Pattaya Mail - FRIDAY APRIL 19 - APRIL 25, 2019 (Vol. XXVII No. 16)

26th Year

Established in 1993

VOL.XXVII No. 16

Pattaya’s First English Language Newspaper

FRIDAY APRIL 19 - APRIL 25, 2019

30 BAHT

Songkran splashes to a close for another year

PM Prayut’s 2019 Thai New Year message

Prime Minister, Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha.

Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha, has sent a Thai New Year message, wishing all families time together, to share their support and happiness, and bring their love together to strengthen the nation.

Prayut posted his New Year message on his Facebook page, saying Songkran is a time for family members to get together and share their happiness.

“I ask all families to care for one another. Fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and grandparents have to

love and respect one another and show their gratitude. This is part of Thai charm, which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. I would like all Thais to preserve the country’s culture and traditions for all our grandchildren,” the message says.

The Prime Minister has called on Thai people to unite their love to bring about stability, prosperity, and sustainability to the nation, while wishing people safe travel during the Songkran holiday. (NNT)

After 9 days of water throwing fun for many, madness for others, the annual festivities come to a close today and tomorrow. Beach Road will be closed from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. April 19 for the finale of Pattaya’s Songkran celebration, as tens of thousands of people celebrate the Thai New Year. Sidestreets leading to Beach Road will also be closed to traffic. Second Road will be as normal, but likely gridlocked. Police and support volunteers will be stationed around town to keep things from getting too rowdy and lend aid to people in need. (A schedule of events appears on page 3. A wrap up of Songkran festivities from April 12-15 appears on center pages this week.)

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HM the King is concerned about traffic accidents, losses in Songkran holiday His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn expressed his concern about losses happening during the Songkran holiday and the government ordered all agencies to seriously respond to the concern.

Deputy government spokesman Werachon Sukondhapatipak said on Sunday that His Majesty the King expressed his concern on losses during the Songkran travel period to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and advised through the prime minister that government officials, police, soldiers and volunteers do their best to facilitate traffic, guarantee safety and follow the road safety campaigns of many provinces that were free of traffic accidents during the period.

“His Majesty the King emphasized that all provinces actively do whatever they can

His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn expressed his concern about losses happening during the Songkran holiday and the government ordered all agencies to seriously respond to the concern.

to quickly reduce accidents and losses and if they need any support to enhance their efficiency, they can communicate their demand to the government right away,” Lt Gen Werachon said.

The deputy government spokesman quoted the prime minister as saying that it was

the great kindness of His Majesty the King for the advice and all parties would follow it seriously.

The Road Safety Directing Center would take the lead in integrating efforts on road safety in accordance with His Majesty the King’s instruction. (TNA)

Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome (right, reading paperwork) meets with Pattaya and Jomtien’s two main masseuse associations.

Chairwomen of Pattaya and Jomtien’s two main masseuse associations have been reinstalled for another term.

Withp Tuanthong will serve another term as chairwoman of the Thai Traditional Beach Masseuse Club of Pattaya Beach, while Kanyapak Bissalem will serve another

Nongprue officials react to flood complaints Warapun Jaikusol

Beach masseuse chairwomen re-elected

Warapun Jaikusol

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term as chairwoman of the Thai Traditional Beach Masseuse Club of Jomtien Beach.

On April 10, the two women met with Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome and his deputies at the clubs’ official HQ, the Surf Kitchen in Jomtien.

Sonthaya told them their operations could be upgraded and standardized if they were to follow the format used on Bangsaen Beach.

He urged them to continue learning their trade and to retrain members who had stepped away from the job for a length of time. Members should contact officials if they see illegal aliens working on the beaches, and they should volunteer by collecting garbage and maintaining the beautiful environment to promote tourism.

Nongprue Municipality officials plan to build water barriers, dredge canals, and look into other measures to address chronic flooding.

Berkchai Ninpanan, Nongprue’s acting Sanitary Engineering Office director, said Apr 9, coordination with Pattaya City is needed to handle flash floods and slow drainage in the hard hit areas of Eakmongkol 4/ 3 Village, and Na Pakdee Village, Nong Maikan Eua Athorn Village, Soi Marbyailiab 43, and along Pornprapanimit Road at the new cemetery.

He said poor drainage causes floods and adds to the problem by keeping unsanitary flood water inside homes.

Nongprue Municipality officials plan to build water barriers, dredge canals, and look into other measures to address chronic flooding in the area.

Berkchai said the city has built water barriers Nong Maikan Eua Athorn Village, designed to redirect flood water away from residences.

Nongprue Mayor Mai Chaiyanit added that canals and drains need to be dredged and kept clean to facilitate runoff. The municipality will

send teams to clean roads to get rid of soil and sand and dredge drains pipes in anticipation of the next rainstorms.

The mayor said anyone wanting sandbags can contact Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Nongprue Municipality at 038-734-934.

Police blanket Pattaya’s roads for Songkran Boonlua Chatree As Songkran splashes its ways to a close in Thailand, police remain on the streets trying to keep people alive during one of the Kingdom’s deadliest week’s on the roads.

Checks of buses, minivans and other public-transport vehicles are being conducted daily, with drivers being tested for alcohol or drug use.

Checkpoints have been established throughout the area to check for drunk drivers, motorcyclists without helmets and drivers without licenses – all of which contribute to Thailand’s appalling highway fatality rate every year during Songkran.

Police and volunteers are stationed at Sukhumvit Road, at the junctions of Pattaya’s main roads, to support tourists and residents and the traffic.

Prasit Thongthitcharoen,

Checkpoints have been established throughout the area to check for drunk drivers, motorcyclists without helmets and drivers without licenses – all of which contribute to Thailand’s appalling highway fatality rate every year during Songkran.

Chairman Sawang Boriboon Thammasathan Pattaya Foundation Rescue Unit, said the foundation has prepared emergency boats to transport patients in case of accidents at sea.

200 Sawangboriboon Thammasathan officers and volunteers have been deployed at 20 service booths from

Rong Po through the front of Ambassador Hotel. Along this corridor, 6 ambulances, 20 motorcycle ambulances, a rescue tools vehicle and two fire trucks are standing by.

All stations concerned will consist of medical support, volunteers and police at all times so that help can be provided instantly to those in need.

City hall beautifying Pattaya for coronation Jetsada Homklin Decorative lights are being installed on Central Pattaya Road, Beach Road and 3rd Road as part of Pattaya

City’s preparation for the upcoming royal coronation.

The International Fireworks Festival also will return May 24-25 as part of the celebration.

The Chonburi Tourist Attraction Association, chaired by their president, Thitipat Siranatsrikul, met April 9, to discuss these and other upcoming events, including the

2019 Pattaya Travel Mart on May 24, at Ban Sukawadee, and the 2nd painting contest where artists are invited to submit their works under the theme, “attracting Chonburi”, from May 1 to Aug 1. No mention was made about where to submit, but more information might be available by contacting city hall.

Decorative lights are being installed on Central Pattaya Road, Beach Road and 3rd Road as part of Pattaya City’s preparation for the upcoming royal coronation.

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Chonburi prepares sacred water for HM the King’s coronation

Songkran comes to a close for another year Naklua Rice festival tomorrow, April 20

Governor Pakarathorn Thienchai presides over the Chonburi water sanctifying ceremonies for the Ablution and Anointment ceremonies of HM the King Rama X at his coronation scheduled from 4-6 May 2019.

In keeping with ancient traditions every province in the Kingdom of Thailand is required to collect water from the most revered water source in their region, sanctify it at religious ceremonies by the most senior monk of the most sacred temple in the province, and send it to Bangkok for safe keeping until it is applied for the Ablution and Anointment ceremonies of HM the King Rama X at his coronation scheduled from 4-6 May 2019.

Governor Pakarathorn Thienchai and his wife Supaporn Thienchai, president of the Chonburi Red Cross Society, presided over the water sanctifying ceremonies

here in Chonburi on Monday, April 8.

The ceremonies, held in the Wat Khao Bangsai Royal Temple main hall, were attended by government officials, military and police officers, local administration organizations and civil volunteers.

Phra Thep Suttajan (Anan Kalayanawattano), Abbot of the Wat Khao Bangsai Royal Temple, presided over the religious ceremonies.

The Provincial Primate of Chonburi province initiated the rituals at 5pm by lighting sacred candles and calling for the congregation of the gods and all that is holy as 30 Buddhist monks

chanted Holy Scriptures.

