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Airbus
Captain Navin takes off with Volvo Trophy
Chandra Senanayake affectionately known as "Black Night"
in trade circles was extremely lavish in a sponsorship of a very
special competition at the Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo Golf Club.
Entrepreneur, businessman, Trader & Merchant Senanayake is mighty
proud of the VOLVO the flag carrier of the Swedish Trading Co.Ltd.,
which he heads and was happy to turn his attention to Golf Sponsorship
to promote the posh VOLVO image.
144 participated
in 4 Divisions with the "B" Division drawing the largest
patronage and bringing the highest percentage of successful rounds.
"A"
Division
Sarath Wickremaratne once again outclassed strong competition
with an excellent stableford score of 37 points beating Anel de
Silva convincingly to 2nd position. The rest of the field suffered
in comparison.
Navin
Outstanding
Navin de Silva was first an outstanding Cricketer who
captained Wesley College with distinction. He then captained Combined
Schools and had Arjuna Ranatunga as his Deputy. His final distinction
was when he led a schoolboys team to U.K. with considerable success.
He took to flying soon after he left College and today he is a Senior
Captain of SriLankan Airlines. Now golf is his favourite sport and
pastime and when he comes down to earth he settles for the Ridgeways
where he has shown tremendous skill in recent months.
On Saturday
he was absolutely outstanding sharing the honour and distinction
with 2 others tying for first position overall with 44 points each.
In the "B" Division he collected 21 points on the front
half and 23 points on the back half which gave him a better back
nine score to beat Allan Walkingshaw and S.A.K. Abeywardena and
collect the "B" Division trophy and also be identified
as the overall Champion of the VOLVO Classic. Sidat Wettimuny who
is coming up strongly struck a commendable 41 points to come behind
De Silva.
"C"
Division
Dr. S.A.K. Abeywardena had a stroke of luck when he found
Allan Walkingshaw on the same score 44 and disqualified for technical
reasons. Abeywardena played a great game. He is quite new to the
Ridgeways, has mature understanding of the game and quite rightly
plays with caution suppressing any degree of recklessness and flamboyancy.
A deliriously happy man he struck 22 on the front nine and 22 on
the back nine. Excellent scores by any standards and he richly deserved
the handsome "C" Division trophy and much applause at
the award ceremony. Padmasiri Dias who gave me a ball by ball, shot
by shot, green by green, fairway by fairway and bunker by bunker
commentary of his outstanding round of 40 beat D. Ratnayake to 2nd
position with a better rear nine. For a beginner Ratnayake was pretty
sound showing much evidence of encouraging results to come.
Chandraratne
Again
Norman Chandraratne came good again. Dominating the Seniors
Division he collected a praiseworthy 34 points to beat Mohamed Jameel
on 32 points and take the Volvo Prize.
Good Performers
In the "B" Division Anil Hirdaramani, S.V. Jayakody,
V.T. Sunderalingam and Primal Wijenayake played exceptional rounds
and so did Tissa Jayasinghe, K. Imasaka and Bandula Weerasinghe.
A few of them had reasons to light up the 19th.
Good Scores
In the "C" Division Prof. A.H. Sheriffdeen was
outstanding with 39 points closely followed by P.R. Balaratnarajah,
J. Nareshkumar, Joseph Kenny, D.V.H. Palihena and Kishore Rao. I
understand a few of them celebrated in close circuit domestic surroundings.
Allan Walkingshaw who comes from the clinic headed by his petite
wife Pat had responded rewardingly to her positive set pattern of
instructions. He is more sure on the greens and extremely cautious
off the tees. He celebrated in style after a stunning score of 44
points with vintage wines and Scotland's best.
Award Ceremony
The disgustingly poor attendance at the lavish Cocktail Party
dished out in its finest form laced with excellent music must have
surely upset the sponsors.
Unforgiveable sickening behaviour is how I would like to describe
to the non-attendance of many. Chandra Senanayake is obviously quite
embarrassed that144 competitors and their spouses were invited and
only about 40 bodies were there at a ceremony which was superbly
organised by the indefatigable Lionel Almeida. My advice to sponsors
is to scarp the Cocktail Party and donate such funds for the development
of golf among the Caddies. They will show more appreciation.
Three
new faces in rugby panel
Three former Sri Lanka stalwarts will bind up-front in the new rugby
selection panel - No. 8, old Royalist Bryan Baptist, nippy former
Trinity 'lion' and half back Brig. Jupana Jayawardena, old Rajan
and former Police SC center Hemantha Yatawara.
The trio join
former Chairman Trinity 'lion' Air Force scrumhalf Tikiri Marambe
old Royalist and CH&FC durable No. 8, Saman Jayasinghe form
the panel.
All are knowledgeable
and have played at the national level are keen students of the game.
Baptist, 'Jupana' and Hemantha are at present doing much to uplift
the game at grassroots level. Bryan, is presently helping the Navy
as a consultant, Brig. Jayawardena (Rtd) has contributed much to
Army rugby to come into surface. Today they are a force to be reckoned
with.
Yatawara, a
versatile sportsman to hail from Dharmaraja is better known as a
hockey player.
A bundle of
energy emerged as a fine centre three-quarter after joining the
Police. He is doing much for Kandy Rugby - moulding the juniors
(especially the village kids) to take to the sport, with the support
afforded by Kandy Dist. RFU. His choice is most welcome. He could
oversee the Up-country rugby. The new panel has a Herculean task
to mould the destiny of Sri Lanka rugby for a better future. (B.W)
Three
schoolboys in 7s squad
The Sri Lankan national selection panel headed by Tikiri Marambe
picked a 23-member squad for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games
to be staged in Manchester, England next month.
Nalin de Silva,
the Secretary of the Rugby Union told Sunday Times that there was
a problem of the availability of the Kandy SC players for this tour
due to commitments during the on going league. But saner counsel
prevailed and Kandy has put country first before the club and have
agreed to release their players for selection.
The panel after
much deliberation picked a squad with youth and experience. There
are three schoolboys in the pool. They are Vidyartha's W.W.S. Pushpakumara,
Peterite Dilanka Wijesekera and Hiran Liyanage of St. Anthony's.
Chairman of
the panel Tikiri Marambe said that they have picked a squad with
an eye to the future giving exposure to talented players who have
a flair for sevens rugby.
All players
in the squad have been requested to report to the coach Asanga Seneviratne
or manager Chaminda Rupasinghe on July 10 at 7 a.m. at Longden Place.
The squad:
Sanjeeva Jayasinghe (Kandy), Leonard De Zylva (Havelocks), B.
Batapola (CH&FC), B.D.N. Fernando (Police), M.D. Fernando (Army),
Radhika Hettiarachchi (Kandy), Sajith Mallikarachchi (Kandy), Lalindra
Rodrigo (Havelocks), Ravi Jayasuriya (Navy), K. Musafer (CR&FC),
N. Weerakkody and Indrajith Bandaranayake (Kandy), Pavithra Fernando
(CR&FC), Vajira Jayatilleke (Army), W.W.S. Pushpakumara (Vidyartha),
Dilanka Wijesekera (St. Peter's), H. Liyanage (St. Anthony's), Kapila
Knowlton (Army), Haren Kaluarachchi (CR&FC), Milinda Jayasinghe
(CH&FC), Champika Thushara (Police) - BW
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