St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya, proved their exceptional tennis skills as they clinched the All-Island Inter-School Overall Tennis Championship Trophy for the year 2008 at the recently concluded inter-school tennis at the SLTA courts.

This was the third time in four years that the Peterites won the much coveted trophy having won earlier in 2005 and 2007. In 2007, they won the unprecedented "Triple" in schools tennis – the Inter-Schools, National Schools and Mini Tennis.

The Peterites’ success story was due to a fine tem work. The Under-13 team was runners-up in their age category. Playing in Group ‘B’ of their age group, they defeated St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena, 35/0, St. Thomas’ Mt. Lavinia, 30/5, Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala, 28/7 and St. Peter’s College, Negombo, by 35/0 remaining unbeaten in their Group. In the semi-finals St. Peter’s took on Colombo International School which boasted of a very strong line up and were expected to win the age group championship. The Peterites beat them by 3 matches to 2 to reach the final and ultimately lost to Royal College by 3-1 thus ending up as runners-up. The team was captained by Shashanka Gomez with Davishka Ranasinghe as his deputy.

The Under-15 team won the Championship in their age group. Playing in Group ‘A,’ they beat De Mazenod College, Kandana, 35/0, St. Joesph’s, Colombo, 30/5, St. Sebastian’s, Moratuwa, 35/0, Nalanda College, Colombo, 35/0, Trinity, Kandy, 35/0, Ananda 35/0 and Thurstan College 35/0 to emerge as the undisputed leaders in that group. In the semi-final they beat St. Thomas,’ by 3-0 to reach the final where they defeated the strong Ananda College 3-0 to win the championship. The Captain of the team was Hamdan Othman with R. Rajeevan was the vice captain.

The Under-17 team was unlucky to be placed third in their age category. The team might have turned in a better performance if not for the fact that there were some unsavory incidents in the tournament. They were playing in Group ‘A’ of the tournament and they beat St. Joesph’s, 35/0, Trinity College, Kandy, 21/14, Nalanda 35/0, Isipatana College 35/0, De Mazenod College 35/0 and St. Thomas’ Prep school 21/14. After emerging champions from Group ‘A,’ they were unfortunate that they had to play the eventual champions Royal College in the semi-finals. In the third place "playoff" they beat Trinity by 3-0. The team was captained by Shavith Fernando with Dasitha Medis as his deputy.

The Under-19 team proved their metal when they routed their opponents to clinch the Championship Trophy in their age group.

This particular age group has been an unbeaten one from their induction to tennis from the time they were in Under-10. Peterites record with pride that this spectacular achievement of a team of youngsters coming up from U-10 right up to U-19 winning the championship in every age group they played in over the past years.

This is the 6th consecutive year of being champions for this same set of boys coming from U-10. In the group matches, they beat Trinity 35/0, Asian International School 18/17, De Mazenod 35/0, Nalanda 35/0 and Thurstan 35/0 to emerge as the winners of their group. In the semi-finals, they easily beat Royal by 3-0 and in the final beat Ananda who were strong contenders for the championship by the same margin. The captain was Kevin Markandarajah with Danutha Fernando, Sanjaya Senanayake and Kanishka Herath being his deputies.

Peterites by virtue of the points gathered from all age categories won the prestigious Overall Tennis Championship Trophy for the 2nd consecutive year and the third time in the last four years.

It was especially memorable for the Peterites this year as the competition was very stiff. Although there were lots of extraneous issues, the Peterites simply focused on the matters "on" court and proved that they were indeed worthy champions.

St. Peter’s tennis teams have been coached by Dinith Pathiraja for the past ten years and he has at no time compromised on quality. The Master-in-Charge Bernard Jesuthasan attributes the Peterite success to the discipline and commitment displayed at all age groups.