The Bradby Shield Encounter, colloquially referred to as The Bradby, is an event within Sri Lanka's school rugby union season. This annual fixture takes place between two renowned boys' schools in the country, namely Royal College, Colombo, and Trinity College, Kandy. The encounter involves two legs, with one currently held at the Royal College Sports Complex in Colombo and the other at the Trinity College Rugby Stadium in Pallekele. The winner of the competition is determined based on the aggregate of scores from both matches, typically played a couple of weeks apart.
This rugby fixture garners significant attention from spectators across the country. It is considered the most widely viewed rugby match in Sri Lanka, drawing larger crowds than both inter-club and international fixtures. This important event serves as a social gathering for the current and past pupils, their families, extended families and well-wishers with near-capacity attendance at venues and a significant viewership for the live broadcasts, both domestically and internationally.
Royal College and Trinity College were among the pioneers in embracing the game of rugby union in British Ceylon, with their maiden match held on 31 July 1920, marking a historic milestone. Subsequently, this encounter evolved into a yearly tradition, where Trinity College maintained an unbeaten streak for the first two decades, until their first defeat to Royal College in 1941. In 1943, the format evolved into a two-match series.
In 1945, E. L. Bradby, the principal of Royal College, extended an offer to C. E. Simithraaratchy, the principal of Trinity College, proposing the donation of a coveted Shield. Simithraaratchy accepted this proposal. The Shield was to be contested annually, with the victor being the college that achieved the highest total score over the two-leg series, one leg played in Colombo and the other in Kandy, as initiated in 1943.
This annual event has persevered through the years, with the exception of the year 1971, where only the first leg was played due to the 1971 JVP insurrection. The Shield was presented to Royal College, the victors of the first leg. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the event in both 2020 and 2021, marking the only other time in which this event could not take place.
The shield, crafted by Kandyan silversmiths, was presented to the series by E. L. Bradby in 1945, at the end of his tenure as principal of Royal College. It is a wooden disk adorned with traditional Kandyan silverwork, symbolising victory.
After the second leg of the series, the shield is awarded to the winning team's captain during an on-field ceremony. The team retains the trophy until the next year's competition.
The Bradby Shield encounter is generally played in two legs, one in Colombo and the other in Kandy. Historically, the Colombo match was played at Longden Place, and since 1987, at the Sugathadasa Stadium. Matches were relocated to the Royal College Sports Complex in 2002, where they have been hosted ever since. Meanwhile, the Kandy leg of the tournament was held at the Bogambara Stadium or at the Nittawela Rugby Stadium. Trinity College's home ground, the Trinity College Rugby Stadium in Pallekele, hosted its first Bradby Shield match in 1997 and, since 2012, has regularly hosted the Kandy leg of the event.
Since 1977, the Royal College Interact Club has published the Bradby Souvenir to commemorate the encounter's Colombo leg.
The Bradby express was the name given to the regular Intercity Express train service offered by the Sri Lanka Railways that was packed with students and old boys from both schools on their way to the Kandy leg of the encounter â hence the name Bradby Express. It started off in the 1950s and was held yearly until the mid-1980s, when it was halted due to security concerns resulting from the intensification of the Sri Lankan civil war and the 1987âÂÂ1989 JVP insurrection.
Since the end of the conflict, a chartered train dubbed as The Bradby express has served this role, transporting Royal supporters to and from Kandy for the event.
Former Royal and Trinity students compete for the G. C. Wickremesinghe Challenge Trophy, a golf tournament hosted at the Victoria Golf and Country Resort since 2016 before the Kandy leg of the Bradby Shield encounter.