Sports

Some years ago, Fouzul Hameed was a classy cricketer playing with distinction for the Colts Cricket Club. Instinctively an entrepreneur, he let cricket pass by for a career as a merchant in the rag trade. He joined his family and developed Hameedia’s, a leading men’s clothing store that has become a household name, strongly established and superbly positioned as a top drawer fashion house.

Sports minded Hameed just recently turned to promote Golf, and further promote his upmarket men’s clothes. The tournament they promoted at the Ridgeways of the Royal Colombo was immensely successful and the cocktail party and fashion show that preceded the awards ceremony after sunset was enjoyable and quite fun-filled despite the marked absence of Bacchus.

‘Envoy’ Ritchie
Tall, broad-waisted, 2 handicapper Stuart Ritchie, still comes good with monotonous regularity. On Saturday he was once again exceptional with a classy nett 69 to collect the handsome ‘Envoy’ trophy through a massive round of applause in which his pretty, petite wife Heather joined vigorously. Mohan Ratnayake came one behind, with nett 70. He was well applauded too. Derrick Evans and Romesh Abhayaratne had good cause to smile with nett 71 each.

Sohli Scintillates
One time champion of the Royal Colombo and an exceptionally accomplished golfer, Sohli Captain, a well-preserved 15 handicapper, now struck a stunning round of gross 76 nett 61 and flashed to victory in the ‘B’ Division to receive rousing applause at the crowded award ceremony. Wasantha de Silva, quite a stylish player, came behind with an excellent nett 64.

‘C’ DIVISION
Roshan Perera played a happy round and was delighted with nett 69 and the trophy. Nihal Boralessa walked behind him to applause, with nett 70.

Seniors
P.H.B. Samarawickrema was a popular senior with a handsome win, beating Denison Saparamadu to 2nd place. In the Master’s Hamza Marcan Markar walked slow and tall through the course to collect 71 and victory, leaving behind ‘Super Cop’ V.T. Sunderalingam. The Poolists as usual produced the best Golf for the day. Brilliant performer, N. Amarapathuma, struck a stunning 6 under par beating M. Arumugam who brought in 3 under. Here, I wish to categorically state that it is not understood why the Poolists are not allowed to mix and play in the ‘A’ Divison.

There were 6 hidden holes in the competition and Lucien Ratnayake was quite smart to pick them quite economically with only 22 strokes. He was loudly greeted for an excellent performance. H. V. Kim was closest to the pin.

Awards
Despite the fact that wines and spirits were not served, spirits ran pretty high at catwalk time. 8 barrel-chested, good looking young men displayed outfits and 3 lush girls moved superbly to display outfits that were easy on the eye. Hameedia did themselves proud with a classy display of garments. The fashions seen were upmarket in patches.

The fashion experts were there, Kirthi Sri Karunaratne and Mahes Perera, who will handle descriptions in expert style while I have decided to take on one damsel who gave me the jitters. She was a good size and I thought that her whole self had been poured into stretch jeans to remain skin tight. Her blouse was a tight fit with a low and bold neckline, leaving her looking as if she was battling for breath. She knew she was refreshing to our eyes and kept snaking through human traffic moving her torso tantalisingly. She was a stunning contribution to the scene through cocktails and the awards ceremony, and I for one was absolutely rapt with the joy of the sight. Thanks Hameedia !

Chula salves a dog
I always identified Chula Ariyaratne as delightful, fun-loving company with a friendly sense of humour. His golf is fun standard and his passion is 4-ball. On Saturday a different man showed up. He, in the company of Ranil Pathiranana and Raj Ryan, had just finished putting on the 15th green, when they heard the agonising bark of a dog stuck in mud and salvinia in the stream behind. The dog was struggling desperately to get clear of the heavy mess around and visibly losing the battle with no help coming. The big-hearted Chula then took the plunge, golf outfit and all. He swam, battling the salvinia, and embraced the sinking dog and brought him through the mess to the banks, where the dog in sheer exhaustion collapsed, only to later recover and bark hallelujahs to the majestic Chula.