Wesley Rugby

Reginald 'Reggie' Bartholomeusz: First Wesleyite to Captain Ceylonese Rugby and Football Club (CR&FC)!

Reggie played rugby for College from 1961 to 1965 as a winger. He started playing the game at the age of 14 years and went on to represent the college first XV team. He stepped into Club rugby with CR and FC in 1966, under Eric Roles’s captaincy. He launched his National career from 1969 till he retired in 1976.

After retiring from playing, he coached his beloved alma mater Wesley College as Honorary Coach from 1971 to 1978.

He's one of the finest sportsmen at Wesley who later had an enthralling club career finally ending up donning the National jersey for the country handling the oval shaped ball.

He transformed himself as a champion athlete from under-10 to 19 age category, later went on to establish a record in100 yards in 10.5 seconds in 1965 for his school which is an unbroken record so far. He also played Cricket, Rugby and Hockey for college.

His greatest joy was to watch some of the boys he coached go on to play good rugby for the clubs and also for Sri Lanka in the likes of Iqbal Musafer, Zubair Doray, Ronnie Omar, Batchie Omar, Kamaldeen, Rashmore Ferdinands, Iqbal Uduman, Ransiri Sahabandu, Farcy Doray to name a few.

Today in 2026 Mursheed Zubair Doray leads CR&FC as the 5th Wesleyite to lead the prestigious club after Reggie (1974), Iqbal Musafer (1982), Kishan Musafer (2001) and Shane Sammandapperuma (2016).