The sounding of the gong was accompanied by traditional Thai music performed on ancient musical instruments highlighting the Maharerk songs in praise of HM the King.

The following day the governor led a candle-light procession around the temple in celebration and further sanctification of the water.

On 10 April, Governors of all the provinces in Thailand transported the specially crafted vases containing the sacred water to the Interior Ministry in Bangkok where it is stored awaiting the auspicious day of the coronation ceremonies in May. (CPRD)

City lays out flood prevention plan The city has approved an ambitious plan to solve Pattaya’s chronic flooding - at least for the next ten years.

The project is expected to be completed within the next five to seven years, but first needs central government approval.

The plan calls for digging new drainage canals, installing larger drainpipes, and even creating 5-meter drainage tunnels in some areas.

Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome met April 9 with Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning officials to discuss project advisor, Assoc.

Prof. Chukiat Subpaisan’s model to solve flood problems “as soon as possible”.

In the north, a water drainage project will be built on the east side of the railway to drain water into the Huay Yai and Naklua canals.

The 5-meter water tunnels will begin in three areas, at a watershed above the railway, at the upper area of Nongprue Municipality, and at Khao Talo.

Three major water tunnels also will be installed at Sukhumvit Road, to drain off into South Pattaya; Thepprasit Road, and Pattaya 3rd Road at Mum Aroy Restaurant. The

The city has approved an ambitious plan to solve Pattaya’s chronic flooding - at least for the next ten years. The project is expected to be completed within the next five to seven years.

floodwaters from these tunnels will be directed to natural outlets. The meeting did not reveal what or where these natural outlets are located.

The city will also replace old, 10cm drainpipes with new, 1.50-3.00 meter drainpipes.

The project, to be managed with cooperation from the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, will be undertaken in 3 areas: First, Pattaya Sub-basin area covering 43.78 square kilometers, where Pattaya’s highest-density population resides.

Second, Naklua Canal – Huay Mabprachan Sub-basin area and the Kratinglai sub-basin area covering 118.63 square kilometers.

Pattaya’s medium-density population.

Third, the Huay Yai subbasin area covering 64.06 square kilometers, a lowdensity suburban area made up of rural communities and agricultural.

The plan to dig and install the 5-meter water tunnels has been sent to the Minister of Interior and the Prime Minister, who will need to sign off on it before construction can begin. (PCPR)

Songkran ends this weekend.

After 9 days of water throwing fun for many, madness for others, the annual festivities come to a close today and tomorrow.

Today, April 19, is the final day of Pattaya’s Songkran celebrations. It begins with official ceremonies at Chaimongkol Temple. Alms offerings is set for 7:30 a.m. with the elderly blessing ceremony at 8:30 a.m. and a cultural show kicking off at 9 a.m. featuring dancing and traditional games.

Pattaya’s Songkran parade sets off at noon along Second Road, Central Road and back along Beach Road to Bali Hai Pier before returning to the temple.

Of course, the entire route will be inundated with water as Songkran draws to a close. Pattaya officials reminded revelers that powder and chalk is not permitted, nor are high-power water guns. Water-throwing should stop at 6 p.m.

Tomorrow, April 20, the

Rice Festival in Naklua, with no water throwing, officially brings the mid-April events to a close.

The day begins at noon with sports contests, including Muay Thai boxing, slingshots and oily-post climbing.

The rice ceremony begins at 6 p.m. with a “ghost parade” and country music concerts.

Another rice festival also will be held at Nong Yai Temple at 6:30 p.m. (PCPR)

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Loud motorcyclists fined on Soi Khopai

Three bikers were fined 1,000 baht each for having loud motorcycles in a South Pattaya crackdown.

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Cigarette smugglers nabbed in Chanthaburi

Jetsada Homklin

Boonlua Chatree

Three bikers were fined 1,000 baht each for having loud motorcycles in a South Pattaya crackdown.

Pol. Lt. Col. Saranpong Maithongkulthorn led the team of officers manning the checkpoint in the middle of Soi Khopai April 7.

Two Honda PCXs and a Honda Wave were stopped and inspected, with officers deeming the bikes too loud.

The checkpoint was set up after complaints about loud motorbikes by Khopai Community President Wirat Joyjinda.

Tax authorities seized 32,000 cases of counterfeit cigarettes in Chanthaburi.

Marine Corps officers, police and Excise Office officials nabbed Eakapot Boonked, 29 from Chonburi, and Jittranutch Promjak, 20 of Nakhon Phanom, with the supposedly Thai-made SMS and Red Wonder-brand smokes in the back of their Toyota pickup truck.

Authorities said the copycat cigarettes had been smuggled into the country from Cambodia. Smuggling

Tax authorities seized 32,000 cases of counterfeit cigarettes in Chanthaburi.

typically increases before the Thai New Year.

The case will be prosecuted

and forwarded to the AntiMoney Laundering Office for further investigation.

American extradited to Australia Sticky-fingered transgenders charged with murder of Thai pickpocket drunken Korean

Sydney (AP) - Australian police on Sunday charged a man extradited from the United States with murder in the death of a Thai national, whose body was found bound and gagged on the side of a Sydney road.

Alex Dion, 38, was charged with the 2018 murder of Wachira “Mario” Phetmang after he arrived in Sydney from California under police guard.

The arrest warrant for Dion was issued in September while he already was in custody on a domestic violence charge in San Diego.

Phetmang’s body was discovered by a truck driver last June bound, gagged and wrapped in plastic, covered in a mattress protector. An autopsy of his body found he suffered more than 20 wounds to his head and had multiple skull fractures.

The 33-year-old former cafe and spa worker had been living in Australia for at least the last 10 years, and was a permanent resident at the time of his death. He was last seen alive on May 25 at a petrol station in the Sydney suburb of South Hurstville.

Dion, a U.S. national, is believed to have left Australia on May 27 — more than a week before the body was found and formal identification was made.

When Australian police held a news conference seeking the public’s help in the case, Dion called them and tried to blame an associate for Phetmang’s killing, while also acknowledging that he had Phetmang’s credit cards and cellphones with him in San Diego, according to the search warrant.

Dion told police that he had met Phetmang at the gas station to buy meth but that he left when their associate showed up, a story police say is contradicted by surveillance footage.

Dion was refused bail.

This May 25, 2018 image from surveillance video released by the New South Wales Police Force shows Wachira “Mario” Phetmang, 33, entering a service station in South Hurstville, a suburb of Sydney. Authorities have identified an American suspect in the killing of Phetmang, a Thai national whose battered body was found bound, gagged and wrapped in plastic on the side of a road in a high-profile case in Australia, according to a federal search warrant obtained Tuesday, April 9, 2019. (New South Wales Police via AP)

Boonlua Chatree A Korean tourist was pickpocketed by two Beach Road transgenders who then went on a spending spree with his credit cards.

Hojun Cho, 44, reported to police that, on his inebriated way back to his hotel room after visiting Walking Street, he was accosted by two transgenders who took his wallet containing three credit cards. The thieves escaped on a motorcycle.

Police used CCTV footage to trace the motorcycle as well as store footage where the purchases were made.

Sawarin Sirake, 33, and Onkaew Homdok, 35, were

Sawarin Sirake and Onkaew Homdok have been arrested for credit card theft.

apprehended April 9 at a rental room in South Pattaya.

They had in their possession two credit cards and sales slips for the purchase of

goods and clothes totaling 3,701 and 1,153 baht.

They have been charged with several offences including credit card theft.

Sleepy driver survives car fire on HW7 Boonlua Chatree A sleepy driver survived a car fire April 11 on Highway 7, when onlookers woke him in time to escape.

Narong Yomha, 52, told police he was on his way home from work when he became too tired to drive at half past midnight, so he pulled over to catch a nap.

He was awakened by people pounding on his bronze Chevrolet window, yelling at him to get out.

Firefighters arrived too late to save the car, but no one was hurt.

A sleepy driver survived a car fire on Highway 7 when onlookers woke him in time to escape.

The cause of fire was unknown.

Boy hurt in Plutaluang crash Patcharapol Panrak A 6-year-old boy was hurt in a three-vehicle collision at a Plutaluang intersection where the signal was blinking yellow.

Eakpawin Thongpu suffered a broken leg when trapped in the passengerside seat of his father’s Honda Jazz April 6 at the Kaseampol intersection. He was treated at Queen Sirikit Naval Medical Center.

Poonsuri Thongpu, 38, said he was driving back to Rayong when, while passing

through the junction where lights were blinking yellow in all directions, a Honda City driven by Chanarong Tantiwatnodom 47, smashed into the side of his car.

