Doc. Thurai captures "A" classic at Ridgeways

I was jerked out of my sick bay with the refreshing news that Doc. C. Thurairaja, the elegant left hander had struck the bright light once again with a super victory in the "A" Division Classic of the Water Mart Systems Tournament at the Ridgeways of theRoyal Colombo last week. He beat another outstanding stroke player Stewart Ritchie by a very slender margin of a better back nine. Both settled on 72 nett. Doc. Thurai played off 9 handicap and Ritchie on only 1. Ritchie had the distinction of striking the lowest gross score in the "A" category.

Disaster Zone
Nirmal Hettiaratchy struck the drains and messed around to finish on nett 84 while Michael Perera and Capt. Navin de Silva raised absolute hell on their way through in the forenoon of play.

"B" Division
Jouni Aitiman and Srinath Rajapakse completed excellent rounds of 4 under par nett 67 each. Aitiman got ahead to win the "B" Category trophy with a better back nine.

Outstanding Dammika
An outstanding stroke player and a highly competitive golfer in his early youth Dammika Fernando now superbly well preserved moved into competitive golf after several years of playing golf for fun. Putting together patches of his old form and style D.M. Fernando came off well with a great 4 under par nett 67 to win the Water Systems "B" Classic beating Bernard Tan by 2 strokes.

Seniors
Dr. Meevanapalana beat Joe Perera by one stroke 76 to 77 to win the title and in the Masters category stylish Priya Samarasinghe had an excellent round of one under par nett 70 to be crowned Masters champ.

Poolists
I repeat despite very limited opportunities of playing competitive golf the poolists did remarkably well. K.A. Chandrasena our brilliant best was great on gross 66 beating N. Amarapathma on gross 70.

More Disaster
There were centuries galore with impressive performances from Caesar Fernando, Ken Sellayah, Nilkamal Perera, Mano Wikramanayake, Rex Hatherley and Jit Wanigasekera and those who really sparkled with flashy strokes, play were Vijay Malalasekera, Chandana de Silva and Trevine Fernandopulle and then Roy Anthony, Prassana Goonetilleke and Neil Chanmugam were involved in large scale earth moving.