CR records seventh win as they beat Havelocks SC

By Marlon Fernandopulle

CR & FC recorded their seventh win in a row defeating traditional rivals Havelocks SC by 25 points (2 goals,1 try and 2 penalties) to 15 (1 goal,1 try and 1 penalty) in a scrappy Carlsberg A division league game at Havelock Park yesterday.

The Red Shirts who recorded convincing wins earlier this season were off colour yesterday as they struggled to get their act together. The forwards lacked the drive while their back division was guilty of sloppy ball handling. Havelocks looked threatening and shone in patches but failed to capitalize on their opponents' mistakes and paid the price. To make matters worse their place kicker Oni Tuala fluffed three easy penalties which prevented the Park Club from putting up a challenging performance against the Table leaders.

CR & FC opened scoring in the third minute when Nalaka Weerakody put over a 22 meter penalty.They increased the lead mid-way in the second half when fly half Sajith Mallikarachchi pierced the Havelocks defence lines with an intelligent run after center Anura Dhammika broke away and created the break, off a lineout.

A few minutes before half time Havelocks full back Shantha Dharmaratne intercepted a ball in his own territory and kicked ahead for winger Sanjeewa Jayasinghe to make a daring 60 metre run, collect and score. Tuala added the extra points. After the turn-around CR & FC steped up their attack and pegged their opponents in their own territory but failed to cross the line due to sloppy ball handling. However they finally succeded when winger Mushtaq put the finishing touches to a good three quarter move after CR won a scrum in Havelocks territory.Weerakody failed with the conversion as CR led 15-7.

After Tuala missed two penalties within five minutes Havelocks turned to centre Haren Perera who made no mistake with a 25-metre penalty to close the gap at 10-15.

The Red Shirts sealed their opponents fate in the 70th minute when scrum half Champika Nishantha fell over after a series of five metre scrums.Weerakody added the extra points as CR led 22-10

On the stroke of full time, the Park Club scored a consolation try when winger Jayasinghe touched down by the corner flag for an unconverted try.

Refree S W Chang.

Perera, Fernando best

Joe Perera, with a nett 66,followed by Nirmal Fernando with a nett 67, returned the best scores in the morning session at the South West Monsoon Honda Golf Classic sponsored by Stafford Motor Company at the Royal Colombo Golf Club yesterday.

Also in contention for the Victoria Cup and the Squadron Cup are Shiran de Soysa followed by F.H.Gunasekera with a nett 68 each, J.R.Robinson and Michael de Soysa, nett 60 each.

Rusi Captain with a gross 71 is in the lead for the aggregate Gold Medal. Seventy two golfers teed off during yesterday's play.

Royal beat Science College

Royal kept their unbeaten record intact for the season, when they scored a 31 points (three goals and two tries) to 14 (two Goals) win over Science in the Milo inter school Zone 1 rugger match at Reid Avenue yesterday.

The Blue and Gold jerseys led 21-14 at half time.

Royal's tries were scored by Centre Krishan Samarasinghe, hooker Dinesh Rahim, Flankers Ravindu Athukoarle, Pavithara Fernando and winger Viraj de Silva.Three of the tries were converted by Full back Rananjaya Gonaduwa. (SI)

Sanath leads in Kurunegala

The national cricket selectors have chosen 14 member Board Xl squad to meet New Zealand in a one day warm up match to be played at the Welagedera Stadium in Kurunegala on Tuesday (June 16). Following is the squad: Sanath Jayasuriya(Captain), Avishka Gunawardena, Russel Arnold, Pradeep Hewage, Roshan Mahanama, Chandika Hathurusinghe, Lanka de Silva, Tilan Samaraweera, Malinga Bandara,Suresh Perera, Ravindra Pushpakumara, Ruchira Perera and Malinda Warnapura

Cricket match to mark St. John's Jaffna 175th year

St. John's College, Jaffna, a school with a great tradition, will be celebrating their 175th anniversary on June 21, with a limited over cricket match organised by the St. John's College, Jaffna O.B.A. South Sri Lanka, at the Colts C.C. ground, Havelock Park, play commences at 9.30 a.m.

This match will be St. John's College Jaffna South Sri Lanka O.B.A. team versus Jaffna Combined College XI (with team include players drawn from Jaffna College, Jaffna Central, Hartley, Jaffna, Hindu, Skandavarodaya, St. Patrick's and Kokuwil Hindu.

This was revealed at a press briefing held at the Colts CC boardroom by the Vice President of the St. John's College Jaffna, South Sri Lanka OBA M.W. Rajasingham, who is the convenor of this match.

