Sports -

CR and FC can attest to how sweet is revenge. They completely outclassed giant killers Havelocks by 37 points (3 goals, 2 tries and 1 penalty) to five (1 try). Thus winning the Clifford Cup trophy after 17 years and annexing the inaugural Caltex Star trophy at Longden Place yesterday.

The pre match hype was all about the two sides meeting in a final after 32 years. Much was also made of the fact that Havelocks had beaten Army and CH and FC to get into the final. Unfortunately for the Park Club they came up against a side who were on top of their game. No scribe can accurately predict the result of a hypothesis. But had Kandy been in the final they too would have tasted defeat.

CR and FC last won the title way back in 1989 under Shyam Siddeek.

From the kick off CR went on the offensive. It took only eight minutes for the winners to cross the line. A rolling maul saw hooker Anuja Perera touch down far right. Senthil Kumar missed the conversion and fluffed a penalty a couple of minutes later. Obviously it did not prove costly. CR kept working their line and going through the phases. This resulted in Avantha Hettiarachchi and Asanga Rodrigo crossing the line. Kumar converted one try and also put over penalty in front of the posts. This gave the home side 20 nil lead at lemons. CR’s dominance in the first half was emphasized by the fact that Havelocks managed to get out their territory only twice.

The Caltex Star trophy was unveiled at the break amidst much pomp and pageantry. Perhaps C. S. Lewis could have described the proceedings correctly. All this writer can say was that it appeared to be a fusion of Arabic and Asian fusion.

It took only three minutes after the break for CR to put the issue beyond doubt. Winger Mohommad Sheriff intercepted a pass to send a delighted Ashan Karthelis under the posts. Kumar converted. Havelocks to their credit did start fighting back, but bad ball handling and poor judgment cost them dearly. After the 20 minutes they finally managed to string a few phases together which resulted in number eight Tyronne Harrison touching down by the left corner flag for a consolation try. CR replied with arguably the try of the game. A Havelocks player knocked on and winger Sheriff quickly pounced, collected and passed to Dinesh Kumar. Winger Kumar raced down the line for more than 60 metres to literally put the icing on the cake.

All in all it was very polished and professional performance by the home side ably led from the front by Pavithra Fernando.