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Battle of the Lentils at Ridgeways
The Royalists & Thomians have called each other "Parippu" with deep affection and in a great spirit of friendless for almost a century. Now I am told by a heckling Thomian that they have surrendered "Parippu" for "Mung atta" because it has been proven that "Mungatta" is more energy giving, more refined and above all has more body. So with this year the battle of the Blues shall be the Battle of the Lentils. They have decided that while the young use the willow to settle their scores in the 'Battle of the Blues' the older ones will use iron and wood in their Battle of the Lentils. The Ridgeways was the venue last week when 22 pairs on each side locked horns aggressively and ended 11 wins each.

Wins by Royalists not possible to record all the wins on both sides but I will highlight a few of the praiseworthy performances. K. Kumarakulasinghe and Dhevan Peiris brushed past Erath Karunaratne & Suneth Wijesinghe 5 & 4. Sanjay Gunawardena & Sangani had no trouble with Duminda Jayatilleke & S. de Saram 5 & 4 and Rohana Withanachchi & D. Palihena whipped Dallas Martenstyn & Hiran Amerasinghe 6 & 5. Finally the tall guys Hamza Macan Markar and Gehan de Silva stalked Nihal Fernando & David Ponniah and dropped them to 5 & 4.

Wins by Thomians Rohan Fernando & Dian Jayasuriya were quite comfortable against Nirmal Ranasinghe & Suranjan de Silva 4 & 3. Channaka Perera & Radesh Daluwatte took Shivantha de Zoysa & Tahir Gulamhusein to the cleaners. In a titanic struggle for supremacy 4 of our best clashed in which Amrith de Soysa & Arshad Ahamad tamed Rusi Captain & Shehan Ramanayake with a creditable 3 & 2 victory. In the final 4 ball encounter Johnny Attygalle paired with Sunil de Costa to knock sparks off Dhilanka Jinadasa & Siddi Lathiff in a 5 & 4 victory. Attygalle was long and accurate while de Costa was cautious and full of method.

The Thomians recorded 11 wins. A tie with 11 wins each was an excellent result proving that both Lentils are equally effective. The lunchtime session was fast and furious and soon after sunset the jazzed up banquet hall was aglow with the spritely old boys slipping discs on and off the dance floor. Neil Chanmugam expressed the good wishes and greetings of the Thomians and most unfortunately Norman Gunawardena who had to respond on behalf of the Royalists was suppressed by the rousing, roistering and deafening jubilation. High spirits and a rollicking time was had by all in a very special style that only these fellows can produce. They launched a helluva X'mas season.

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