Sri Lankans of California sponsor our Caddies

A group of Sri Lankans living on the West Coast of U.S.A got together enthusiastically over the plight of our caddies and agreed to a massive sponsorship of a triangular tournament between teams from Royal Colombo, Victoria in Kandy and the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club. The sponsors were represented by Chiran Chandrasena and Tyrone Gabriel and their charming wives who followed the entire tournament enthusiastically.

In Kandy
In the first encounter Royal Colombo played Victoria and beat them comfortably. The highlight of the contest was an absolutely commendable performance by Vijitha Bandara and S. Pathmanadan who beat a formidable Royal Colombo pair S. Kumar and M. Peter. The arrangements at Victoria were exceptional with the Caddies receiving much attention and support. The Course was in impeccable condition.

Nuwara Eliya
After a few hallelujahs were sung in praise of Mike Varney and his team at Victoria the Royal Colombo team moved to salubrious Nuwara Eliya for the final leg of the triangular with the sponsors joining them.

The weather was kind, the course played true and the course management and supervision was exceptional. In the first part of the contest which was a 4 ball, Nuwara Eliya romped past Colombo in a facile victory 5½ games to 2½. In the 2nd part which was a foursome Colombo took a slender lead of 4½ games to 3½ games.

The final part of the contest took off on Saturday the 14th with 16 single matches. Colombo had a formidable side with 5 of the cream studding their side, but the Nuwara Eliya boys showed tremendous tenacity to hold Colombo to a most commendable draw each winning 8 matches. Soundararaj, Vinodh and Dinesh Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Jayasena, Sivakumar, Sunderam and Ariyapala played splendid golf and were highly commended at the award ceremony.

Awards
Nug de Siva the President of the Sri Lanka Golf Union was delighted with the success of the triangular and expressed much gratitude and thanks to Chiran Chandrasena and Tyrone Gabriel for their immense support and magnanimous contribution towards the development of the skills of our hapless and richly deserving Caddies. He also reminded the hierarchy of Nuwara Eliya and Colombo that the Beadon Cup had been revived and it was his wish that the tournament will be supported and progressed. Chiran Chandrasena responding and excelling in speechcraft promised that he would do his utmost to ensure that the future is assured of continuous support. "The plight of the Caddies and their tremendous talent cannot and should not go unnoticed" he said.

The Caddies see excellent prospects for their development after Chandrasena observed that it will be his endeavour to brighten their chances of development and it will not be far to see one prospect at least invited to the States to develop his talent. Chandrasena was dead honest and serious. Gabriel and Chandrasena richly deserved the lively hallelujahs sung in their honour.