Pattaya Mail — Sports

Mascari triumphant in 3rd Classroom Classic

Steve Mascari out-dueled at great turnout of 106 golfers to win the always fun, always eventful 3rd Annual Classroom Charity Golf Classic, this year played on Friday the 13th of February at Green Valley Country Club.

Steve, playing off just a 7 handicap, shot a near perfect round to win the championship with 42 Stableford points. A truly worthy winner.

Keith Watson, playing off just a 9 handicap, also shot a nearly flawless round, carding 39 Stableford points to finish second, three shots off the pace.

Jonas Rosell, playing off his 14 Handicap, finished third with 39 points.

Photo: To the winner go the spoils. 3rd Annual Classroom Charity Golf Classic champion Steve Mascari (center) receives congratulations from Stan Fry of Orchid Trading, both surrounded by some of the best looking women in the world.

Most importantly, the 3rd Annual Classroom Charity Golf Classic raised 45,000 baht for charity, this year designated for the Banglamung Boys Orphanage.

As tournament Chairman Stan Fry put it, "Friday’s Classroom Charity Golf Classic turned out to be a tremendous success in every sense of the word. I’ve had more than twenty calls from well-wishers and no complaints from people who played. The consensus of opinion has been that it was the best competition they had ever played in—which makes it all worthwhile."

The highlight of the golfing day was undoubtedly when Bill Collis achieved a hole-in-one on the 15th. Bill received a special plaque from Green Valley Country Club plus ten free green fees. Bill accordingly later came up trumps in the Classroom by ringing the bell. The Classroom responded by putting on free champagne all night for Bill.

A special mention also goes to Ray Alan. Ray came in last and was given a very special treat on stage in the bar (enough said!) Ray was a great sport and took it on the chin. Organizers did warn before the tournament not to come in last!

Results:

1st: Steve Mascari, 42 points (7 Handicap)
2nd: Keith Watson, 39 pts. (9 Handicap)
3rd: Jonas Rosell, 39 pts. (14 Handicap)
4th: Mauno Pollari, 38 pts. (10 Handicap)
5th: Maria Hasila (Lady), 38 pts. (19 Handicap)
Calloway Winner: Allistair McManus, 81 Net 73 = 35 pts.
Team Winners: Mauno Pollari, Maria Hasila, Pasi Venalainen, Derek McGarvie (best three scores—aggregate.)

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4th: Steen Borregard
7th: Jukka Hyvarinen
11th: Neil Cameron
15th: Bill Collis (Hole-In-One)

Longest Drive: Brent (Big Bertha) Philp (who can now push aside all "Nancy’s" trophies and set one of his own in a prominent place in the trophy cabinet).

Longest Putt: Mauno Pollari

Special thanks to sponsors: Woody (TQ), Steve (Lipstick), Rossano (L’Opera, Bangkok), Peter (Las Vegas), Stan (Orchid Trading), Bob (Palmer’s).

Mike Franklin, Pattaya Sports Club Golf Chairman, kindly handled the presentation, Lucky Draw and the Auction—many thanks Mike. He said after the festivities that both the Pattaya Sports Club Charity Classic and the Classroom Charity Golf Classic have now set a new standard for all others to follow.

Special thanks also to the organizing committee—Steve Ross, Gez Tracey, Mike Phillips, Tony Stevens, Bill Collis, Bill Thompson and Gerry Quinn.

Also a very special thanks to Richard Livingston (professional), the tournament’s on-course controller. Finally, thanks to the 106 competitors who made it all possible. See you all next year!

New fitness center opens

The Mercure Hotel Pattaya Resort announced the opening of their new Mercure Sports Center. Billed as Pattaya’s newest and brightest fully integrated sport, fitness and recreation club, it is situated in and around the tranquil gardens of the Mercure Hotel Resort Pattaya, where one can play, work out and relax with family and friends seven days a week, 365 days a year.

This peaceful retreat far from the hustle and bustle of Pattaya City is serviced by a free shuttle bus transporting guests to this oasis on the Gulf of Siam.

Apart from the world class facilities that the club boasts, professional and friendly staff are on hand to advise how to get the best results from the time spent there.

Professional coaching can be arranged for all the sports (catered for on the site), privately, within a group or even at a corporate rate level.

Personal trainers will be on hand to make sure guests get the most out of their workout or aerobics.

After which, guests may relax beside the pool or soak up the sun on the sun deck and even get pampered by having a massage, a sauna or simply a freshly squeezed juice at the juice and snack bar.

