Geeth: Batting machine

Dilanka Mannakkara

Virtually unknown to many, he came in to the lime light with some sterling all-round performances for his side Ruhuna in the Provincial four day tournament.

Although the Ruhuna batting order was filled with famous stars, the calibre of Upul Tharanga, Dinesh Chandimal, Indika De Saram and Thilakarathne Sampath it was, Geeth Alwis outshone them with a string of valuable knocks when the Ruhuna side was in trouble.

He was rock steady as an opening batsman and has scored 317 runs in four matches for Ruhuna with one century and two fifties, with an excellent average of over 52, thus easily making him the best batsman of Ruhuna by far.

Beginning

Geeth began his cricketing career at Lalith Athulathmudali Vidyalaya, Dehiwala at the age of 15, under his first coaches Ravindra Weligoda and Sanjaya Devapura. He showed a lot of promise as a left handed batting all rounder and joined Lumbini College to pursue his cricketing dream.

He was batting at number eight in the Lumbini and Coach cum cricketer Ranil Dhammika persuaded Geeth to open the batting.

“Ranil aiya helped me a lot with my technique and I improved a lot in front foot shots and scored five centuries as an opener” said Geeth, still grateful for Ranil Dhammika as it turned out to be one of the turning points of his career.

He joined Colts in 2006 and represented them in the Under 23 tournament before switching in to Saracens.

He didn’t get many opportunities in Colts to play first class cricket as the bench strength was also very strong at that time. “I remember Colts coach Kalu aiyah telling that it’s best for new players like us to join a not so famous club as it gives us more opportunity to play in three day matches.

He also told that after we score big and made a name for us, then we can join one of the highly competitive clubs” said Geeth reasoning out as to why he switched from the prestigious Colts to the upcoming Saracens Club.

Saracens

It turned out to be a fruitful decision for Geeth as Saracens Coach Dinesh Kumarasinghe identified a few flaws in Geeth’s technique and helped him to tighten his defence and play a wide range of shots.

The change in technique worked for Geeth as he responded with a career best knock of 219 against CCC. He was made Vice Captain of the Saracens team who were promoted to the Tier ‘A’ format in 2009.

Geeth scored 700 runs for the season and was among the top five run getters in the Domestic three day tournament. He also scored a fine 119 against his former club Colts and also took 19 wickets for the season.

Playing in England

Following his successful season in 2009, Geeth went to England to play for Getashead Fell Cricket Club, New Castle in the North East Premier League. He scored 650 runs and also took 40 wickets for them. They have already signed him for the 2010 season.

Future dreams

Geeth has improved a lot as a cricketer and hopes to be part of the Sri Lanka Academy in the near future.

He has switched to the champion Chilaw Marians Club for this year and hopes to add stability to the Marians batting line up, which is full of stroke makers.

His favourite players are Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara and former English batsman Marcus Trescothick. “I always loved the way these two played and I hope that I could be a part of Sri Lanka’s test team in the future” said Geeth, smiling.

Mithun the pro

Sri Lanka’s best amateur golfer Mithun Perera has turned a professional golfer recently, runner-up in the Qualifying School for the 2011 Aircel Professional Golf Tour India (PGTI) Season held recently. He was among 39 players from the final qualifying stage to earn full cards.

Mithun who is golf veteran Nandasena Perera’s son has been the most consistent golfer in Sri Lanka and at a very young age has turned out to be one of the most talented players in whole of Asia as well. Mithun was the flag bearer of the Sri Lanka contingent at the recently concluded Asian Games.

He missed the top spot by one stroke when Australia’s Blair Wilson carded a final round par 72. Mithun was ahead of Wilson by 4 strokes going into the third round. However, his 75 to Wilsons 68 was too much of a turnaround to catch up on the final day despite carding a two under which was the best score for the day.

Wilson held his nerve despite a shaky start with a double bogey on the second and a bogey on the ninth which was compensated by bogies on the fifth, 11th and 15th to end the day even par and total 285 to Mithun’s 286.

Rashid Khan of India who was joint leader after round three, faltered badly with a double bogey at the 15th to slip into Third place.

– DM
 

Evan Graham:

Youngest solo pilot to fly five different aircraft

Van Graham celebrated his 16th birthday on August 6 last year by soloing five different aircraft – a vintage WWII L-4 Piper Cub taildrager, a R-22 Robinson helicopter, a Cessna 150 Aerobat, a Robinson 44 Raven II and a 1965 Cessna 150-150 – setting the world record for the Youngest solo pilot to fly five different aircraft.

