SLPA wins Shakespeare Shield 2010

The corporate sector battled it out for top honours for the prestigious Shakespeare Shield sponsored by the Carson Cumberbatch PLC which concluded in September with the finalist being the Sri Lanka ports Authority represented by Capt Nihal Keppitipola & Mithun Perera and Access Group represented by Sumal and Sharmal Perera.

The competition began in early years of the twentieth century (1911) in honour of W. Shakespeare, a former Chairman of Carsons. The tournament celebrated 99 years this year and the tournament being one of the most prestigious board events in the annual golfing calendar.

Shakespeare Shield is an annual board event at the Royal Colombo Golf Club under the sponsorship of Carson Cumberbatch PLC, only tournament open to members of companies, embassies, government departments and service personnel etc and very popular among the company representatives.

To date the tournament has been open to only men but since of late the committee of the Royal Colombo Golf club has permitted the participation of ladies. The centenary of this tournament to be celebrated next year 2011 with sponsors planning a grand celebration. This year we saw some interesting pairs taking part, Janak Hirdramani & Ranil Pathirana of Hirdramani Group, Mr J.J Ambani and Ivor Mahroof of Metroplitant Group, Kumar Boralessa & Jith Wanigasekera of Ceylon Tea Marketing, Harsha Abeywickrema & Srinath Rajapakse of Defence Ministry, Noel Selvanayagam & Gerad Fernando of Senok Trade Group.

In the 1st semi finals Capt Nihal Keppitipola & Mithun Perea played formidable golf to beat Niloo Jayatilake & Ken Selliah of Carson Cumberbatch PLC on the 17th hole and in the second semi finals Sumal & Sharmal Perera of Access group convincingly beat V. T Sunderlingam Asiri Hospitals on the 14th hole.

The final was a repeat of last years with Sri Lanka Ports Authority playing Access group. Both pairs played excellent golf throughout 18 holes to square the match on the 18th hole prompting match to continue to the 19th & 20th hole. Sri Lanka Ports Authority led by Capt Nihal Keppitipola & Sri Lanka's National player Mithun Perera proved unbeatable winning the match with a par on the last hole to take the shield for the first time.