Dribbling down the memory lane………………
Destination: - “Periakulam basket ball tournament “– 1946 to 1956.
Recollections by: - R.Rajagopal, T.N Varadan, P.Muthuveerasamy and
N.Venkatajalapathi. of the old Twinkle Stars team (1950) of Periakulam.
It is matter of great pride for people of Periakulam when their 65 year old ‘Sports Club’, the oldest and still a vibrant one, plans the Golden Jubilee celebrations in May 2009 for its ‘All India Basket ball Tournament’ entering 50th year after intermittent stoppages.
What was unique with our tournament was this.
1) As long back as early forties when there was no organized activity and when the Madras state Olympic association was the governing body for Basket ball too along with other games, it was indeed a great achievement for a small town like ours, to have successfully conducted a regular, well organized and well attended tournament.
This was possible only because of the enthusiastic involvement, help rendered and the hospitality shown to the visiting teams by the residents of Periakulam , which made our annual basket ball tournament look like a summer festival.
2) For the first time a ‘Rolling trophy’ was instituted wherein the trophy would change hands with winners in finals every year and if any team won three finals in a row they would be entitled to ownership of the trophy.
3) Periakulam was a pioneer that inspired centers like Karur, Rajapalayam, Thenkasi, Madurai and Coimbatore to follow suit and conduct similar summer tournaments later.
Our tournament’s early period (1946 to 1956) saw growing participation every year.
The increasing popularity was such that many reputed basket ball clubs, even from outside the state, became regular participants in the summer tournament to compete for the coveted ‘Periakulam Rolling Trophy’.
Initially up to 1947, the competition was confined to Periakulam A & B teams besides teams from nearby towns like Cholavandan, Usilampatti, Bodi, Theni and Vattlagundu.
As the tournament picked up momentum, keen competition was witnessed with arrival of teams like ‘Colleagues’ of karaikudi ; ‘Kayal’ and ‘Dekli’ from Madurai and to top it all the ‘Central Polytechnic’ from Madras, introducing skill and variety in the matches.
Between 1950 and1956, new participants started arriving from places like Mannargudi, Nagarkoil, Allepey, Mysore, Bangalore, Secunderabad and even from Bombay.
Consequently, there existed stiff competition even in pre-quarter stage and the matches played were of high standard as the leading clubs brought their state level best players.
Watching the stalwarts in action was a real treat for the public and at the same time it was a learning experience for the new comers and the junior basket ball teams.
Fortunes fluctuated between teams reaching the finals and the trophy alternated between the ‘Central Polytechnic’ (Madras) and other Bangalore teams, namely, the Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Young Men Mandayam Assn. (YMMA) and ‘ The Young Pioneers’.
By 1954, the formidable HAL team was emerging as an unbeatable side.
A new arrival in 1955 was a strong combination of Madras University players, trained by Ted Arnold, an American coach attached to YMCA College of physical education.
A practice cum exhibition match which they played on arrival, amongst themselves was of such high class that HAL team was no longer considered favourite for the title.
In the end, the ‘HAL team’ with its superb team work and technique prevailed over the players of the Madras YMCA team and proved that basket ball is a team game.
Having won the finals in 1954 and 1955, HAL was now in a position to claim ownership to the trophy if only they could overcome the formidable two new entrants …. –
“ Secunderabad YMCA” team and Trichi St Joseph College team.
Thus 1956 became a crucial year to decide the ‘stay’ or ‘departure’ of our rolling trophy.
The in-form ‘Twinkle stars’ of Periakulam surprised every one in a morning match of the quarter finals by defeating Secunderabad YMCA in a well contested tussle and entered the semi finals due on the same day as an evening match but lost the battle.
St. Josephs College which over powered the Twinkle stars in semi finals was our last hope but ‘HAL’ won the final match of 1956 tourney and took away the rolling trophy.
This was the end of the first phase of Periakulam basket ball history.
The first decade of our tournament acted as a sort of torch bearer for the development of district-level basket ball in Tamil Nad in the years to follow.
The credit for the success goes to the dedicated organisers of the initial stages.
In particular, the then secretaries Sri Veranan and Manikkam did a commendable job.
“ On the inspired growth of Twinkle stars team.”
The inspiration to play basket ball came for most of us while in our teens as we had witnessed basket ball matches of high standard every year and good players in action.