The meeting was chaired by R.R. Scott, chairman S.J.C. Sports Committee, who is a legend in Sri Lanka track and field sports in the 1940's. Scott, an allround sportsman joined the Police when the late Sir Richard Aluwihare was the IGP. He was running in the company of Duncan White (Olympic silver medalist), Dr. H.M. P. Perera and many others. He represented the country in the Indo-Sri Lanka meet in 1940. The Lankans got the better of India in many events, including the 4x400m relay where Scott was one of its members. He retired as an S.P., and now leads a quiet life.

According to Rajasingham, St. John's Jaffna, has produced some outstanding sportsmen, who did proud for the country. Name like Dr. C. Balakrishnan who played for the University and for Bloomfield. He opened batting for the country. Dr. V. Sivanandan kept wickets for Nomads CC under D.H. de Silva. K. Shanthikumar, C. Sooriyakumar were some of the products of SJC.

Its wings were spread to other areas too. Today, S. Sivadhasan is one of the advisors to President Chandrika Kumaratunga and there are many others holding responsible posts in the administration, added Rajasingham.

It's a great year for S.J.C. and this match organised by its South Sri Lanka branch, is not confined to cricket alone, but to bring about togetherness among its old boys, who are now domiciled abroad.

They will be here for this fellowship match as part of its 175th year celebrations .

S.D. Kulanathan (Canada) will lead the SJC South Sri Lanka team. For the last ten years, the OBA S. Sri Lanka has played against the above mentioned schools and are still unbeaten. The present Speaker of the House Mr. K.B. Ratnayake, an allround sportsman, is a product of Hartley College, while Mr. Maithripala Senanayake, is an old boy of St. John's Jaffna.

The Jaffna Combined Schools XI will be led by K. Mathivanan of Hartley College. Those desirous of playing could contact him on 077-677677. There are cash prizes - a plenty for individual performances, winners and the runners-up. Former Colts cricketer, Lanka Perera will be the adjudicator.

The President of the Cricket Board, Thilanga Sumathipala will be the Chief Guest and give away the awards.-BW

6000 to compete in Junior Athletic C'ship

The All Island Junior Athletics Championships conducted for the 5th year running by the Physical Education and Sports Department of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education will be held from June 21 to June 24 at the Sugathadasa Stadium.

Over 6000 athletes will take part.

The events to be held are Decathlon, Heptathlon, Schools and Club relays.

The junior event will be for boys and girls under 11 and 13 competing in 18 individual events while the school relays will be in the under 15, 17, 19 and 21 categories.

Five-try Qoro powers Petersons

By Saif Izzadeen

Five breathtaking tries (including a hat-trick) by Fijian Manasa Qoro powered Petersons to a 55-5 win over Navy SC in a Carlsberg A Division rugby match at Longden Place yesterday. At the breather the Blackshirts led 17-5.

Petersons points were made up of five goals and four tries while Navy scored a solitary try. Petersons who had an unimpressive first half, staged a super second half rally to sink the sailors.

Their dominance was very much in evidence as they crossed the Navy line on nine occasions. .

On the other hand Navy who were able to restrict Petersons for 17 points in the first half crumbled in the second session and gave away 38 points.

The match got off to a fast start with both three quarter lines playing attacking rugby. Petersons opened scoring in the 11th minute through No8 Qoro. Petersons won a scrum in mid field which saw No.8 Manasa Qoro brushing aside several defendersto score by the right corner flag the conversion was fluffed by Chanka Jayaweera which gave Petersons a 5-0 lead. 14 minutes later Navy leveled the scores through a try by wing three quarter Sheriffdeen however the conversion was missed by Jeffery Jamalon. to score by Jamalon. Petersons went into a 12-5 lead in the 35th minute when they scored a try through Qoro the conversion was put right by Chanaka Jayaweera. A few minutes in to half time Petersons stretched their lead to 17-5 when they scored a try through full back Asela de Moraes. The conversion was missed by Jayaweera which gave petersons a 17-5 lead at lemons.

In the second half it was all Petersons as they scored 38 points.

They scored tries through No8 Qoro (3), a try each was scored by prop forward Mohammed Hasan, centre Ruwan Suranga and Apsi Nagata of which four tries were converted by Jayaweera and this gave Petersons a comfortable win.

Referee - Asela de Silva

Rover pinpoints...

Not in order

According to the ICC ruling each touring team is to be given 75 free tickets per match to be distributed among the players.

Equal distribution was not what happened during the South African tour. This was a bad mistake.

Instead of distributing the tickets equally they were put on the table and the players were told to take their quota with the senior players having the better share. The juniors hardly got even a ticket each. This caused much hear burn among the younger players.