The City then crashed into a parked van with Sakol Chaingjong, 32, behind the wheel. None of the adults were hurt.

Rescue workers use specialist equipment to extricate 6-year-old Nong Namo whose broken leg was trapped against the door.

VOL. XXVII No. 16

Drunk drivers who cause deaths might be charged with intentional murder The deputy National Police commissioner general has warned that any motorists who drive their vehicles while under the influence of alcohol and cause deaths to others might be charged with murder.

Deputy National Police Commissioner General Pol. Gen. Wirachai Songmetta said the police have launched a nationwide campaign against drunk driving and speeding during Songkran festival.

Drunk or careless motorists will be arrested under the Land Traffic Act, which warrants a one-year term in prison or 5,000 to 20,000 baht in fines.

The deputy National Police commissioner general also warned that motorists should

Deputy National Police Commissioner General Pol. Gen. Wirachai Songmetta.

fasten safety belts while driving and motorcycle riders wear crash helmets. All motorists are strongly suggested to strictly follow the traffic rules.

Wirachai advised that those who are given traffic tickets

to pay fines abide by the law as the police now have data links with the Department of Land Transport, which is responsible for the yearly renewal of automobile licenses.

(NNT)

Ex-immigration chief transferred to civil service The announcement of the removal of Pol Lt Gen Surachet Hakpal from the position of Immigration Bureau Chief has been all over the news and captured the general public’s attention over the past 4-5 days.

In the latest development, the Cabinet has ordered the former Immigration chief be positioned as a civil servant in the Prime Minister’s Office, effective immediately as announced in the Royal Gazette.

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The Gazette’s website released a directive from the National Council for Peace and Order’s chief which says the NCPO has added Surachet’s name to the ‘officials under investigation list’, relieving him of his previous position as Immigration Bureau chief and salary, and transferring him to work as a high ranking executive civil servant and a special advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office.

(NNT)

Pol Lt Gen Surachet Hakpal has been transferred to work as a high ranking executive civil servant and a special advisor to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Thai, United States navies conduct Guardian Sea 2019 The Thai and United States navies jointly conducted the Guardian Sea 2019 naval exercise for naval ships and anti-submarine aircraft.

Rear Admiral Kamchorn Charoenkiat, on board the frigate HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej in Phuket, presided over the exercise which called on the skills of navy officers in mission and planning exercises in the search, detection and containment of hostile submarines.

The Guardian Sea naval exercise has been conducted yearly since 2012 and adapted to suit changing scenarios.

A joint directorate was set up by the Thai and United States navies to command, control and communicate with the exercising units deployed in the Andaman Sea where the depth is suitable

The Thai and United States navies jointly conducted the Guardian Sea 2019 naval exercise for naval ships and anti-submarine aircraft.

for a submarine to hide from detection by surface ships and anti-submarine aircraft.

Opportunities for such naval exercises with the presence of real submarines have

NCPO invokes Article 44 to help digital TV and mobile operators The Chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has invoked Section 44 to help 22 digital TV operators to return their licenses. Operators who have not yet paid the last two concession fee installments will be exempted from paying if they want to quit the business.

Two policemen honored for lifesaving actions

Digital TV operators now have 30 days to return the licenses to the National Broadcasting Telecommunication Commission if they want to leave the business.

Digital TV operators now have 30 days to return the licenses to the National Broadcasting Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) if they want to leave the business. They can also

Police perform CPR on heart attack victim Jaisang Sae-Yang.

Pol. Col. Prawit Chosang (right), Superintendent of Pattaya Police Station, thanks Pol. Snr. Sgt. Maj. Jaturong Kreetawed (2nd left) and Pol. Snr. Sgt. Maj. Srisawad Thiwongsa (left) for their heroics in saving Jaisang’s life.

Boonlua Chatree Two Pattaya police officers have been awarded honor shields for meritorious duty after they performed CPR on a heart attack victim in a gas station bathroom.

Pol. Snr. Sgt. Maj. Jaturong Kreetawed and Pol. Snr. Sgt.

Maj. Srisawad Thiwongsa saved the life of Jaisang SaeYang, 59, whose heart had stopped last week inside a toilet at Bangjak Gas Station on Sukhumvit Road.

Jaisang was taken to Bangkok Hospital Pattaya where he is currently recovering.

Nongprue homes flooded after storm Warapun Jaikusol Homes on Soi Mabyailia 43 were damaged by flooding after a storm hit Nongprue April 7.

One homeowner’s property, dogs and chickens were floating after water rushed downhill into the house, flooding it with water and mud.

The homeowner said he must continually use pumps

to clear the house of storm runoff and wants Nongprue Subdistrict to address the chronic flooding.

Homes on Soi Mabyailia 43, like so many others, were damaged by flooding after a storm hit Nongprue April 7. Residents want Nongprue Subdistrict to address the chronic flooding.

been rare, thus creating enormous interest in the Thai Navy, which will be well-prepared for future coordinated missions with submarines deployed in the area. (NNT)

ask for a refund of the fees already paid.

The NBTC will waive the remaining two tranches of license payments for all digital TV operators, as well as subsidize rental fees for broadcasting networks (MUX) for the remaining years of the digital TV licenses.

The licensees will be eligible to receive compensation from the NBTC, depending on how much of the concession fees they have already paid.

The move also extends the concession fee payment schedule for mobile phone operators from four months to 10 months, which will pave the way for 5G technology in Thailand. (NNT)

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VOL. XXVII No. 16

Northern airborne dust decreases but burning of rice stubble persists

Airborne dust caused by forest fires in the northern region has gradually decreased but the burning of rice stubble has remained at an alarming rate.

Airborne dust caused by forest fires in the northern region has gradually decreased but the burning of rice stubble has remained at an alarming rate, prompting Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda to call on local villagers to stop the practice on their farms.

Prime Minister Prayut Chano-cha said the haze situation

Private hospitals urged to reduce drug prices and medical service fees Of a total of over 300 hospitals asked to provide information about drug prices and medical service fees, only 295 have so far cooperated with authorities and about half of those have been found to be charging higher than allowed and are yet to consider reducing their prices and fees.

Internal Trade Department Director General Wichai Phochanakit said a working group had considered the prices of 3,892 drugs and 868 sets of medical supplies and the fees for medical services for 5,286 patients and notified all 353 private hospitals to provide information about their drug prices and medical service fees.

Only half of the 295 hospitals which have so far cooperated were found to have charged within the prices and fees as fixed by the Food and Drug Administration and

the Comptroller General Department.

The working group will call the hospitals which are flouting the rules and ask them to reduce their prices and legal action will be taken if they fail to cut their costs to patients.

Medium prices and medical service fees will be posted on the website of the Internal Trade Department for consumers to compare.

Bangkok bus fares to increase on April 22 After the postponement of increases early this year in order to promote the use of public transport and reduce pollution from traffic, the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) will finally raise bus fares in Bangkok and deploy new NGV powered buses to serve passengers.

Fares on all types of public bus in Bangkok will increase effective from 22nd April, with the fares on ordinary red and cream colored buses rising to 8 baht per trip from 6.50 baht, and fares on air-conditioned buses colored blue and cream to increase to 12-20 baht based on distance, from the previous fares of between 10-18 baht.

Fares on orange Euro II air conditioned buses and the new NGV buses will be adjusted to 13-25 baht

Fares on all types of public bus in Bangkok will increase effective from 22nd April.

depending on distance from 11-23 baht previously, while blue coloured new generation buses will charge fares increased to 15-25 baht from 11-23 baht previously.

Fares on bus lines operated by private companies will rise by 1 baht per trip on ordinary buses, and 1 baht per travel distance zone on air conditioned buses.

The Minister of Transport Arkhom Termpittayapaisith has announced that 489 new NGV buses will be deployed on city routes; they will be equipped with modern technology such as the E-Ticket system, GPS tracking, and will have Wi-Fi on board, while facilities such as bus stops will also be improved.

(NNT)

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has largely improved after he had sent a note to Laos and Myanmar calling for their help with the cross-border air pollution. He said Thai and Myanmar military and civilian officials have held talks on the issue and he thanked all villagers for their cooperation with the authorities to cope with the problem.

According to Gistda website,

the number of hotspots in several provinces has reduced and none has been found in Lamphun province while airborne dust in the northern region has gradually decreased.

