HSBC Gymkhana Golf a rousing success at Royal Colombo

Sponsoring golfing encounters at the Royal Colombo was first conceived by cavalier Gordon Kindness. It was a simple and straight laced event followed by a swagger session over an elastic lunch hour and a glorious award ceremony. Then came the absolute mastro Tim Henderson to posh it up further adding much more to the fun through the day. Henderson will long be remembered. Now the event has a gymkhana twist with more fun but still demanding heaps more skill. The fun at lunch time is still quite brimful with cheer. Chubby David Griffith the buoyant Chief Executive of HSBC played the perfect host. He participated too, messed around merrily and came out of the woods with a dozen points and a beaming smile to pitch into a pleasurable dose of Gordons & Tonic after quenching a Lion.

It was a 5 Club Gymkhana event and only great skill brought success to some. Dozens fell by the wayside and a few got temporarily lost in the sticks.

“A” Division
Pferoze Billimoria with 40 points and Romesh Abhayaratne performed exceptionally well and they received separate recognition and awards. Billimoria was declared the king and overall winner and Romesh Abhayaratne was the winner from the Premier Class account holders. He is loaded. With these two removed the 3rd place was filled by Simon Williams a classy nine handicapper. He withdrew too as he is a star Executive of HSBC and then S. Vairavanathan picked the crumbs that fell from the table with 34 points. David Evans had 34 points too but had to surrender with a poorer rear nine. W.K. Kang and Nirmal Hettiaratchy struck misery and carried the disaster through most of the forenoon.

“B” Division
That man Harin Udeshi once again pinched the limelight with a praiseworthy round worth 37 points to win the “B” Classic, massive applause and I suspect an interest free overdraft. Fun loving President Lalin Samarawickrema with 36 points though beaten by a slender margin took the 19th in smashing style.

“C” Division
L. Jayasekera cracked a superbly compiled score of 36 to win the 3rd Division beating His Excellency Alok Prasad who to his credit did not on any one occasion claim diplomatic immunity and seek a free lift or any other concession.

Ladies
Dimunitive Fran De Mel of Philippines origin & Jane Hone played exceptional rounds to tie on 38 points which caused a count back to leave Fran the winner with a better back nine. Fran beamed the whole afternoon.

Seniors
Popular personality and fun loving Ranjith Wirasinha played steady golf, gave the ponds a miss and drifted from the outer fringes of the course to end on a comfortable score of 34 beating Ranjith Thabrew another happy personality by one stroke. I understand they got together and pitched into a massive pleasurable session at the 19th. Dozens of hallelujahs were sung in praise of David Griffith, Trevine Fernandopulle, Simon Williams & HSBC by the massive crowd of participants who gathered over a super-duper Oriental Buffet laced with the pride of Scotland, France & Havana.