53rd Royal-Thomian Golf for charity tomorrow

Royal Captain Nimal Piyaratne (left) and S. Thomas’ Captain Tissa Wickramasinghe exchanging the team cards in the presence of Royal Vice Captain Wijitha Perera and competition Custodian Shiran de Soysa

Nearly 120 golfers from Royal College and S. Thomas’ will compete in pairs with the first tee off set to take place today at 6.30 a.m. at the RCGC.

Royal will be captained by Nimal Piyarathne and the Thomians by Tissa Wickramasinghe.

As recorded history has it the very first competition between the old boy’s golfers of the two schools was held in 1970. In line with this, The Fred de Saram Challenge Cup was donated to the Royal Colombo Golf Club (RCGC). This was in his memory and the cup was awarded to the winning team of the two schools. As tradition has it, this event will no doubt bring about much camaraderie and togetherness amongst the golfers of the two schools.

“We conduct this annual event a week prior to the Royal-Thomian cricket encounter, and it’s all about rekindling camaraderie and above all, contributing to the society. We compete in the true spirit of the Royal-Thomian Golfers’ Guild (RTGG) motto – ‘Together We Flourish’,” noted the captains of the two teams – Nimal Piyaratne of Royal and Tissa Wickramasinghe of S. Thomas’. 

The organising committee has already sat in deliberation giving due cognisance to the undeterred commitment made by the RTGG towards raising funds for projects for the needy segment of the society and that too on an all-island basis.

“We are glad to announce that our old boys based in Australia, through the generous support of Morten Cricket Club in Brisbane, have raised nearly Rs. 3.1 million towards the charity project. It may sound like we gather to play gold once a year and have fun, but the truth is the old boys of two schools are keen to contribute to the society through this wonderful sport,” explained Royal Vice Captain Wijitha Perera. The charity project will have Jehaan Ismail as Chairman and ably supported by Manoj Algama, Naveen Samarasekara and Suresh Subramaniam.