Fitting reward for Royal ruggerites

By Bernie Wijesekera

It's a fitting reward for the Royal rugby team who hit a purple patch for 1998 season, when they remained unbeaten which helped them to become the schools league champions

To put the icing on the cake Royal won the Bradby Shield, handsomely against Trinity losing the first leg 18-20 but winning second leg by 42-11.

Now they embark for the first time on a historic tour to the Northern Hemisphere - England and Wales, said Coach C.P.P. Abeygunawardena to The Sunday Times.

This tour was made possible thanks to the magnanimous gesture coming from the diehard old boys here and those domiciled in London, C.P.P. added.

The Royalists will play three matches which will culminate on October 11.

Besides locking horns against the leading schools, the schoolboys will be afforded with a coaching seminar given by Chris Padfield a leading coach (Welsh RFU) who served the (Rugby Union Sri Lanka) as a consultant, on October 8, in Cardiff.

Pint-sized Abeygunawardena, a knowledgeable coach in the country, did a king sized job to mould the rugby team to perform with distinction on and off the field.

Summa Navaratnam, will be the Manager. Both C.P. and Summa, played with much success for Royal, CR & FC and Sri Lanka.

The team took wing on October 2 (Friday).

The squad: - W.S.S. Perera, G.L. Dissanayaka, P.R. Gonaduwa, D. R. Rahim, R.V.S. De Silva, I. P. Fernadno, K. M. Samarasinghe,R. Athukorala, N.S.I.N. Perera, M. P. Induruwana, S.P. Perera, S.H. Soysa, W.C.R. Perera, I. Koralagama, A.I. NamalarachchiR.J. Fernando, D.P.R. Wijeratne, S.B. Pilapitiya, T.D. De Zoysa, H.A. Kaluaratchi, J. A. Kumarage and R.A.C.A. Ranasinghe.

Officials:- R.H. B. Sirisena-Master-in-charge; R. L. Senanayake - Chief de Mission; S. Navaratnam - Manager; L.W.De. Z. Gunaratne - Asst. Coach;

C. P. Abeyegunawardena (Coach).

Itinerary

5th Monday - Haberdasher's School, Hertfordshire- Rugby match (4.15 pm) Haberdasher's Aske's School, Butterfly Lane, Elstree, Herts WD6 3AS.

6th Tuesday - Travel to Somerset.

7th Wednesday- Millfield School, Somerset- Rugby match(2.30pm), Millfield Street, Somerset BA 16 OYD.

8th Thursday - Tour of Cardiff,Wales; Night in Cardiff Chris Padfield, Welsh RFU, Gwent, Tertiary College, Cardiff (Welsh Institute of Sport).

9th Friday - Travel to Leicester; Night in Leicester.

10th Saturday - John Clevland College, Leicester- Rugy match (10.30am) Butt Lane, Hinkley, Leicester.

AIDEX '98 Sports Day

The AIDEX '98 Sports Day for the disabled now in its eighth year will be held on October 25 at the Sports Ministry grounds.

The event is organised by the Colombo Friends- in- Need Society for users of the 'Jaipur' feet and artificial legs manufactured in India.

The society distributes artificial legs free of charge.

The Colombo Friends-in-Need Society has been supplying artificial legs to amputees since 1985.

Minson new winner

The Qantas Cup this year saw a new winner, when the flying New Zealander, Alan Minson in his laser dinghy crossed the finishing line first and was also declared the winner after boat and personal handicaps were calculated.

In second place followed Hans Svendsen as helm and W.N.D. Bandara as crew. This team sailed a GP 14.

In third place came the new combination of W.P.K. Janaka as helm and Lalin Jirasinghe as crew in an Enterprise Dinghy.

Qantas Sales Manager, Mrs. Michelle Perera handed over the Qantas Trophy and prizes to the winners.

Playgrounds return

After 15 years in the 'cold' Playgrounds will be making their presence felt at the Five-A-Side tournament conducted by the Colombo District Basketball Association to be held on October 8, 9, 10 and 11 at the Depot Police Courts at Bambalapitiya.

Thirty nine teams will be in the fray with 13 teams in the men's A Division, 20 in the men's B Division and six teams in the women's section.

The teams participating and their groupings are:

Men's A Division: Group A: Marians, Kochchikade Playgrounds, Victory SC A; Group B: Ellie House Playgrounds, Old Bens BC A, Orients BC A; Group C: Maris Stella BC, Com.Bank BC, Army A; Group D: Air Force, US BC, SJP Nugegoda and CR&FC. Men's B Div: Group A: Army BC, All Saints BC, HHBC, Veterans BC, Cats BC; Group B: Petersons Playgrounds, Don Bosco BC, Stanley Jansz Playgrounds, Kelaniya BC, St. Sebastian's Kandana.; Group C: Bambalapitiya CA; Victory BC, P.D.Sirisena Playgrounds, Old Bens B, Air Force B; Group D: Army BC, Otters BC, Tudella SC, Orients BC B, Gateway International School.