Nearly thrown out

A senior official of the Galle District Cricket Association showing his might on the historic occasion of the stadium being named the 69th in the world and seventh Test venue in Sri Lanka nearly threw out the commentators who were giving ball by ball commentary of the match.

The reason for doing so, Rover learns, is that they had kept a window open in the air conditioned enclosure with a wire hanging out.

Reporter challenged..

A New Zealand reporter was first told not to smoke because the press box was airconditioned. But he kept on smoking. He was reported by a local journalist to the organisers.

Then the New Zealander pointed out a local commentator smoking. And there was a No Smoking sign too.

Layton cup next week

The Layton Cup boxing meet will take place on June 23,24 and 25 at the Sugathadasa Stadium and will commence at 5.30 p, on each day.

All amateur boxers who are between the ages of 17 and 34 years are eligibke to participate at this meet.

Last year's champion Sri lanka Army, Navy, Air Force , Police, Veyangoda BC, St, Michales, Kalutara District B.C, Y.M.C.A. Colombo, Y.M.C.A.Kandy, Meerigama B.C, Prison, Airport Authority, will participate at the meet.

Entries close on June 22 nd with Secteary A.B.A Sunil Maligaspe, Asst. Supt of Police, 80 /1, George R.De. Silwa Mawatha ,Kotahena, Colombo 13. (SMD)

Jayasuriya - Itn, Cricketer of the Year

Sanath Jayasuriya won the CEAT International Cricketer of the Year 1997 - 98 award with 122 points followed closely by India's Sachin Tendulkar who had 114 points.

Under the rules of CEAT Cricket ratings system, if there is a difference of less than 10 points between the top players, the three adjudicators, in this case, Ian Chappel, Sunil Gavaskar and Clive Lloyd are given complete details of the performances of the top players to make the final selection.

Over the past five weeks, Chappel, Gavaskar and Lloyed discussed the performances of the two brilliant cricketers during the year. The majority view was that the points should do the speaking for Sanath Jayasuriya.

Sanath Jayasuriya becomes the third CEAT International Cricketer of the Year. The first two recipients of this award were Brian Lara and Venkatesh Prasad.

The date of the awards ceremony will be announced shortly.

Jayasuriya will receive half a million Indian rupees.

Courtesy R. S.Hartley & Company Limited.

Maradona gets suspended sentence for shooting

By Stephen Brown

BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) - Former Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona was convicted on Friday of shooting reporters with an air rifle in 1994 and received a suspended sentence of two years and 10 months.

His lawyer, Hugo Wortman Jofre, told reporters he would appeal for "Maradona to be given the chance to serve his term by doing work in hospitals and in services to the public." But the journalists injured by Maradona said they would also appeal because they considered the sentence too light.

"But at least this exemplary case does show that there is justice for all," said reporter Daniel Talamoni, one of the four journalists who sued Maradona, 37, after being slightly injured in the incident outside his Buenos Aires mansion.

"When the case began four years ago, everyone said it was impossible they would sentence a man idolised in Argentina and forgiven everything," the radio journalist told Reuters. Footage of the incident showed Maradona crouched behind a Mercedes with two other men firing an air gun at reporters besieging his home.

A day earlier, he had been released by First Division club Newell's Old Boys for missing practice.

Prosecutors and the journalists' lawyers had sought four years in jail for Maradona.

Sports Festival starts in Kalutara today

By Marcus Joseph

Marathon, Walking and Cycling events of the National Sports Festival will take place today at Kalutara. The rest of the items will follow with the finals of athletics events to take place at the Sugathadasa Stadium.

June 14 - Marathon (Men/Women) at Kalutara, Walking (Men/Women) at Kalutara, Cycling (Men/Women) at Kalutara.

Junc 20 - Netball at Maharagama.

June 21 - Ella (Men/Women) at Torrington Square.

June 27, 28 - Hockey (Men/Women) at Reid Avenue, Gymnastic (Men/Women) - Sugathadasa Stadium (Indoor).

July 04, 05 - Judo (Men/Women) at Sugathadasa Stadium (Indoor), Cricket (Men) - Torrington Square. July 11, 12 - Badminton (Men/Women) at Maitland Place, Table Tennis (Men/Women) at S. Thomas' Mt. Lavinia. July 18, 19 - Volleyball (Men/Women) - Sugathadasa Stadium (Indoor), Swimming (Men/Women) at Sugathadasa Swimming Pool. July 25, 26 - Football at Reid Avenue, Boxing at Sugathadasa (Indoor), Wrestling at Sugathadasa (Indoor).

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