now I can feel my hair stand as I re-live the experiencesof those great days . It ' sa marvellous feeling .' The Sports Secretary at this time was Brother Charles . His forte was organisation . He did not coach the boys himself but he could motivate them . In fact the Football team had a number of coaches of great eminence .
' The foremost among them ,' says Mr Mosbergen , ' was " Pop ". Now " Pop " was the nickname given to an Old [ osephian . His son , Francis Lim Eng Siang , was the Captain of the Team . We were in the same class . " Pop " ' s name was Lim Yong Liang . His was a household name in Singapore Soccer in the late 1920sand the early 1930s . In fact he played in thefamousMalaya Cup games . In those days the Singapore Soccer team was very good . Yong Liang was really a star in those days , and even when he gave up active soccer he was involved with the soccer fraternity .
' We had another Old Boy called John Then . John , if I ' m not mistaken , still holds the school Long Jump record , or did so for a very long time . He jumped twenty-one feet or so as a schoolboy . John Then was also a Malaya Cup player . He played for Singapore for quite a number of years . These were two of the bigger names . Then there were others who did come in , but I didn ' t have them because they came later on . But I remember being coached by these two persons who were foremost in the field of Soccer .' Later Rudy Mosbergen was himself to play hockey for Singapore in the 1956 Olympic Games at Melbourne .
SJI was a well-known cricketing school in the old days . As early as 1886 a Cricket Club was started , and this was also the first mention of using the Old Gaol Site as a Playing Field . No sooner had the Club been formed than a challenge was sent to Raffles Institution , but the outcome of the game is not known . In April 1890 the Club expired , but a jubilant note in August of the same year indicates that it was revived quickly . In 1895 a fight with the Ra £ fles boys is recorded , but it is unlikely that this had anything to do with cricket .
In 1950 , a businessman by the name of Mr Mac- Dermoth sponsored a Combined English Schools Cricket Tour of Western Australia . It says a good deal for SJI that six of the Singapore boys who went on the tour were from the school . C . R . Eber was Coach and Manager . In all , the team played fourteen games , winning thirteen . The very last game of all , played against a team of ex-Test players , who called themselves the Non-Benders , ended in a draw .
The team consisted ofOng Beng Bee ( St Anthony ' s School ), Captain ; Alexis Delilkan ( S } I ), Vice- Captain ; J . d ' Almeida ( SJI ); Jack Martens ( SJI ), Leslie Wong ( SJI ); Percy ScuJJy ( SJI ); Chin Yook Fook ( Raffles Institution ); C . G . Krishnan ( Raffles Institution ); R . Sandosham ( Ra ££ lesInstitution ); B . Clunes-Ross ( St Anthony ' s School ); D . Keyt ( St Anthony ' s School ); Rabindar Singh ( Victoria School ) and Peter Femandez ( Victoria School ). Reggie da Silva ( SJI ) who was Reserve at tha t time eventually became the Ca ptain of the Singapore team .
Lirn Choo Sye remembers Philip d ' Almeida , his classmate at S } I , and a ' googly ' bowler of great skill , who gave him ' a few knocks on the wrist from his bowling '.
Tan Eng Yoon tells how he was roped in to play cricket by Brother Charles who saw his potential as a Long Stop , racing after the fast balls !
Success in school sports is determined not only by the talent that is available but also by the character of the teachers in charge . In that connection the school . in this era , was particularly well served by Brother Charles , Frank lames , C . R . Eberand }. David .
' Brother Charles ,' says Rudy Mosbergen , ' was very good at getting the best out of students . So although he himself did not excel in any game , he gave himself fully to the Sports programme , and SJI had an excellent Sports programme in those days , thanks to him .'
Patrick Mowe adds :
' What we all remember about Brother Charles is that any time of the day we could go to him and ask for a football , and quite a number would go after school , after one 0 ' clock . We ' d have a snack somewhere and then we would go and try to get a football on loan because footballs were not cheap at that time . And he would trust us with it , and we would have to be sure that we delivered it back to him . I think this is how he encouraged a lot of students to play games .
' Brother Charles was Burmese and he went back to his own country at one period . Buta £ terthe change of Government the Brothers had to leave and he couldn ' t get out because he didn ' t have a passport . So the Brothers finally got him out by getting him a Vatican passport . So he is now in Rome in charge of the Brothers ' Hostel .
' I think we all remember him because of his kindness . He was never angry , always willing to help the boys get their games going , and he was dead keen on games and sports . These are the kind of memories we have of him .' Brother Charles made the young }. David his assistant as soon as he came to SJI . SOwhen he went back to Burma Mr David became the Sports Secretary . Mr David recalls :
' I would say that my happiest years were spent as a teacher atSt } oseph ' s . We had some outstanding players at that time : Lirn Eng Siang , for example . In fact while he was still a schoolboy he was already playing for the State . Rudy Mosbergen was also good , and so was Michael Chai , our Goal Keeper . So this was the type of player we had .
' The Old Boys used to come out and help us a lot , and even at that time we depended a lot on student leadership . You see the boys themselves helped to get things organised , whether it was running the House or running the school ' s teams and soon .
' I would say that the most outstanding sports-
Memories of the Playing Field 61