Sports

Captain looks good at Ridgeways

The Royal Colombo Golf Club Championship has just commenced with a few excellent wins and as many displays of rubbish. Rusi Captain remains supreme thrashing Murad Ismail 4 & 2 and taking Dian Abeywardena to the cleaners and anchoring him there with 8 & 6. He awaits tender Mithun Nandasena in the Semi-finals.

Mithun, the 16 year old beat Jehan de Saram 1 up and then cleaned up Jeremy Carter 6 up to prepare for Rusi Captain. The tussle over this weekend will be great. Be there .

In the bottom half Priya Fernando tried his luck and skill and was hastily halted by that young enterprising golfer Shehan Ramanyake who is showing much promise. Wasantha de Silva looked good initially when he whipped Nirmal Hettiarachchi and followed it up with a tidy win over Chaminda Galagedera. He next met spritely Shehan Ramanayake from whom he got a sound belting 7 & 5.

Diminutive Amrit de Soysa punished Chutti Munsoor, stopped Binupa Wijesinghe with a 5 & 4 win and now takes a place in waiting for a clash with Shehan Ramanayake.

Rusi Captain on known form should win but he has some irritating teasers against him. Amrit de Soysa, Shehan Ramanayake & Mithun Nandasena are brilliant youngsters who are quite capable of giving Captain the needle.

Bede Muller in town

The irrepressible Bede Muller Physician & Golfer is back in his home country from Down Under on his annual pilgrimage. Dr. Bede looks good, fresh and spritely despite 8 decades of a fairly rushed life. Doc. Bede started his golfing career in the mid fifties and was well known in Golfing circles particularly at the Havelock Golf Club. He was Physician for the Australian High Commission through the periods of His Excellency A.R. Cutler, Alan Eastman and Charles Kevin who married gorgeous Therese Wilson the daughter of the prominent Solicitor John Wilson Snr. Muller had an excellent practice in Sri Lanka and as his lady patients often said "Bede has warm and comforting bedside manners". Knowing Bede as much as I do I have no doubts about that statement being deadly accurate and spot on.At the Havelocks he won many Trophies particularly the Captains Cup. The Firestone Trophy and the John and Co. Cup. When the Havelocks Golf Course was turned into the elegant Bandaranaike Memorial Hall Bede migrated to the Royal Colombo Golf Club and in just a few years he was striking good. He won a few miscellaneous Trophies and capped them all with a stunning victory in the 1968 Club Championship beating Robin McMichen in the semis and John Hagenbach in the finals. This same year he represented Ceylon in the Pakistan Open at Rawalpindi together with Pin Fernando, Chrisso Abeywardena, D.C. Umagiliya, Alavi Macan Markar and Dr. Lance Fernando. Pin was runner-up through 4 stroke play rounds and Bede came 7th. The others fell by the wayside.

Bede now resides in West Concord off Sydney, New South Wales. He has an excellent practice and plays non-competitive golf often.