Suwaneetha wins Ladies Gross Title

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen Kandy Sports Corr.

Suwaneetha Selvaratnam (Combined Ladies Gross), Manori Jayakoddy (Combined Ladies Nett), Alain Gyi (Combined Gentlemen's Gross) and Shamal Perera (Combined Gentlemen's Nett) stole the honours at the Annual Club Championship of the Victoria Golf and Country Resort which was sponsored by the Victoria Golf and Country Resort and Pericycle and worked off at the picturesque Victoria Golf Course at Rajawella off Kandy over the weekend.

That versatile golfer Suvaneetha Selvaratnam who arrived from America during the week after a holiday threw aside her weariness to win the Ladies Gross title with a total score of 174 points. She led round 1 with a gross score of 84 and in round 2 she get 90.

Round 2 however belonged to another versatile golfer Niloo Jayatillake who got 86 gross but her score of 91 in round 1 saw her end up with a total score of 177 gross and was pushed into the second place.

In third place was Usha de Silva with a total gross score of 178. The other good scores registered were Manori Jayakoddy 192 gross, Linda Harris 195 gross, Sonia Boyle 197 gross, Margaret Penn 198 gross, Indira Tibblin 200 gross, Frank de Mel 213, Shirani Buffin 218 gross, Lillian Perera 240 gross.

Men's Gross championship

Alain Gyi with a fine score of 165 won the Men's gross title. Alain Gyi who won the Donald Steel Trophy in 2002 won a major trophy at Victoria after quite sometime. He started with a gross score of 84 in the first round and followed up with 81 in round two.

In both rounds he was placed third but consistency saw him marching ahead of others. In round one Ian Tait led with 83, followed by Shamal Perera 84 and Alain Gyi 84 after a count back. In round two Chamil Wickremasinghe led with 80 followed by Nihal Perera 81 and Alain Gyi 81 after a count back. But when the combined scores of the two rounds were taken into reckoning, Alain Gyi finished on top to win the Men's Gross Championship.

Finishing second in this competition was Shamal Perera 169 gross. Ian Tait 169 gross (after a count back), Chamil Wickremasinghe 170 gross, Nihal Perera 174 gross, David Evans 174 (after a count back), Bandula Weerasinghe 177 gross, Steffan Ranson 177 gross (after a count back), Mangala A. Niyarapola 178 gross and Sam Gunaratne 181 gross, Sanjeewa Wickremanayake 183 gross, Sachin de Silva 183 gross, Sunil Jayakoddy 183 gross (last decided on a count back).

Ladies Nett championship

Manori Jayakoddy of Hyundai Motor Company fame came good at Victoria after quite sometime. Manori Jayakoddy travels regularly from Colombo to play Victoria.

Playing to a handicap of 21, she displayed exceptional skills got a total Combined score of 150 Nett.

Manori Jayakoddy did not fare too well in round one getting a score of 81 nett finishing seventh in the race which was led by Usha de Silva with 74 nett.

But in round two Manori Jayakoddy having fine tuned her skills did almost the impossible by registering an excellent score of 69 nett to beat the others who were ahead of her and grabbed the title.

Usha de Silva who led day one with 74 Nett and got 80 Nett on Day two to finish runner up with a Combined score of 154 Nett. In third place was Linda Harris with 155 followed by Niloo Jayatillake 157, Indira Tibblin 158, Suwen Selvaratnam 158 (on a count back), Pauline Morley 162, Shirani Buffin 164, Margaret Penn 164 (on a count back), Frank de Mel 165, Sonia Boyle 165 (on a count back), Lillian Perera 168 and Mrs. Amarasuriya 192.

Shamal Perera playing to a handicap of 14 won the Men's Nett competition with a Combined score of 141 in the two rounds.

In round one Shamal Perera came up with a good performance to get Nett score of 70. In round two he got 71 nett to lead in both the rounds. Veteran golfer Sirath Kasthuriratne was placed second in the Combined scores with a total of 154 playing to a handicap of 16. In third place was Ian Tait with 155 playing to a handicap of 7.

Other good scores were by Alain Gyi 165, Steffan Hanson 157 (on a count back), Nihal Perera 158, Chamil Wickremasinghe 158 (on a count back), Be Lindbert 160, Noel Joseph (on a count back), Sam Gunaratne 161, Bandula Weerasinghe 163, Suren Wass who excelled at the Laximark competition held last month put up a disappointing display to finish 28th in the Combined Nett Competition with a total of 177 playing to a handicap of 13, Mangala Niyarapola too failed to finish 13th with a score of 164.