It was such a joy and honour to meet up with an active living legend, Eustace Lorenz Pereira (popularly known as Lorenz amongst his friends and relations) at Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel recently before he enplaned to Australia.
During in the 1960’s and 70’s, Lorenz was the cynosure of all eyes as he streaked through at lightening speed to score brilliant tries on the rugby fields, while on the athletic fields, he scattered the springs, of grass on the turf with his brilliant sprints to smash Royal College records in 1957.
Lorenz was not only known as the ‘Fastest man’ in the Public Schools 100 yards dash and also he was in the 4x100 yards relay team and won the event with a record breaking time and entire team naturally were awarded Public School Athletics’ colours and also in the same year won the Tarbat Trophy for the champion athletic school team.
Lorenz weathered many a storm in life and sailed on life in great style to be a winner as the ‘fastest right winger’ on the rugby fields excelling for Royal, then CR & FC and Ceylon.
Lorenz is the eldest son out of three siblings of the Faculty of Engineering and subsequent Dean and Founder ,the University of Peradeniya Vice-Chancellor late Professor E.O.E. Perera, a renowned scholar from Royal College and Cambridge University and respected humanitarian, and his mother, Mavis, would indeed have been thrilled to know that their eldest son had reached such heights thereby not only bringing honour to their family and to Royal but also to Sri Lanka.
Lorenz and his dad’s joint respective achievements could rightly place them as one of the most outstanding and distinguished father, son products of Royal College.
He is ever grateful for the wonderful legacy bestowed upon him by his dear father of unconditional love and humility.
Lorenz was a versatile, stylish left hand batter representing Royal College first XV cricket team from 1956 to 1959, and he ended as Captain of the College in 1958 and led an unbeaten side under his leadership.
Lorenz was the winner of the prestigious award ‘Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year’ contest organised by the Sunday Times of Ceylon journal.
In the same year, Lorenz captained the Combined School Team and the rest of the team comprised: M.L. Idroos (St. Thomas) Raja de Silva (St. Joseph) Anton Perera (St. Peter’s) Kingsley Fernando (St. Sebastian’s) Priya Perera (St. Joseph) Yatagama Ameradasa (Ananda) Suranjith Mendis (Pow) Lionel Fernando (St. Benedict’s) L.R. Goonetilleke (Wesley) and Sarath Samarasinghe (Royal).
Lorenz always enjoyed rugby, he trained every single day for it. Rugby seemed to keep him away from a lot of the bad things going on around him.
He lost a lot of friends as he was focussing on being the best he could be in his sport.
Tennis was another sport that took his fancy. In the Senior Public Schools singles final he ended up runner-up to P.S. Kumar, who eventually represented Ceylon.
During his tenure as the captain of the tennis team, Royal for the first time won the Senior ‘De Saram’ Shield.
Lorenz obtained five College Colours in major sports cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics and in addition Public Schools Athletics Colours.
It was not just the five colours but the quality and high standard achieved in each that stood out over and, above all of that, he was the epitome of a well-rounded sportsman and a role model for any youngster to follow.
Lorenz climbed the ladder of success the hard way, and his wonderful sporting achievements were the result of solid work, dedication, a sense of selflessness, sacrifice and relentless commitment to training.
Lorenz was the Head Prefect at Royal and was awarded the highly sought Dornhorst Memorial Prize for the best All-round student.
After leaving Royal, Lorenz played cricket for the S.S.C. under Derek de Saram and rugby for the CR & FC, before leaving to study at Cambridge University and he obtained a Master of Arts Degree in Land Economics.
He played a few county games for the University under Tony Lewis and Mike Brearley, who both went on to captain England.
On his return to Sri Lanka, he became the first non-white to lead the C.C.C and CH & FC, cricket and rugby clubs respectively.
During the early years most cricketers and other sportsmen at Royal balanced their sports with studies.
As a result, many of the sportsmen became professionals after leaving College.
Now a sprightly 86, he visits Sri Lanka quite regularly and he catches up with his old teammates once or twice a year in Colombo.
Lorenz and his spouse are blessed with two sons and a daughter. The happily married sporting couple are now grandparents to six children.
So, the saga of Lorenz concluded with an answer on how he kept fit and youthful.
Being active and ‘on the ball’ has done him good and nothing works better than faith in God.