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"Duchess" in Regal Exhibition takes Taiwan Cup
Ex-Champion of Sri Lanka more than twice and now gone up to a 11 handicapper the well preserved "Duchess" Yvonne Abhayaratne came smashing good with a scintillating round collecting 44 points to win the handsome Taiwan Cup, Rs. 10,000/-, an Airline Ticket and a week's golfing stay in Kuala Lumpur. Duchess beat over a hundred of men, many of them top notchers. "She looks fresh as a daisy", said one wag and the other chirped in my ear, "She must live in a frig to look so fresh". Popular impressario Wenders Sheih the Chief Executive of Collins Ltd., a Taiwanese conglomerate sponsored the inaugural Golf Tournament at the Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo Golf Club which attracted over 150 contestants and as many at the reception and banquet soon after sunset.

Coming 2nd and beaten by just one point was that massive young man Radesh Daluwatte who played a splendid game. Coming 3rd was young Kumar Boralessa who tied with Trevine Fernandopulle on 42 points. Through the latter part of the forenoon and early afternoon Fernandopulle was sitting pretty on 42 points. Wearing an 8 inch grin across his face he was preparing for the award ceremony signing and entertaining. Who wouldn't with 42 points? Then came distress with Boralessa on 42 and a better back nine followed by Daluwatte and eventually Yvonne Abhayaratne to get ahead of all and place Fernandopulle 4th. Sad for him an extremely popular personality at the 19th hole. Rohan Perera and Miss K. Vethavinayakara impressed with 41 points each.

Ken Sellayah who normally strays when attempting far reaching shots had some assistance from an unseen source to take the straight and narrow path and be declared the winner of the most accurate drive off the 8th tee.

Nimal Amerasinghe has his tee shot on the 9th kiss the lip of the cup and move to settle 2 ft. from the flag to take a very special award and a resounding round of applause from his 'perali' friends. Lal de Mel popularly known as "Mr. Bean" came 100th and received a special award and provided jubilation at his dinner table.

The ceremony was well organised and superbly presented. Wenders Shieh was immensely supportive. Gamini Perera, the Executive Chef produced a classy dinner, Lionel Almeida ably supported by 'scratcho' Ariyadasa handled the Competition with skill. Wenders Sheih was beaming all evening.

The party was great, tremendously extravagant with a galaxy of gorgeous ladies adding colour to the occasion. Marie de Silva, Charmaine Mylvaganam, Umsaid Sebhatu, Nonita Chand and Heather Ritchie were soothing to the nerves and easy on the eyes.

Thrills and spills at Pannala
Dilantha, Romani and Manapperuma triumph
By M. Shamil Amit
It was that man Dilantha Malagamuwa again who thrilled the crowd that had gathered at the McFoil Challenge race in Pannala with his dare devil riding in his 125 Pride Special and putting the other riders with more powerful englnes to shame. Dilantha who had specially come down for this meet from Japan where he resides won both his events without any fuss.

In the motor car category Romani de Silva who has been dominating the Formula events this year continued his winning form but not after being given a fright by his team mate Rohan de Silva who used his experience into full effect. Rohan was stranded when the other cars took off as he had seen the green light at the starting point but fought his way back to take the second slot followed by Dinesh Jayawardena.

Veteran Sumanapala Manapperuma could be classified as the luckiest driver of the day. The event for cars 6-8 bhp had to be run twice as one of the cars toppled upside down making the officials to call off the race after the completion of the third lap. When the race was stopped another veteran Bri Ponnambalam was way ahead of the others with Manapperuma a distant third.

When the event started again Manapperuma took the lead which he held on to win followed by Javed Wahab and then Bri Ponnambalam. Bri speaking to the Sunday Times said that you can be lucky only once that’s what happened to me and the ultimate winner. Nevertheless credit cannot be taken away from Manapperuma as he had to hold on to several laps before the race is completed.

Another race that thrilled the small crowd was the event for cars in the Group 'A' 8-10 bhp. Formula specialist Romani de Silva who most probably would have driven the best race of his career thrilled the crowd to secure second place ahead of more powerful cars in his lesser powered Nisan March.

As expected the open event for cars was won by maestro Dinesh Deheragoda with Nalin D. Perera and Dan Dissanayake following him. The other drivers who impressed at the day’s proceeding were Rohith de Silva, Ravi Mayadunne, Nihal Premasiri and Shirendra Lawrence who won their respective events.

The riders to impress earlier in the day were Susil Wanniarachchi, Manaf Mohamed, Maduranga Caldera, Krishan Dias and Sanira Fernando winning their respective events. Three races were cancelled due to various reasons best known to the organisers. The organisers of all motor racing events should make some arrangements as the crowds for the events are getting lesser and lesser.

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