 7 wickets, leading by 50 runs; the skipper Lakshan Jayasekara leading the batting with 123 runs not out.

The session after lunch brought the downfall of the Anandian skipper for 124 runs, but the tail batted well enough to get their side over the 300 mark, as the hosts declared their first innings at 308 for 9 with a healthy lead of 79 runs.

The Royal openers walked in with quite an important task at hand, but did not manage to repeat their heroics from the first innings as both of them fell cheaply. Disaster continued as wickets kept tumbling and Royal were soon 50 for 5, and 56/5 at tea, with the last recognized batting pair (Randev Pathirana & Thiran Danapala) in the crease. The session after tea immediately saw the fall of Thiran Danapala as he was given out LBW for 8 runs. However skipper Harith Samarasinghe managed to knock a few deliveries towards the fence to bring up the lead for Royal. The 37 run partnership was broken when Harith nicked one back to the keeper and headed back with just 99 runs on the board. Himesh Ramanayake fell shortly, without troubling the scorers. Royal were deep in trouble at 99 for 8, when the number 10 batsman Lasith Embuldeniya walked in to join Randev Pathirana who was in his 30s. The Anandian fielders were pumped up as they required just two wickets to win the match and the trophy, for the first time in 8 years. Little did they know that they would not be able to break through this partnership.

Randev had the humungous task of seeing the day off, as the last recognized batsman for Royal and in the mean time shielding the tail ender from the line of fire. It was indeed a sheer test of patience and technique as Randev steered Royal towards the safe zone little by little well supported by Lasith, who often had to defend the last couple of deliveries of each over. The pair did everything right from the defensive strokes to the couple of offensive shots coming down the pitch which flew over the ropes, giving no chances to the fielders, who were at times crowded around the bat waiting for the batsman to do a mistake; the mistake that never came. The one and half hours of pure test cricket came to an end when the umpires declared the close of play and the batsmen headed back to a standing ovation by the crowd. Royal were 187 for 8 with a lead of 108. The 9^th wicket partnership yielded 88 runs, with Randev Pathirana scoring 77 of them, while Lasith Embuldeniya scored 9. The partnership included 1 bye and a no ball as well. Randev managed to score his 2^nd century for the season who ended up unbeaten at 109.

After a short presentation ceremony in which the Principals of the two respective schools addressed the gathering, the L. D. H. Peiris Memorial Challenge Trophy was awarded to the Royal Captain Harith Samarasinghe. Thus, Royal managed to retain the trophy for the 6^th consecutive year after last winning it in 2009 under the captaincy of Yasitha Abeykoon. This match indeed proved to be a good test, and a thriller to the supporters of both schools.

Match Summary

Toss: Royal, who chose to bat first.

Result: Match Drawn. Royal Retain L. D. H. Peiris Memorial Challenge Trophy.