Women's Section: Group A: Ramblers BC B, Young Girls Cagers BC, Otters BC; Group B: Ramblers BC A, Army, Air Force.

The champions in the men's A Division and runners-up will be awarded the Kings Lager trophies and cash awards while the B Division champions and runners-up will be presented with the Bison Extra trophies and cash awards. The winners of the women's section too will be awarded the King's Stoute trophy and cash awards.

Several film stars are expected at the competition and the Army band will be in attendance. (AF)

A'pura road races on Oct. 24

Anuradhapura will be the venue for the motor road race to be conducted in collaboration with the Kandy Motor Sports Club on October 24 and 25 (Saturday and Sunday).

The preliminaries will be held on Saturday at 1 p.m. while the races will commence on the second day at 8 a.m.

The route will be Anuradhapura, Nuwarawewa, Rest House Road, Harischandra Mawatha, Maithripala Senanayake Mawatha, covering the market area which will be to a distance of 4 miles.

Sri Lanka netball team seeded 16th

The Sri Lanka Netball team which failed miserably at the XVIth Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, being beaten by countries in Group B by very big margins, have been seeded 16th at the oncoming World Championship to be held at Christchurch in New Zealand next year.

A total of 25 nations took part is the 1995 event in Birmingham. This year which sees an increase of participating nations had increased to 28 with Botswana, Niue, Zambia, Tanzania and Pakistan participating for the first time.

The draw for the seeding took place in Auckland with 21 nations being seeded out of the 28. Australia took top spot, South Africa runners-up in 1995 being seeded second ahead of New Zealand.

The seedings are: Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, England, Jamaica, Trinidad Tobago, Cook Islands, Malawi, Samoa, Barbados, Canada, United States, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, Wales, Northern Ireland, SRI LANKA, Singapore, Scotland, Hong Kong, Malaysia. Unseeded: Botswana, Fiji, Niue, Vanuata, Zambia, Pakistan and Malyasia.

Sri Lanka were beaten by South Africa, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Malawi and wales at the Commonwealth Games.

Young Ladies champs

Young Ladies CC from Mt. Lavinia emerged unbeaten champions in the women's cricket league championship organised by the Sakthi Sports Club Anuradhapura and sponsored by Chandra Trades A'pura.

This tournement was played island-wide. It was a 30-over leather ball thournament where 7 teams took part, namely Slim Line CC, Colombo CC, Nomads CC, Colombo Ladies CC, Samudra CC, Wennappuwa, Kalutara PCC, Sakthi CC Anuradhapura and Young Ladies CC.

M.W Rajasingham Chairman of Rajasingham Industries, who is sponsoring Isipathana rugby told The Sunday Times that Young Ladies CC was fortunate to have Mrs. C.V. Gooneratne, a diehard supporter of sports as its patron. Mrs. Gooneratne has helped the team in a big way to go places.

Incidentally M.W. Rajasingham is its president. According to Mr. Rajasingham this tournament proved a roaring success for the promotion of king cricket among the women.

In the exhibition match between the champions and Sakthi CC played at A'pura Esplanade which drew tremendous spectator interest. Mrs. Gooneratne was the Chief Guest. (Scores YLCC 149 for 7 in 30 overs Wasantha Ratnayake 18, Hiroshi Abeysinghe 66 (2x4), Monoka de Costa 10, D.Samarawickrama 15, Shushanthi 1/18 Niluka 1/34) (Sakthi CC 99 all out Padma 19, Thilaka 14, Shanika 14, Hiroshi Perera 2 for 8, H. Abyesinghe 2 for 12, A Wijewardena 2 for 17 Indika Perera 2 for 7) B.W.

Rover pinpoints...

Physical fitness.

Three leading rugby referees have been asked to attend a fitness test by a leading Rugby Referees' Association officials. But they have point blankly refused to attend this test.

No silver, no gold

Two cricket commentators were heard saying that Sri Lanka was assured of a silver or gold medal having had the South Africans badly placed at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia where the game was introduced for the first time.

Rover wishes to inform them that a match cannot be won or lost until the last ball is bowled!

Bad taste

A cheap publicity hunter approached a leading coach training the young un's at the Bloomfield grounds and inquired from him whether he read an article in a newspaper about him.

Pat came the reply "I do not read what so and so writes because it is a comedy."

Pushed out?

Why is that a leading cricketer is being given the cold shoulder? Rover learns that this is because he is suspected of providing information to a leading journalist about the behaviour of certain cricketers on the South African tour.

Forced to resign.

A director of a powerful Ministry has left in tears. The reason; She was entrusted with cutting down the vast expenses involved in conducting a major event, for which she obliged.

Not to be outdone the husband and wife combination having much clout in this ministry saw to it that they have their final say, which leaves no option for the director to take up a post at another ministry.

Pushed around

Many a time journalists with valid media pass have been spoken to roughly by the security officials at the Sports Ministry complex at the Race Course.

They should have the common decency of checking these passes and allow the journalists in who are there on official duty.

Over to you Mr. Minister.

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