The haze and forest fire command center of Chiang Mai has received 25 air fresheners which will be donated to schools and community-based hospitals in

every district of the province in addition to another 1,000 air fresheners which the province has already prepared. The first batch of 700 will be donated to schools, community-based hospitals, public service units and public health units, with children, elderly persons and those with respiratory problems being the targeted group.

(NNT)

Who will pay for stray dogs?

Dear Sir, First I do like dogs and they are man’s best friend.

However, according to Director-General Dr Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, the disease Control Department (DCD) is warning people to be cautious as between January and March, nearly 80,000 people sustained bites from dogs, and of the victims, 30 percent were younger than 15. This is totally unacceptable even to the most ardent dog lover.

These bites or scratches can easily turn infectious or fatal in this hot humid country. And then there are huge bills to cover medical and or funeral costs. I am a victim of an unprovoked dog attack. My leg is still healing, however, there is nerve damage to my foot.

Although the dog was collared and the care taker was talked to, these were my costs for hospital, medication, dressing over a 6 weeks period. Approx 40,000 baht.

According to the Local Administration Department, there are 10.78 million stray dogs and cats in the country and the Livestock Development Department said it has found 156 rabid dogs in 39 provinces.

These are truly appalling statistics.

Write to the Editor:

E-mail: mailbag@pattayamail.com

Referring to a story in Pattaya Mail Mailbag imploring Pattaya’s Deputy Mayor not to impound dogs. I have to disagree on a few points. People feed the stray dogs. Some even go so far as to drive around in the mornings spreading dried dog food around the streets.

This also attracts pigeons and rats. So blaming the garbage around that feeds the dogs is farfetched. Blaming City Hall for waste management is brave indeed, as they collect every day and many of the dogs seem to rather like the dried food and a friendly pat on the head from the feeder. A solution is to fine the people feeding the soi dogs. They can be found each morning doing the feeding rounds.

The money / resources spent on looking after the dogs with sterilization has not worked given the figures above and statements from the DG. Surely most people would prefer that these resources be directed towards the homeless kids in the slums. The feeding/sterilization/rounding up and releasing (CNVR) of the dogs seems a luxury item that most Thais cannot afford. So isn’t the money better spent on the kids of the future?

If you want the dogs collected in a more cost-effective way then it would be

cheaper to pay Thai people 100 baht for each dog rounded up and given to the City Hall to take to the pound. This would certainly clear the streets and “a job well done” for the dogs “not caught”. With the 100 baht people can donate the money or could feed their own kids from the slums.

The dog pounds are a luxury given Thailand’s status. Like most places around the world the pounds would have a way to deal with the dogs over time. CNVR is not the answer as the dogs if released must be registered and the owners responsible for any injuries or accidents the dogs cause.

You can’t simply return an unregistered dog to occupy a space so another dog won’t “move in”. These dogs can still bite and so who is responsible? Who is going to pay for the registration of the dogs?

Dogs in Jomtien Beach area are mostly sustained by people feeding dried food to them as a daily job.

This should be looked at.

80,000 bites in a few months shows an intelligent person something or not?

If you want a dog then register it! Be responsible!

Regards, Kelvin Bamfield

Note: Letters printed herein in no way reflect the opinions of the editors or writers for Pattaya Mail, but are unsolicited letters from our readers, expressing their own opinions. No anonymous letters or those without genuine addresses are printed, and, whilst we do not object to the use of a nom de plume, preference will be given to those signed.

VOL. XXVII No. 16

FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 7

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Notre Dame’s age, design fueled fire and foiled firefighters Michael R. Sisak & Seth Borenstein New York (AP) — Is there anything firefighters could have done to control the blaze that tore through Paris’ historic Notre Dame Cathedral sooner?

Experts say the combination of a structure that’s more than 850 years old, built with heavy timber construction and soaring open spaces, and lacking sophisticated fire-protection systems led to the quick rise of flames Monday, which jeopardized the entire cathedral before firefighters brought the blaze under control.

“Very often when you’re confronted with something like this, there’s not much you can do,” said Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College.

Firehoses looked overmatched as flames raged across the cathedral’s wooden roof and burned bright orange for hours. The fire toppled a 300-foot (91-meter) spire and launched baseballsized embers into the air.

While the cause remains under investigation, authorities said that the cathedral’s structure — including its landmark rectangular towers — has been saved.

Some of the factors that made Notre Dame a must-see

for visitors to Paris — its age, sweeping size and French Gothic design featuring masonry walls and tree trunk-sized wooden beams — also made it a tinderbox and a difficult place to fight a fire, said U.S. Fire Administrator G. Keith Bryant.

With a building like that, it’s nearly impossible for firefighters to attack a fire from within. Instead, they have to be more defensive “and try to control the fire from the exterior,” said Bryant, a former fire chief in Oklahoma and past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

“When a fire gets that wellinvolved it’s very difficult to put enough water on it to cool it to bring it under control,” Bryant said.

And while there’s a lot of water right next door at the Seine River, getting it to the right place is the problem, he said: “There are just not enough resources in terms of fire apparatus, hoses to get that much water on a fire that’s that large.”

Because of narrower streets, which make it difficult to maneuver large ladder fire trucks, European fire departments don’t tend to have as large of ladders as they do in the United States, Bryant said.

Other landmark houses of worship have taken steps in

Flames and smoke rise as the spire on Notre Dame Cathedral collapses in Paris, Monday, April 15, 2019. Massive plumes of yellow brown filled the air above Notre Dame Cathedral and ash fell on tourists and others around the island that marks the center of Paris. (AP Photo/Diana Ayanna)

recent years to reduce the risk of a fire.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the New York Archbishop who often visited the Notre Dame Cathedral while studying in Europe, saw significance in the fact that the fire

broke out at the beginning of Holy Week, when Christians there and around the world prepare to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Just as the cross didn’t have the last word, neither

— for people of faith in France — will this fire have the last word,” Dolan said.

Notes: - Paris’ deputy mayor says Notre Dame’s organ, among the world’s most famous and biggest, remains intact after a devastating fire at Paris’ main cathedral.

Emmanuel Gregoire told BFMTV Tuesday that a plan to protect Notre Dame’s treasures was rapidly and successfully activated.

The impressive organ dates to the 1730s and was constructed by Francois Thierry.

It boasts an estimated 8,000 pipes.

Gregoire also described “enormous relief” at the salvaging of pieces such as the purported Crown of Christ.

- Funding for the reconstruction of Notre Dame is piling up at a spectacular rate, with two of France’s richest families together quickly pledging 300 million euros.

Businessman FrancoisHenri Pinault and his billionaire father Francois Pinault said they were immediately giving 100 million euros from their company, Artemis, to help finance repairs to the cathedral devastated by fire Monday night.

A statement from FrancoisHenri Pinault said: “This tragedy impacts all French people” and “everyone wants to restore life as quickly as possible to this jewel of our heritage.”

That donation was then trumped by French tycoon Bernard Arnault and his luxury goods group LVMH, which pledged 200 million euros.

LVMH called the cathedral a “symbol of France, its heritage and its unity.”

- A French cultural heritage expert says France no longer has trees big enough to replace ancient wooden beams that burned in the Notre Dame fire.

Bertrand de Feydeau, vice president of preservation group Fondation du Patrimoine, told France Info radio that the wooden roof that went up in flames was built with beams more than 800 years ago from primal forests.

Speaking Tuesday, he said the cathedral’s roof cannot be rebuilt exactly as it was before the fire because “we don’t, at the moment, have trees on our territory of the size that were cut in the 13th century.”

He said the restoration work will have to use new technologies to rebuild the roof.

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VOL. XXVII No. 16

Science fact: Astronomers reveal first image of a black hole Seth Borenstein Washington (AP) - Humanity got its first glimpse last week of the cosmic place of no return: a black hole.

And it’s as hot, as violent and as beautiful as science fiction imagined.

In a breakthrough that thrilled the world of astrophysics and stirred talk of a Nobel Prize, scientists released the first image ever made of a black hole, revealing a fiery doughnut-shaped object in a galaxy 53 million light-years from Earth.

“Science fiction has become science fact,” University of Waterloo theoretical physicist Avery Broderick, one of the leaders of the research team of about 200 scientists from 20 countries, declared as the colorized orange-and-black picture was unveiled.

The image, assembled from data gathered by eight radio telescopes around the world, shows light and gas swirling

around the lip of a supermassive black hole, a monster of the universe whose existence was theorized by Einstein more than a century ago but confirmed only indirectly over the decades.