If exercise creates hunger, there is a choice of two restaurants, the poolside bar or even the Fun Pub where one can enjoy a delicious meal. On presentation of a members card receive a 20% discount on food and 10% on beverages.

To help guests enjoy the facilities to the maximum, regular social tennis and squash evenings will be held where people can come along to play tennis and squash and meet new friends.

The facilites offerd at the new sport center include two tennis courts, two world standard squash courts, fully equipped gymnasium with cardio-vascular and free weights area, one on one personal training, aerobics area with regular classes, sauna rooms, massage service, swimming pool, sun deck, professional coaching service for tennis, squash and swimming, personal and complimentary lockers, complimentary towels and toiletries, juice and snack bar, pro-shop, and free shuttle bus service.

Membership packages are designed to cater for most people’s needs, from the single monthly membership to the family membership and even the twelve months corporate membership. If members are in Bangkok from time to time, no need to worry as members will be entitled to use the Mercure Health and Fitness Club at the Mercure Hotel Bangkok.

Junior memberships are also available, although junior members under the age of 15 years will not be permitted to use the Fitness Center. (Note: One month memberships does not entitle the holder to discounts on food and beverage).

The Mercure Sport Center is open daily from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. For more information, please call (038) 702 - 777 ext. 3525.

Slugs slip into split

Looking resplendent in their new uniforms, Doug’s Slugs and Baa’s Beetles split a hotly contested doubleheader at the weekly Pattaya Sports Club softball game on Sunday, February 15.

In the opening game, the Beetles jumped out to an early lead. With two in, two out and the bags full, Billy Blooper smacked a liner to right which produced three RBI and two bloody knees as Billy, unfortunately, slipped and fell only five yards from what surely would have been a grand salami.

The Slugs came back with two in the bottom of the first on hard hitting by M. J. (Coffee) Jim and Kiwi Rick.

The Beetles added two in the third on Alan (Y.B.) Baa’s two run homer to center. The Beetles then put the game away in the fifth on back to back homers by Craig (Top Gun) Lewis and Montreal (Uppa U.S.) Robert.

Gordon (Suspension) Bridges had a solo shot for the Slugs in the fifth, but the Slugs would get squished in this one 11 to 6.

The Slugs may have been wounded but were not yet exterminated, as they found their sticks in the second game. Scoring one in the first, two in the second, and three in the third on hard hitting by Frankie (Open) Wide, Jimmy (The Key) Lockhead, and Courteous Curtis.

The Beetles managed to tie the score in the bottom of the second on back to back homers by Y.B. Baa and Dick (The Trick) Cagg. But in the top of seventh, Big Bear Craig & Cazadero Doug singled in front of Kiwi Rick’s blast to center for a three run homer and an insurmountable lead. The Beetles were banished 12 to 6.

Games are every Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at Pattaya School #7 just past Greenway driving range and Caltex gas station on Sukhumvit Highway. Equipment is provided and refreshments are available. All are welcome.

First Finn to win in PGS

Pasi Venalainen carded 4 natural pars en route to a net 6 under par 66 at Great Lake on Tuesday, February 10th to win the Pattaya Golf Society weekly outing, outplaying yet another large field for the PGS.

Pasi, who has been visiting the driving range with good friend Mauno Pollari, has worked out a few of the "kinks" in his swing of late, with the pay-off being a 2 shot victory in this week’s tournament. The happy Finn gave much credit for his victory to time spent on the range with Mauno.

Pasi’s great showing was also good enough to earn him a runner-up position in the Pattaya Golf Society "Player of the Month" balloting.

Colin Morgan finished second for the second straight week, this time carding a net 4 under par to just miss the top spot by two strokes. Colin’s current run of good golf has put him atop the leader board for PGS "Player of the Month".

George Meigh, perennially at or near the top of the leader board, also played the wind well, taking advantage of a Great Lake course in great condition to card 7 natural pars en route to a net 3 under par 69, good enough for the final podium position.

John Hopkins finished fourth with a net 1 over par 73, putting himself in third place in the PGS "Player of the Month" sweeps.

Roy "Tiger" Mitchell rounded out the top five finishers with a net 2 over par 74.

Alan Thomas earned nearest to the pin honors on hole #5, while Stefan Karlsson got closest to the pin on hole #12.