Even after a long gap of over 50 years, we are able to visualize their play and moves.
Our role models to start with were Periakulam Sri Subbiah, Rajamani, Gopalakrishnan, Gurusamy, Venkatachalam,Padmanabhan etc and Sri Rocken and Nallamani from Sholavandan, to cite a few examples.
In due course, our hero worship turned to the talented new entrants from other places.
Mani and Krishnan of Madurakayal team and Shanmugam of Madurai dekli team, Dod of Karaikudi, Viswappan from Alleppey, Rangan of Mannagudi, Babu prasad and Bright from Nagerkoil, C.Srinivas of Secundrabad YMCA and Sharma of Bombay team were other prominent players with their own individuality and style that impressed every one.
‘Central polytechnic’ had strong men in Madasamy, Narayansamy, Subramanian, Edvin and Alex and their style of game was like a sort of Globe Trotter’s exhibitionist type.
The veteran coach Sri Appaiah captained the ‘HAL team with a deadly combination of players like Vijayaraghavan, Lakshminarayanan, Pandurangan and Rajagopal.
‘YMMA’ had Narasimha Rajan and Subba Rao while ‘The young pioneer team’ had Venkatesh and Naik. – More than the individuals these teams from Bangalore impressed the spectators with their rhythmic movements, techniques and team work.
Prominent players of Ted Arnold’s team from Madras had a long list of young talents.
Apart from Hubert Danaraj and Chelladurai of Saidapet YMCA, there were players from Law College like Krishnasamy, Sadasivam, Ratnagar Alwa, Rajagopal and Palaniappan. The other players were M.S.Venkataraman of Loyola College, Paul Joseph and Mathiew of the Madras Christian College and Duraisamy of the Trichi St Joseph College.
All players in this team were impressive and each had his own strength and technique.
By seeing such players in action and observing their style and movements we learnt a lot.
There was constraint in our school days of having to manage with only one basket ball court in school where too many players waited for their turn and chance to play.
This necessitated the individuals to play only as team and at specified times.
While waiting for our turn to enter the basket ball court, we played a game we named as ‘pass ball’ in the adjacent meadows and this game resembled basket ball except that there was no basket to aim at nor was there any even surface to dribble with the ball..
Therefore, our playing confined itself to one of passing the ball in the air between players of one team with out allowing opponents to take hold of the ball.
It meant, running, dodging, faking and feinting while this sort of playing helped develop understanding and coordination among players, resulting in a self-less team game.
At this point of time we were in the age group of 8 and 9, - a stage that go unnoticed.
We were playing only for the pleasure of playing but were learning the techniques too.
Having observed our interest to play as a group the so called ‘pass ball’ every day, our teachers I.Gurusamy and S.Padmanabhan helped and guided us to form our own junior team and trained us to play competitive basket ball.
For the school boy team of ours, the first opportunity arrived when we represented our VMBH school of Periakulam in the Inter school basket ball in 1951and became winners.
We named our team as ‘Twinkle stars’ and started taking part in summer tournaments.
In due course, teams like ‘Young Challengers’, ‘Young Lions’ etc. came in to existence.
Twinkle Stars team had 7 players but it made no difference which five played first.
It so happened that even the non availability of our best two players G.Dandapani (G.D) and S.Selvaraj in the later period did not dampen our die-hard spirit and we marched on.
The feel good factor for us was we posed a threat to even the reputed teams.
We used technique, skill, team work and speed to overcome our height handicap.
We were liked by the spectators and we did produce unexpected upset wins.
The high point was in mid1956 in the Tanjore basket ball tournament in which we were participating for the first time and indeed the last one we played together as a team.
Our team of five was led by T.N. Varadan, who was our center forward combining with P.Muthuveerasamy on the right wing and R.Rajagopal on the left wing as forwards while the defense was taken care of by the ball handlers and sharp shooters from long range, namely, Lakshmana perumal and N.Venkatachalapathi. In addition, we had the services of new inclusions in Viswanathan and Jagadeesan that added to our bench-strength.
Contrary to all expectations, we not only fought our way to the finals by defeating tough opponents at every stage but also went on to win the finals and also the Tanjore trophy.
It was a fitting farewell gift to Twinkle stars team and to our home town as well.
We, the members of Twinkle stars salute ‘Sports club’, Periakulam, thank the organisers for remembering us and wish the Golden Jubilee function all success.
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