Sports

Sports

Hameed best performer - takes Lanka Bell Cup
S.M.A Hameed has been little known but when he hits the Ridgeways he is impressive in competition. Lanka Bell sponsored a huge stroke play competition at the Royal Colombo just recently at which S.M.A.Hameed took major honours with a stunning victory in the "B" Division. His gross 84 nett 66 was the best for the day and he was honoured with the best trophy as overall winner.

Beaming a Clogard smile he rushed to the 19th and a reliable source confirms that he was entertaining incessantly long after closing time. Nimal Perera missed the pinnacle by one stroke. A spritely player playing well within his handicap most times he shot nett 67 and took his great performance home for a shot by shot commentary to the domestic front. A. Hirdaramani was immensely pleased with his nett 68 while K.B. Ambanpola & Kushal Johnpillai had super reasons to show absolute delight in the rewarding results they achieved - nett 69 each.

Jayakody Excels
Sunil Jayakody struck the limelight again with a bright sparkling nett 68 beating Arshad Ahamed's creditable performance by one stroke. They got together at the Guv'nors for continuous pleasure. Nirmal Hettiaratchy, Priya Fernando & Sheron struck misery but smiled the disaster off.

Ritchie Wins
New on the scene Greg Ritchie plundered a creditable gross nett 88 nett 67 to achieve the lowest gross score for the day. He beat Deepal Weerasekera who had a happy knock but a trifle unfortunate. Kamlesh Johnpillai picked a pleasing round of nett 69 and beamed all afternoon through lunch time. There was a massive harvest of centuries and possibly the most devastating were Rex Hatherley, John Barton, Ken de Alwis, Keith Martenstyn, Gascon Christopha & Paul Rasmussen.

Seniors
The well preserved K.B. Ambanpola came off the fridge to win the Seniors comfortably beating another lively player in M. Samarathunga.

Masters
There was shambles in this Division and coming out of the mess to win was Shiran de Soysa on nett 73. C. Thurairaja followed with a bigger mess of nett 75. They rushed away quickly refusing to be available at question time. Lanka Bell (Pvt.) Ltd. did themselves proud with an immensely popular event.

The tale of HSBC & Royal Colombo Golf
My association with an account at Hong Kong Bank commenced in 1960 hence the records relating about a rewarding tale is “Fair Dinkum”.

In earlier times Rajaratnam Thambiah popularly known as “Thambi” the father of Mahen “Kia” Thambiah was the first Sri Lankan to be installed in the Chief Executive’s chair at HSBC the world’s local Bank. He started at the bottom of the ladder and rose to the pinnacle in a comparatively short period. His success was studded with several significant innovations.

Thambiah was no golfer but he had a glorious inbuilt natural swing at the 19th which he patronized regularly in fun loving company. Gordon Kindness was his 2nd in command who played excellent golf, capturing the spirit at the 19th and generally was a positive active member. He inaugurated the shot gun start competition when 21 flights of 5 each took off at crack of dawn to fill the course and fill the cup at the close of play.

Then came the splendid personality Tim Henderson with a style all of his own, warm and friendly he was a regular guy with a positive flair for merriment. Identified as a super Club man he was invited to join the Committee which he served with distinction. He encouraged spice at the annual award ceremony which was hilarious through an elastic afternoon. He will be remembered. John Carpenter followed. He didn’t strike a ball but he certainly knew how to light up a Bar. He was a prude who attempted to temper the spice at the award ceremony but failed.Richard Law the blondie was fun loving and he was very quickly absorbed into the scene.

A weekend golfer he knocked a few at lunchtime and was great company. Nick Cherill another enthusiast joined the scene and participated. He encouraged sponsorship of Golf like his predecessors and as a fun loving personality he changed the existing competition to a 5 Club fun event which is extremely popular and superbly patronized. Mark Humble who came afterwards was a damp squib in comparison.

He skipped joining the Royal Colombo and was much aloof from the golfing fraternity. Sarath Piyaratne notched the one and only failure in his life when he failed to get Humble to join the R.C.G.C.

Through all these years Sarath Piyaratne, Trevine Fernandopulle and Arjun Fernando formed the formidable trio that kept the Chief Executives at HSBC comfortable in their association with Royal Colombo and Golf and the R.C.G.C. benefited immensely by the World’s Local Bank’s signal contributions in sponsorship. Sarath Piyaratne was later amply rewarded when he was invited to be Chief Executive of Royal Colombo. He happily acceded and completed a helluva magnificent assignment as Captain.

The new arrival and bright personality David Griffiths has just joined and he was seen taking a refresher course at the Guv’nors under the wing of the maestro Piyaratne.

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