Supermassive black holes are situated at the center of most galaxies, including ours, and are so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape their gravitational pull. Light gets bent and twisted around by gravity in a bizarre funhouse effect as it gets sucked into the abyss along with superheated gas and dust.

The new image confirmed yet another piece of Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Einstein even predicted the object’s neatly symmetrical shape.

“We have seen what we thought was unseeable. We have seen and taken a picture of a black hole,” announced Sheperd Doeleman of Harvard, leader of the project.

Jessica Dempsey, another co-discoverer and deputy

UK considers direct regulation of social media companies London (AP) - The U.K. has proposed directly regulating social media companies for the first time, with senior executives potentially facing fines if they fail to block damaging content such as terrorist propaganda or images of child abuse.

The regulations proposed Monday would create a statutory “duty of care” for social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to

protect young people who use their sites. The rules would be overseen by an independent regulator funded by a levy on internet companies.

Media Secretary Jeremy Wright says: “Voluntary actions from industry to tackle online harms have not been applied consistently or gone far enough.”

The proposed regulations were released for public comment on Monday.

This image released Wednesday, April 10, 2019, by Event Horizon Telescope shows a black hole.

Scientists revealed the first image ever made of a black hole after assembling data gathered by a network of radio telescopes around the world.

(Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration/Maunakea Observatories via AP)

director of the East Asian Observatory in Hawaii, said the fiery circle reminded her of the flaming Eye of Sauron from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Three years ago, scientists using an extraordinarily sensitive observing system heard the sound of two much smaller black holes merging to create a gravitational wave, as Einstein predicted. The new image, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and announced around the world, adds light to that sound.

Outside scientists suggested the achievement could be worthy of a Nobel, just like the gravitational wave discovery.

“I think it looks very convincing,” said Andrea Ghez, director of the UCLA Galactic Center Group, who wasn’t part of the discovery team.

The picture was made with equipment that detects wavelengths invisible to the human eye, so astronomers added color to convey the ferocious heat of the gas and dust, glowing at a temperature of perhaps millions of degrees. But

if a person were to somehow get close to this black hole, it might not look quite like that, astronomers said.

The black hole is about 6 billion times the mass of our sun and is in a galaxy called M87. Its “event horizon” the precipice, or point of no return where light and matter get sucked inexorably into the hole - is as big as our entire solar system.

Black holes are the “most extreme environment in the known universe,” Broderick said, a violent, churning place of “gravity run amok.” Unlike smaller black holes, which come from collapsed stars, supermassive black holes are mysterious in origin.

Despite decades of study, there are a few holdouts who deny black holes exist, and this work shows that they do, said Boston University astronomer professor Alan Marscher, a co-discoverer.

The project cost $50 million to $60 million, with $28 million of that coming from the National Science Foundation. The same team has gathered even more data on a black hole in the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, but scientists said the object is so jumpy they don’t have a good picture yet.

Myth says a black hole would rip a person apart, but scientists said that because of the particular forces exerted by an object as big as the one in M87, someone could fall into it and not be torn to pieces. But the person would never be heard from or seen again.

Black holes are “like the walls of a prison. Once you cross it, you will never be able to get out and you will never be able to communicate,” said astronomer Avi Loeb, who is director of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard but was not involved in the discovery.

The telescope data was gathered two years ago, over four days when the weather had to be just right all around the world. Completing the image was an enormous undertaking, involving an international team of scientists, supercomputers and hundreds of terabytes of data.

When scientists initially put all that data into the first picture, what they saw looked so much like what they expected they didn’t believe it at first.

“We’ve been hunting this for a long time,” Dempsey said. “We’ve been getting closer and closer with better technology.”

Japan spacecraft drops explosive on asteroid to make crater Mari Yamaguchi Tokyo (AP) - Japan’s space agency said an explosive dropped from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system.

Last Friday’s mission was the riskiest for Hayabusa2 because it had to immediately move away so it wouldn’t get hit by flying shards from the blast.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Hayabusa2 dropped a small explosive box which sent a copper ball the size of a baseball slamming into the asteroid, and that data confirmed the spacecraft had safely evacuated and remained intact. JAXA later confirmed the impact from images transmitted from a camera left behind by the spacecraft which showed the impactor being released and fine particles later spraying dozens of meters out from a spot on the asteroid.

“The mission was a success,” JAXA project manager Yuichi Tsuda said, beaming.

This Feb. 22, 2019, file image released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the shadow, center above, of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft after its successful touchdown on the asteroid Ryugu.

(JAXA via AP, File)

“It is highly likely to have made a crater.”

JAXA plans to send Hayabusa2, which was moved to the other side of the asteroid, back to the site after dust and debris settle for observations and to collect samples of material from the new crater that was unexposed to the sun or space

rays. Scientists hope the samples will help them understand the history of the solar system, since asteroids are left over material from its formation.

No such samples have been recovered. In a 2005 “deep impact” mission to a comet, NASA observed fragments after blasting

the surface but did not collect them.

Last month, JAXA announced that a group of scientists participating in the Hayabusa2 mission had detected hydroxyl-bearing minerals on the asteroid by analyzing near-infrared spectrometer readings by the spacecraft. It said that could help explain where the Earth’s water came from. The results were published in the online edition of Science magazine.

“So far, Hayabusa2 has done everything as planned, and we are delighted,” mission leader Makoto Yoshikawa said earlier Friday. “But we still have more missions to achieve and it’s too early for us to celebrate.”

Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a small level area on the boulderstrewn asteroid in February, when it also collected some surface dust and small debris. The craft is scheduled to leave the asteroid at the end of 2019 and bring the surface fragments and underground samples back to Earth in late 2020.

The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) from Earth.

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Hooked on hookworm “Worms” are everywhere. Probably the commonest infestation of mankind. All children go through harboring worms at some stage, but usually the tiny thread worms.

Of course, when you talk about ‘worms’, most people only think of children’s threadworms for which the answer is always “a good worming”. Yes, we’ve all been down to the chemist shop and bought a packet of ‘worming’ tablets.

However, you should not imagine that ‘worms’ stops there. I can assure you that there are far more dangerous wrigglers in the community. And the sandy beaches are the habitat for some of them.

My friends laugh at me when they see me walking along the beach. Instead of letting the cool sand squish between my toes, I wear closed shoes. Does this mean I am a pedantic pedestrian? Or a member of a weird anti-sandal sect? Fortunately it is neither. I am just a trifle afraid of Ancylostoma duodenale. And so should you!

Ancylostoma duodenale is one of the two hookworms that can get their hooks into you (and me if I let them). The other is called Necator americanus. These little chaps are roundworms between 7 to 13 mm long and are far from rare. Approximately one-quarter of the world’s population is infected with Hookworm.

So how do you get infected? Easy, the hookworm eggs are passed in feces (or poop if you prefer) and infection results when you come in contact with the eggs from the

contaminated soil. The larvae enter through the skin and travel to the lungs through the blood. They get to the lungs through the bronchi and trachea and are then swallowed.

As the larvae pass into the digestive tract, they attach themselves to the wall of the small intestine. Here they mature into adult worms, mate and feed on the blood of the host.

And adult hookworms may live up to ten years. A not so Happy Birthday!

Unfortunately many hookworm infestations do not produce symptoms. However, there may be local irritation of the skin where the worm penetrated or even an itchy rash.

While going through the lungs, there may be asthma-like symptoms or even pneumonia. The most common symptoms of Hookworm infection, however, are from their taking up residence in the intestine. Hookworm here can lead to abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, loss of appetite and excessive gas.

With long-standing infections, the intestine’s owner may become anemic as the worms feed on the individual’s blood.

This in turn leads to the usual anemic symptoms including pale complexion, tiredness and weakness.

Diagnosis is done by looking for hookworm eggs in the stool (by using a microscope). Blood tests will show the amount of blood loss and can be used as a pointer towards the seriousness of the infestation.

Fortunately, hookworm is treatable, generally with the drug mebendazole. This drug cures more than 99 percent of all

FDA takes up decades-long debate over breast implant safety Matthew Perrone Washington (AP) - U.S. health officials are taking another look at the safety of breast implants, the latest review in a decades-long debate.

At a two-day meeting that started Monday, a panel of experts for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration heard from researchers, plastic surgeons and implant makers, as well as from women who believe their ailments were caused by the implants.

The panel will consider next steps, but for now, the FDA isn’t proposing any new restrictions or warnings. The agency’s longstanding position is that implants are essentially safe as long as women understand they can have complications, including scarring, pain, swelling and implant rupture.