Thirteen telltale signs you should leave Pattaya

by Barrie Kenyon

1. Your wildest fantasy: to visit the Crocodile Farm again.

2. The person seated next to you at a dinner party is sawing at their wrists with a steak knife.

3. You can distinguish between the Tourist and City Hall police by describing their arm badges to staff in a go go bar.

4. In answer to the question, "What can we do in the daytime?" you tell newcomers to head for Jomtien Beach.

5. You are never seen in public without your mobile phone.

6. You can’t speak Thai but you understand what they are saying.

7. During confession, you hear the priest click on his Game Boy.

8. You claim at police headquarters your longtime Thai companion is your grandson.

9. The most common question you ask is, "Hey, where’s everybody going"?

10. You are an expert on which pharmacies stock the sleeping tablet Sominex.

11. You have written at least twice to the press on the Baht Bus Problem or the Importance Of The Bangkok Pattaya Rail Link.

12. You need a lawyer urgently.

13. You suggest that there should be a pub quiz every night.

PSC Golf next week

The final week of February offers a full programme of events starting with two Stableford competitions on Monday the 23rd at Siam Country Club from the Cafe Kronborg and Laem Chabang from the Green Bottle.

The final two stroke play rounds of the President’s Bowl Eclectic Competition at Pattaya Country Club take place on Tuesday the 24th from Soft Rock Cafe, and Wednesday the 25th from the Hare House, followed by the prize giving and buffet at Pattaya Country Club.

For those not participating in the Eclectic Competition there is a visit to Century Banchang for a Better Ball competition on Wednesday the 25th from the Green Bottle.

The week ends with Stableford at Great Lake from Cafe Kronborg on Thursday the 26th, and finally the Splinter Golf Group Open from the Green Bottle on Friday the 27th at Rayong Green Valley. Sign up early for this at any of the PSC Golf venues.

Also for more details of January fixtures visit the PSC Golf Web site at www.pattayasports.org

The Pattaya yachting scene: racing unabated

by Peter Cummins

The yacht racing action off the Royal Varuna Yacht Club at Pattaya Point so far this year has been intensive, with a number of club races which have featured Koh Larn and various of our neighbouring islands. There is presently a children’s Optimist dinghy training programme being conducted at the Club and this weekend will see the annual Royal Garden Koh Larn Classic take place - a marvellous combination of the Hash House Harriers and the Royal Varuna sailors. The Harriers - and some Harriettes - do an out-station run in the Pattaya-Jomtien area tomorrow.

On Sunday, they board craft of the Royal Varuna Club, sail to Koh Larn, run across the spine of the island and re-join their skippers at the southern end of the island.

All then race home to the finishing line at Royal Varuna, to a sumptuous Royal Garden reception and a typical HHH "apres-hash bash".

Photo: Pattaya's own Julie Bates: Australian Women's Champion and one of Asia's fastest sailors. (Photo Peter Cummins)

The first big event of the year was the "Great Laser Island Race", which is basically a pursuit whereby each skipper, in the single-handed event, leaves Varuna’s Kasetsin Beach-front at 15-second intervals, according to placings in the 1997 Laser National Championships of Thailand.

As one competitor - not noted for winning a lot of races - remarked, "this kind of race gives one a chance to be out there in front, even if only for a few minutes, and then watch as the top sailors sail past and wonder how they do it."

The 1997 sailing, the fifteenth since this very popular race was launched by Pattaya veteran Reg Chambers in 1984, was no exception, as the under-achievers set out to round Koh Larn, glowering over on the west, some nine km away. By a third of the way across, the pattern was already set and the fleet had changed places: the first fifteen away at the start found that they were, by then, the second fifteen.

In a display of fine sailing, Suwan Poopoksakul pressed home his skills - even in the lighter conditions which did not particularly suit his sturdy frame - and crossed well ahead of Rut Subrinan, with Gary Baguley forsaking his Contender, to contend in a Laser, finishing third.

Then followed, in order of finish, a line-up of who’s who in Laser sailing at Royal Varuna: Charlie Zbinden, Reg Chambers, Alex Skaria, Richard Warren and the two Neils - Whitehead and Semple.

For reasons of propriety, the name of the last home, who also happened to be first away, will not be divulged. However, it reminded race officer Dick Van den Heuvel a little of biblical history where it was noted somewhere in the Good Book, that "during that time of tribulation, the last shall be the first and the first shall be the last..." Or something like that!

Actually, it reminded this Pattaya Mail correspondent of his former ‘career’ as a bureaucrat whereby he was famous for being the last to come to the office... and even more famous for being first out the door at quitting time - or, somewhat earlier. But that is another story - nothing to do with yacht racing.

