Victoria beat ESPN Sports Network

By S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent at Victoria

Victoria Golf and Country Resort trounced the visiting ESPN Sports Network now in the country to give coverage to the T20 World Cup by the huge margin of 7-1 to win the Victoria Golf and Country Resort Trophy at the inaugural Golf championship played at the award winning Victoria Golf course at Rajawella off Kandy on Friday.

The Victoria golf team included Sri Lanka’s Cricket Captain Mahela Jayawardena who had a good game after having guided Sri Lanka to an exciting win over New Zealand the previous evening. He appeared to be relaxed and enjoyed his golf between the World Cup Super eight cricket matches.

Mahela Jayawardena paired off with former Cheshire Minor County cricketer Ian Tait now domiciled in Sri Lanka and they beat Bob Williams and former England cricketer David Lloyd by the close margin of 5-4.

Tillakaratne Dilshan too was named in the Victoria team but he was not available.

It was an excellent day of golf despite the dryness of the award winning golf course as no rains had been experienced for the past six months. Otherwise the course is lush and green with luxuriant growth of grass and made challenging by the staff using their expertise. The visitors seemed to have enjoyed their golf and they are eager to come back and play and wrest the trophy perhaps next year.

Tony Whitham speaking on behalf of Victoria said that despite losing the ESPN golfers played well especially Simon Doull who came up with a four under par and along with the skipper Gavin Scovell put the ESPN flag flying by winning their game 5-4 against him and Rohan Buultjons. Simon Doull was not only a top cricketer but also an excellent broadcaster and now he has shown his prowess at golf too.

The ESP team which included the legendary cricketer and broadcaster and former England cricket captain Tony Greig was delighted to play in beautiful golf course and praised the facilities available and the hospitality of the staff.

Perhaps one of the best performances of the day was by the pair of Malasena Jayatillake and the only lady golfer of the championship Manori Jayakody who beat the famed cricketing pair of Tony Greig and Ian Bishop – an England. West Indies combination one up. Manori Jayakody a dedicated golfer in the course was like “a rose among the prickles”.

Carl Kelaart of Victoria performed the rare feat of a ‘Hole in one’ in the fourth hole and was only the ninth golfer to perform this after this course was opened for golfers in 1999. Carl Kelaart teamed up with Kandy Sports Club’s rugby coach Johan Taylor to beat Mark Todd and M Andrew 6-5 after quite a tussle, perhaps Kelaart’s hole in one helped the, in their efforts.

Victoria Golf and Country Resort’s General Manager and the skipper of the local team the Australian born Errol Johnston too was among the winners, pairing off with Sujeewa Lankatillake they beat Alan Watkins and Steve on line with the game stretching to 9-7.

The results:

Mahela Jayawardena and Ian Tait (Victoria) beat Bob Williams and David Lloyd (ESPN) 5-4.

Simon Doull and Gavin Scovell (ESPN) beat Tony Whitham and Rohan Buultjens (Victoria) 5-4.

Ms Manori Jayakody and Malasena Jayatillake (Victoria) beat Tony Greig and Ian Bishop (ESPN) one up.

Carl Kelaart and Johan Taylor (Victoria) beat Mark Todd and M Andrew (ESPN) 6-5.

Sirath Kasthuriratne and Amal Silva (Victoria) beat Carl Swain and Jamie Dean (ESPN) 3-2.

Peter Trundley and Charlie Cooke (Victoria) beat Steve Gray and Brad Murray (ESPN) 5-4.

Errol Johnston and Sujeewa Lankathillake (Victoria) beat Alan Watkins Steve Conaline (ESPN) 9-7.

Henry Pitach and Martin Linden (Victoria) beat Steve Hadley and Jonne Hastings (ESPN) one up.