But the FDA and other regulators around the world have been grappling with how to manage a recently confirmed link to a rare cancer and the thousands of unconfirmed complaints of other health problems.

In documents released before the meeting, FDA regulators said it is “impossible” for them to determine how frequently the cancer - a form of lymphoma - occurs because the U.S. does not track the total number of implants on the market. Estimates of the frequency of the disease range from 1 in 3,000 women to 1 in 30,000.

Most confirmed cases of the disease, known as breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, have involved a particular style of implants with a textured surface, designed to reduce scar tissue and slippage. But the FDA said it has also received reports of the disease in smooth implants - which account for most of the U.S. market - raising questions about whether the cancer is a risk with both implant types.

The disease is not breast cancer, but a form of cancer that attacks the immune system and usually forms in the scar tissue surrounding implants. It

grows slowly and can usually be successfully treated by surgically removing the implants.

Thousands of women have also blamed their implants for a host of ailments, including rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue and muscle pain. In the documents, the FDA reiterated its position that “there is not sufficient evidence” linking them to breast implants.

The agency also sidestepped requests from patients to add a boxed warning the agency’s most serious type - to breast implants and to require manufacturers to give women a checklist of potential harms and complications before surgery.

This Dec. 11, 2006 file photo shows a silicone gel breast implant in Irving, Texas. U.S. health officials are taking another look at the safety of breast implants, the latest review in a decades-long debate. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam, File)

“I’m a little discouraged,” said Jamee Cook, one of more than 20 patients set to speak at the meeting, after reviewing the FDA materials. “But I guess I’m hoping that what we have to say will prompt discussion on those action points.”

A former paramedic, Cook said she had an array of health problems after getting implants in 1998, including exhaustion, migraines and an immune system disorder. She said her symptoms either resolved or improved after the implants were removed in 2015.

Breast augmentation is the most popular form of cosmetic surgery in

the U.S., with roughly 300,000 women undergoing the procedure each year.

Another 100,000 women receive implants for breast reconstruction after cancer surgery. Most women choose silicone gel-filled implants, which are considered more natural looking than saline implants.

Implants first went on sale in the mid1960s. But they attracted little attention until the late 1980s, when a wave of lawsuits alleged serious harms and diseases linked to the devices. The FDA banned the silicone gel type in 1992 because of fears they might cause breast cancer, lupus and other disorders. But when studies seemed to rule out most of the disease concern, regulators returned the implants to the market in 2006 with the requirement that manufacturers track recipients to see how they fare long term.

Implant makers Allergan and Mentor - which is now part of Johnson & Johnson - enrolled nearly 100,000 women in a 10-year study. But more than half of the women dropped out within three years, leaving insufficient data to draw firm safety conclusions.

Last September, researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center analyzed the company reports and found that women with silicone implants seemed to have greater rates of an immune system disorder called Sjogren syndrome, a connective tissue disorder called scleroderma and the skin cancer melanoma. But the authors acknowledged the limitations of the data, which often relied on incomplete, undiagnosed patient reports. FDA regulators said they “respectfully disagree” with the conclusions.

Last week, the FDA sent warning letters to Mentor and a smaller implant maker, Sientra, for failing to enroll or retain enough patients in their longterm studies. Allergan and the other U.S. manufacturer of breast implants - Ideal Implant - did not receive warnings.

cases of hookworm if given twice per day for three days.

It kills both the worms and the eggs, but is contraindicated during pregnancy (your pregnancy, not its pregnancy!). If anemia has become a problem, then iron supplements can be given as well. Once treated, the symptoms settle quickly in a few weeks at most.

So what can you do to avoid hookworms? Well since hookworm infection comes from non-hygienic practices and fecal contact in the soil, my shoes sound like a great idea, don’t you think? Never mind the problems with hypodermic needles found in the sand in many countries these days!

Hookworm infections should be dealt quickly and stringently. Known symptomatic infections should be treated rapidly and treatment given to asymptomatic family members or neighbors. Strict attention to cleanliness and sanitary practices is needed when a hookworm infection is detected to prevent its spread. This means hygienic disposal of human waste, limiting skin contact with soil and even water, where there is untreated sewage.

Hookworm can be a very serious illness so it is essential to be aware of any change in one’s health status. Any difficulty breathing, rapid heartbeat, chest or abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, blood with coughing, asthma-like symptoms, skin rashes, abdominal swelling or bloating, lightheadedness or weight loss should be brought to your doctor’s attention.

Me? I’ll just keep wearing shoes!

Doctors, insurers learn about heart disease at BHP lecture Jetsada Homklin Doctors and insurers learned about the third-leading cause of death among Thais at a Bangkok Hospital Pattaya seminar on cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Chirapan Chawantanpipat, intervention cardiologist at BHP’s Heart Center, was the lead speaker at the April 5 lecture co-organized by Thai Life Insurance Public Co. Chirapan said coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease kill more people than any cause except cancer and road accidents.

There are more about

Dr. Chirapan Chawantanpipat, intervention cardiologist at BHP’s Heart Center.

21,700 CVD patients a year and 54 a day on average die of it, he said.

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Odds and Ends The Associated Press

Candy company exec who mass-produced Peeps gets his own day Bethlehem, Pa. (AP) - With prime Peeps season about to get underway, the Pennsylvania city where they’re “born” is honoring the man who brought marshmallow chicks to the masses. The (Allentown) Morning Call reports that Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez proclaimed Friday as “Bob Born Day” in a ceremony at company offices. Born, now 94, joined his father’s candy business in 1946 and figured out a way to automate production of Peeps, which had been made by hand. Today, Just Born produces about 5.5 million Peeps per day. The city’s proclamation says Peeps are “an iconic symbol of Easter.” Just Born CEO Ross Born, Bob Born’s son, says “we are thankful for his many years of service to Just Born.”

(AP Photo Matt Rourke, File)

California shoplifter stuffs chain saw down his pants Fresno, Calif. (AP) - A California business owner says store surveillance video recorded a man stealing a small chain saw by stuffing it down his pants. Jeff Bennett of RG Equipment tells the Fresno Bee his security camera caught the theft Wednesday afternoon. The video shows the man take the chain saw from a display, stuff the blade down his pants and cover the engine assembly with his jacket. Bennett says the man drove off in a pickup truck. He believes an accomplice was watching the store last week.

In Sweden, naked policeman arrests fugitive in sauna Copenhagen, Denmark (AP) - There’s no escape from the long arm of the law in Sweden. Not even sitting naked in a sauna. Police spokeswoman Carina Skagerlind says an off-duty police officer found himself sitting in the same sauna in Rinkeby, a Stockholm suburb, as a fugitive who had dodged a jail sentence for aggravated assault, among other offenses. Skagerlind says after recognizing each other, “the naked police officer calmly told the man that he should consider himself arrested.” She said Tuesday the officer called colleagues to pick up the fugitive, adding “the arrest was undramatic and the wanted man didn’t try to flee.” The officer was praised for the March 29 arrest and police warned fugitives on Facebook: “We are everywhere. Even if you do not see us, we are there.”

Crossword No 1342

sponsored by

Massic Travel

Across 1 Pig’s foot (7) 5 Pilfer (5) 8 Pool (5) 9 Pungent condiment (7) 10 Ideas (7) 11 Secret agents (5) 12 Beer and lemonade mixture (6) 14 Trapped (6) 18 Substantial (5) 20 Beseech (7) 22 Excuse (7) 23 Frown angrily (5) 24 Ceremonies (5) 25 Convent (7)

Down 1 Cash receipts (7) 2 Music for eight performers (5) 3 Gland in the neck (7) 4 Negligent (6) 5 Goes without food (5) 6 Foremost (7) 7 Mythological abode of the dead (3) 13 Illness (7) 15 Skilled worker (7) 16 Wholly (7) 17 Defeated (6) 18 Wonderful (5) 19 Sediment (5) 21 Wear away (5)

Last week’s answer Across: 1 Thrush, 4 Enigma, 8 Cover, 9 Ganders, 10 Likened, 11 Lunar, 12 Depressed, 17 Under, 19 Scholar, 21 Dubious, 22 Lemon, 23 Nutmeg, 24 Retard.

Down: 1 Tackle, 2 Revoked, 3 Siren, 5 Nonplus, 6 Glean, 7 Absurd, 9 Goddesses, 13 Purpose, 14 Dilemma, 15 Burden, 16 Ironed, 18 Debut, 20 Halve.