In the minor league that day, the multi-hulls had their own pursuit around Koh Larn. Those ‘Tasmanian Tigers’ - David and Susan Race - made no mistakes, as the Royal Varuna flag commodore David took charge of the event, finishing well clear of Denmark’s finest, Peter Ole Herning’s Nacra 16 Square at the finishing line, as well as administering a sound thrashing to him on handicap. The Great Dane was left with a weak bark and no bite at all.

Photo: Winter Series Champions Murray Maunder/Leonie Duson cruise home. (Photo Peter Cummins)

It was, indeed, a puzzled race officer who watched a Nacra 5.5 doing some very strange maneuvers right on the finishing line, attempting to round a mark which was giving the craft a lot of trouble and which was not part of the course. It was subsequently learned that the Nacra was crewed by two international lawyers who were lodging counter depositions with each other, as to how the race should be finished.

One can only surmise what these worthy gentlemen - like many of their fellow lawyers - could be doing now, such as probing the mysteries of the hallowed corridors of the Pentagon, seeking the inner secrets, rather than messing around on the sea at Pattaya, probing the mysteries of a finishing line!

Winter Series 1998

Local Pattaya resident Murray Maunder, with the lissome Leonie Duson crewing, bolted away with the Multi-hull honours at the just-completed yacht racing Winter Series. Thailand Laser national champion, Patrick Helms, just back to Thailand after some tough racing in Sydney and Melbourne, did likewise to the Mono-hull fleet.

It was called the "Winter Series" and winter seems to be the time in Pattaya between the hot and the hotter seasons. Nevertheless, the Royal Varuna Yacht Club, which judges its seasons by the anemometer and not by the thermometer, decreed that January and February are winter months and held its annual winter series during this period, accordingly.

Even the winds at times were not too sure what season it was, as the persistent south-westerly fought with the north-easterly - the rightful heir to the northern Gulf at this time of the year - for supremacy.

All this was of scant consequence to the Royal Varuna sailors who had a little of everything except rain during the five weekends of the Series, though conditions tended to be somewhat light, with a 15-knot southerly for the last races the exception.

Principal Race Officer Dick Van Den Heuvel made sure that the sailors had a good series, setting fair courses and conducting back-to-back races to keep the sailors where they should be - out there on the sea - and not lurking around the Club bar where some thought they should be!

Murray Maunder and Leonie Duson with two firsts, four seconds and a third placing in the seven races counted of the 10 sailed, easily won the Multi-hull Division, with the Maunder Hobie Cat 16 finishing with 13 penalty points.

Second, on 17 points, was solo sailor Nick Moore’s Nacra 16 Square. The Thai champion Hobie Cat team, Peter and Juliet Bates, made a late bid for the honours after missing the first four races, finishing third on 31 points. A remarkable performance, really, in winning the six races in which they participated, carrying one ‘did-not-contest’ penalty into their total.

Pattaya’s own Peter and Juliet had been down in Queensland contesting the Australian Hobie Cat 16 National Championships, in preparation for the World championships in July/August this year. The Bates finished a brilliant seventh of some 90-plus entries of world-class sailors, while Juliet went on to become the first Pattaya sailor (from the Royal Varuna Club) ever to win the Australian Hobie Cat 16 National Championships Women’s Division. A remarkable feat.

Young Patrick Helms, back on the Varuna trails also after a sailing sojourn down under, immediately proceeded to demolish the Royal Varuna Mono-hull Division, winning six and placing third for his best seven races, to finish on nine points, light years ahead of Shin Suenaga (18), with Laser fleet captain Charlie Zbinden, third, on 23 points.

The only non-Laserite in the huge mono-hull fleet which contended the Winter Series, was, in fact the only Contender - Gary Baguley who finished a dismal 17th, on 143 points. But, when it appeared on the final score-sheet that this young fellow had only ‘contended’ three of the 10 races, it could be fairly said that he was hardly in contention.

Results, Winter Series, Multi-hulls (first nine only). 1. Maunder/Duson (HC-16, 13 points); 2. Moore (N-16 Sq., 17); 3. Bates (HC-16, 31); 4. Gardham (HC-16, 57); 5. Herning (N-16 Sq., 77); 6. Perrier (HC-16, 85); 7. Race (HC-16, 90); 8. Hale (HC-16, 94); 9. Phillips (HC-16, 109).

Mono-hulls (first 10 - all Lasers). 1. Helms (9); 2. Suenaga-san (18); 3. Zbinden (23); 4. Whitehead (28); 5. Chambers (30); 6. Frankel (35); 7. Semple (44); 8. Miagostovich (50); 9. Esposito (64); 10. Helms, Bianca (67).

Copyright © 1998 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
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