Of his flight in the piper cub, Evan commented “The L-4 was my favorite, with my instructor out, the upgraded 85 horsepower engine, and myself weighing only 125 pounds, the little cub felt like it had turned into a full grown grizzly bear. Being a vintage WWII war bird, the L-4 has no radio in it, so for once I was truly on my own and it was a relief to be able to fly without the constant noise of instructors and family members giving me opposite directions.”

Contesting with family members in the cockpit has always been a prerogative of flight for Evan.

Evan’s father is an airplane pilot and professional helicopter pilot.

Lucila Arango, Evan’s mother also did her solo flight at age 16 and is a commercial, instrument rated pilot in both airplanes and helicopters.

Samantha Larson:

Youngest person to have climbed the Seven Summits

Samantha Larson, born 1988, is an American mountain climber from Long Beach, California. On May 16, 2007, at the age of 18, she became the youngest non-Nepalese woman to summit Mount Everest.

By reaching the top of Everest, she also became the youngest person to have climbed the Seven Summits (the ‘Bass list’), the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. She and her father, Dr David Larson, became the first father-daughter team to complete the Seven Summits. In August 2007 they climbed the Carstensz Pyramid, thereby also completing the ‘Messner list’ of the Seven Summits.

The Nepalese government said that she was the youngest foreigner ever to reach Everest’s summit, but some climbing Web sites claim a 17-year-old boy from France did it in 1990. A 15-year-old Sherpa girl from Nepal was the youngest ever to climb Everest. Larson began climbing with her father while in the sixth grade at Hughes Middle School. They began the Seven Summits by climbing Mount Kilamanjaro in February 2001, when she was 12.

Larson graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in June 2006, deferring her freshman year at Stanford University for a year to train for the Everest climb.

Larson was nominated for an ESPY Award in 2007 and was on the Dare To Explore chapter on the March 2008 issue of National Geographic Kids. In 2009, she was also featured as one of Venus Zine’s ‘25 under 25’ list for her climbing achievements.

Delilah and the Autumn Elf

Delilah was a very inquisitive child. She always pondered on such peculiar things, that her friends never took her seriously. How the earth managed to stay suspended in mid air, why rainbows always appeared in arcs, were things that made her curious. One day, sometime in autumn, Delilah was gazing out her window, lost in thought, watching leaves swirling in the wind.

“They’re all brown and yellow”, she suddenly thought.

And so she began to wonder why all the leaves change colour during autumn. She went outside, thinking of possible solutions.

Then she jerked her head up, attentively. The wind howled around her but she was certain that she heard a peculiar sound. And then she heard it again, clearer this time. It sounded like a very high pitched squeal. Delilah looked about her. Nothing. Then for some reason, she looked down and was quite taken aback at the sight of a tiny elf scurrying around her feet, tightly clutching on to an equally tiny paint brush.

Delilah crouched down slowly.”Hello?” she tried to speak to it.

The Elf stopped running and gazed up at her.”Oh Delilah”, it squealed back at once. Delilah was surprised the elf knew her name.

“I am in such trouble! Every year I am assigned to paint all the leaves in your garden for the autumn, but this time I over slept and I wont be able to finish it in time!

“Delilah looked up and studied the trees in their garden. Indeed, theirs were still sprightly green.

“Don’t worry little elf. I will help you,” she said in a kind tone. “Do you really mean that? Oh, how gracious of you!,” the elf exclaimed, leaping into the air. It thrust a paint brush at her, which he conjured from the air. “This is a magical paint brush. All you have to do is think of a colour and it will appear,” the elf explained.

Delilah accepted the brush and together, they set off to paint the leaves. “So this is how the leaves change colour during autumn,” Delilah thought as she painted away.

“Elves come and do it!” When the job was finally done, the elf thanked Delilah and gave her the magic brush to keep, as a gift. And ever since, she took it as her responsibility to paint the leaves in her garden, as a favour to the elf.

Shenali Boteju

Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya

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During a test match between Sri Lanka and England, December 2007, swarms of bees flew across the Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy. Experienced umpire Asad Rauf set a good example by lying on the ground. The players followed suit. Play was suspended for while everyone waited it out face down on the pitch.   Send your creative captions for this picture to Daily News, Lake House, No 35, D R Wijewardena Mawatha, Colombo 10 or email to [email protected]