Ten-Minute Sudoku An easy Sudoku puzzle that should not take long to complete.

The rules of Sudoku are simple. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Each row must contain one of each digit. So must each column and each 3x3 box.

Answer next week.

Last week’s answers:

No. 245

English-speaking men can face arrest for antics in Poland Warsaw, Poland (AP) - Police in southern Poland say they are investigating four English-speaking tourists spotted last week in the historic city of Krakow wearing only mankinis. The four men were caught on CCTV and by an Associated Press photographer Friday as they walked in the picturesque Renaissance Market Square and got into a horse cab. They were wearing lime green mankinis, as worn

by Borat, the fictional Kazakh alter ego of comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen. Krakow province police spokesman Sebastian Glen said Thursday police are investigating the “indecent antics.” If convicted, the men could face up to 30 days in custody or fines of 5,000 zlotys ($1,300) each. Glen said that foreign tourists, especially British ones, who come for stag parties sometimes cause disturbance in the historic city, especially after drinking alcohol.

Answers next week.

(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

VOL. XXVII No. 16

VOL. XXVII No. 16

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FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019

11

11 Digital Tips for SLR’s I was asked to put together a small “instruction” sheet for new DSLR users, and so here it is. While the compact point and shooter is a great way to get into photography (or even the smart phone), there are limitations with the basic cameras, especially if you wish to improve above the “Auto” mode type of photography. “A” mode stands for “average”.

1. Begin with the Rule of Thirds. In this, you position the main subject one third in from either side of the frame and one third up from the bottom, or down from the top.

Putting the main subject slapbang in the middle produces a very boring photograph.

Look at commercial photographs and you will see the rule of thirds being used everywhere (even TV).

2. Digital cameras have become very smart at counteracting camera shake, but there is a limit. Last week I saw the latest in photo-technology. A hand held mini camera which has the smarts to counteract camera shake.

You can follow moving objects, or move the camera around yourself and the end result is still a sharp photo or video. You don’t even have to use two hands to hold the camera. It is expensive as it is new, but the tech is here.

3. Most digitals have an inbuilt light meter, but if not, the Sunny 16 rule will help you. In bright sunshine, choose an aperture of f/16 and 1/100th of a second at ISO 100. You will end up with a sharp image that is neither under or over exposed.

4. Use a Polarizing filter. This filter helps reduce reflections

Dear Hillary, My Thai GF cannot cook western food, and will not even try these days. Thai food OK, she just runs across the street to the wheelbarrow that cooks all the smelly North Eastern food which I won’t let in the house. It’s even worse than Durian, which is banned just about everywhere. All I can do is go down the pub, because they sell British food.

I might have a few pints since I’m down there, and the girl starts complaining when I get home that I smell of beer.

Seems like I can’t win either way.

Brummy Bob Dear Brummy Bob, You are right in the fact that right now you are in a loselose situation. If you put up with it any longer, you must be a Brummy Woose. Come on man, stop wallowing in self pity, even cook yourself a toasted ham sandwich. Go down the pub and take as long as you like. If she won’t look after you the way Thai women look after their partners, kick her out, with the ban on Pra Ra (the smelly stuff), extend that to becoming a ban on her coming into the house.

There’s no earthly way you should put up with it. There’s plenty of girls in Pattaya who would love to help you with bed and English breakfast, Petal.

Dear Hillary, You keep on reminding your readers that you like French fizzwater, vintage of course. I would send you a bottle of Bolly if that is possible, but it isn’t. Like lots of your readers, we live off-shore and who could we trust to get a large

from water as well as metal and glass; it improves the colors of the sky and foliage, and it will protect your lens too.

5. Learn to control ‘depth’.

When photographing landscapes it really helps to create a sense of depth. Use a wide-angle lens for a panoramic view and a small aperture of f/16 or smaller to keep the foreground and background sharp. Placing an object or person in the foreground helps give a sense of scale and emphasizes the depth of field to infinity. You may need a tripod as a small aperture usually requires a slower shutter speed (or the new expensive technology).

6. Note the background and keep it simple. If possible, choose a plain background – neutral colors and simple patterns. This is vital in a shot where the subject is placed off center.

Remember WYSIWYG.

7. Avoid flash indoors. Flash can look harsh and unnatural like a rabbit in the headlights.

To avoid using flash, push the ISO up – usually ISO 800 to 1600 will make a big difference for the shutter speed you can choose. Use the widest aperture possible – this way more light will reach the sensor and you will have a nice blurred background.

8. Become familiar with ISO ratings. The ISO setting

bottle through customs? Even if we found a way to get it through and on to your desk, somebody would nick it before you had your hand on the cork. With AI being all the rage, you will just have to imagine the bubbles on your tongue. Sorry.

Bill Dear Bill, If you ever get to Thailand, you would be called “Bin” or even “Check Bin”, which has nothing to do with Baltic countries. In the meantime I will imagine those bubbles, as you say, and hope that one day you will find a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Grande Dame looking for a home.

The door’s open, Bin my Petal.

Dear Hillary, I’m in trouble again. Met this crazy bird who had me eating out of her hand within 10 minutes. Sparkling, sensational, super and sexy. I took her home and read all of the above. Had to miss the next two nights as I was sent to Chiang Mai for work, but when I came back from up north, she didn’t want to know me. Didn’t want a lady drink, nothing. It was as if I never existed and the sexy night we had before never happened. What am I supposed to do now?

Jimmy Dear Jimmy, What do you want for your 16th birthday, Petal? You have a long way to go yet in the battleground called “women”.

You fell for a professional lady of the night, who was doing her job, and very well too, it would seem. But just by bobbing up again like a rabbit from a gopher hole, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, doesn’t change the way she acts. Go to a better bar, and grow up. Or rather, grow up first and

determines how sensitive your camera is to light and also how fine the details of your image. When it is dark push the ISO up to a higher number, say anything from 400 – 3200 as this will make the camera more sensitive to light and then you can avoid blurring. On sunny days choose ISO 100 as there is more light to work with.

9. Pan to show motion.

Choose a shutter speed

around two steps slower than usual, so 1/30th is a good average. Lock the focus and follow the action and shoot. This gives a sharp subject and a blurred background. You will need to practice this many times.

10. Experiment with shutter speed. Don’t be afraid to play with the shutter speed to create some interesting effects. When taking a night time shot, use a tripod and try shooting with the shutter speed set at 4 seconds.

You will see that the movement of the object is captured along with some light trails. If you choose a faster shutter speed of say 1/250th of a second, the trails will not be as long or bright; instead you will freeze the action.

11. Every weekend get out there and take pictures.

Keep a notebook recording details such as f stop and shutter speed, so you can see how you got a particular effect and do it again.

then go to a bar. And, by the way, I think you are telling porky pies.

I have been transferred to Thailand by my company for the next two years. I am a native English speaker, and so far I find the Thai language very difficult, to almost wellnigh impossible. What is the best way to learn the lingo? I see there are quite a few “language schools”, but I get the feeling they are just out to rip me off with their high fees. I want to converse with my lady friend a little better. Some suggestions please.

Len Dear Len the linguist, I can’t recommend one language school above the others, as I haven’t needed to go to one myself. The larger ones are fairly reputable I am told, Petal. The best way, I am told, is ‘immersion’ where you go somewhere where nobody speaks your language and you have to learn Thai, just the same as a small child picks up Thai. Three year olds have a good command of the language, after all. This might be difficult for you if you are employed down here, so you might have to sign up for lessons. There is another method, called ‘pillow talk’ where your lady friend teaches you, but again, I am not offering!

Dear Hillary, My GF wants me to take her to a S/T hotel. I don’t want to look stupid, but what is this S/T hotel?

Newbie Dear Newbie, You really are a newbie. S/T stands for Short Time, and if you don’t know what that is, write in again next week.

12 FRIDAYAPRIL 19, 2019

PATTAYA MAIL

VOL. XXVII No. 16

Art exhibition celebrates students’ work

IGCSE Drama students also took part in the evening.

Mark Beales Photos by Ritche Guisona An international school near Pattaya has held its first-ever Visual Arts Exhibition and Recital Evening.

The evening was a combination of all the hard work the IB Diploma Visual Arts students from Garden International School (GIS) had been working on over the past two years. This ended with an

Admiring some of the artwork.

exhibition of all their artwork along with some fantastic performances from talented Year 11 Music and Drama students, who performed pieces from their IGCSE coursework to a packed hall.

The IB Diploma is the world’s top pre-university course and GIS is the mostexperienced IB school in the region. GIS is based in Ban Chang, near Pattaya.

One of the IB Visual Arts’ students discusses her work.

City announces art contest for kids

An IB Diploma student explains her ideas.

Low-income families to start receiving new newborn allowance from July Thailand’s Department of Children and Youth, or DYC, is training officials to enroll eligible families in the government’s newly extended newborn allowance campaign, expecting to start paying out allowances from July.

The Department’s Director General, Somkid Somsri, revealed that the department is currently finalizing detailed plans for the campaign, which has recently been adjusted to cover more children in accordance with the Cabinet’s resolution of 26 March 2019.

The adjusted allowance will provide 60 baht monthly to eligible low-income families for their children from birth until 6 years old, which has been extended from the previous scheme which only granted allowances to children from birth until 3 years old. The maximum per family allowance cap has also been raised to 100,000 baht per child per family to comply with the existing

welfare campaign for low income earners.

Families currently benefiting from the previous allowance program, with children born between 2016 and 2019, will automatically continue to receive the allowance until the children reach 6 years old, while families with children born on or after 1 October 2015 who have not yet enrolled in the program, can enroll to start receiving monthly allowances from the date of enrollment until the children reach 6 years old, but cannot retrospectively claim for any allowances

before the registration.

Children born in 2019 to eligible families will receive monthly allowances from birth until 6 years old. However, any family which fails to enroll within the 2019 fiscal year will only start receiving their allowances after the date of enrollment.

The DCY is arranging training for local officials from the 9th to the 26th of April 2019 to prepare for a seamless enrollment processes and troubleshooting. It is expected eligible families can start enrolling from May, with the first payments being made in July this year. (NNT)

Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh and honored guests announced the contest at city hall.

Jetsada Homklin Pattaya City, in conjunction with North Pattaya’s Parody Art Museum and the Child Protection and Development Center’s Ban Eu Aree, is holding an art contest for students.

The purse for the “Parody Creates Arts for Neo Pattaya” contest, being billed as the first of its kind in the east, includes scholarships and prizes totaling 300,000 baht and a chance for field study in Seoul, South Korea.

The contest is divided into

four levels: Junior primary (Grade 1-3), Primary (Grade 46), Junior secretary (Grade 7-9), and High school (Grade 10-12).

Also sponsoring the event are the Pattaya Culture Council, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Pattaya Independent Artists Group, and the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association.

Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh announced the contest April 10 at city hall, emphasizing the project aims to promote children to have stage presence, promote their creativity, and teach them

to use their leisure time wisely to keep away from drugs.

Contestants will be given the opportunity to learn arts via workshops held by professional artists at the Parody Art Museum.

Schools interested in joining the project can send their application to Parody Art Museum, North Pattaya Road opposite Pattaya City Hall from April 10 to June 30, 2019.

For more information, contact Pattaya’s Public Relations and Special Activities at 0841246611 or 081 3357533, or FB: Parody art & selfie studio.

Pattaya City is hosting the “Parody Creates Arts for Neo Pattaya” contest offering scholarships and prizes totaling 300,000 baht and a chance for field study in Seoul, South Korea.

VOL. XXVII No. 16

Lithuanian man flies alone on commercial plane to Italy

Chonburi to select entrant for Miss Grand Thailand beauty pageant

Chonburi will select its representative to the Miss Grand Thailand beauty pageant April 25 at Terminal 21 Pattaya.

Chonburi will select its representative to the Miss Grand Thailand beauty pageant April 25 at Terminal 21 Pattaya.

Nanyapat Kotchasan, director of the Miss Grand Chonburi 2019 pageant, announced the schedule and details for the contest

FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 13

PATTAYA MAIL

Vilnius, Lithuania (AP) A Lithuanian man flying to Italy got a pleasant surprise when he boarded the plane: He was the only passenger on the Boeing 737-800.

Skirmantas Strimaitis, who was flying from capital Vilnius to the northern Italian city of Bergamo for a skiing holiday March 16, had the whole plane - which can usually sit up to 188 people - to himself. The only others

onboard were two pilots and five crew members. The Novaturas travel agency said it had chartered the plane to fly a group home from Italy, and to avoid flying empty, one-way tickets were sold. Only one person bought one. Strimaitis told The Associated Press Tuesday the flight, which lasted more than two hours, was “a once in the lifetime experience.”

April 6 at the North Pattaya shopping mail.

The pageant is being organized to honor and publicize Chonburi’s traditions and culture and drive tourism, she said.

The winner will go on to the nationwide Miss Grand Thailand pageant later this year.

(PCPR)

(Skirmantas Strimaitis via AP)

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Aranyaprathet - Poi Pet rail line to reopen after 54 years

Thailand’s Minister of Transport, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, and his team of ministerial executives.

Thailand’s Ministry of Transport is set to reopen services on the Aranyaprathet Poi Pet railway connecting Thailand’s and Cambodia’s rail networks.

Thailand’s Minister of Transport, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, led a team of ministerial executives to follow up on the construction and facilities management at Ban Khlong Luek Border Crossing Temporary Railway Station in the Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo, and checked the tracks in preparation for the reopening of the railway on 22 April 2019.

Services on the Aranyaprathet - Poi Pet railway have been suspended since 1965. The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has reno-

vated the line by improving its structural integrity, changing railway sleepers, rails, braces, junctions and replacing the ballast.

The SRT is now negotiating the contract for a service operator between Thailand and Cambodia. The deal is expected to be signed soon in a ceremony at which a diesel locomotive will be delivered as a token of good relations between the two countries.

The reopening of the Aranyaprathet - Poi Pet railway will help improve the convenience and speed of both passenger and cargo transport between Thailand and Cambodia, enhancing ties in the ASEAN community and promoting tourism between both sides. (NNT)

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14 FRIDAYAPRIL 19, 2019

PATTAYA MAIL

VOL. XXVII No. 16

Good vibrations

The Yamaha YV2700G Vibraphone.

Mention the word “vibraphone” to any jazz enthusiast and Lionel Hampton’s name will inevitably jump into the conversation. And not surprisingly, because he was one of the finest jazz vibraphone players of all time, along with Milt Jackson and the lesser-known Red Norvo.

Lionel Leo Hampton was born on 20th April 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky and spent his early childhood in Alabama. Following a move to Wisconsin, the young Lionel took his first drum lessons from an unlikely teacher - a Dominican sister at the Holy Rosary Academy near Chicago. By the age of twenty, Lionel had moved to California and was playing drums professionally. Apparently, one of his showstopping antics was to twirl

and juggle several pairs of drumsticks without losing the beat. In 1930, Hampton began experimenting with the vibraphone, an instrument which had been invented only a couple of years earlier.

Although Hampton wasn’t the first jazz musician to play the vibraphone, he was probably the first to develop an amazing dexterity on the instrument. He was a virtuoso player and was perhaps at his brilliant best on the famous Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet recordings of the 1930s.

If you’re not familiar with the vibraphone, you’ll probably be surprised at the sheer size of the thing. It has a range of three or four octaves and the sound is produced by aluminium bars

arranged in two rows corresponding to the “black and white” notes of the piano keyboard. The player uses mallets made from a rubber core covered in yarn. Players use either two or four mallets, but some music demands the use of four. A vibraphone bar can “ring” for several seconds after it’s been struck, so under the bars there’s a damping mechanism controlled by a foot pedal. This consists of a felt pad that presses on the bars from underneath, causing them to rise momentarily.

The main visual feature of the vibraphone is the set of resonator tubes which are fitted under each bar. But the main acoustic feature of the vibraphone is rarely visible.

It’s an electric motor that drives small rotating discs located at the top of each resonator tube. They produce a kind of vibrato effect which of course gives the instrument its name. The increasing popularity of the vibraphone in the 1930s and 1940s encouraged some classical composers to use it. The first was Alban Berg, who used it prominently in his 1937 opera Lulu.

Nathan Daughtrey (b. 1975): Vibraphone Concerto.

Omar Tiznado (vib), Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa cond. Martin Lebel (Duration: 16:26; Video: 1080p HD) Dr Nathan Daughtrey lives in North Carolina and he’s a professional percussionist, music educator and prolific composer with publications for percussion ensemble, concert band, orchestra and chamber ensembles.

This concerto dates from 2010 and was originally written for vibraphone and piano.

There are two movements, entitled El Canto de la Noche (Night’s Song) and La Luz Encantada (Enchanted Light). The music was inspired by the poetry of the Chilean writer Pablo Neruda hence the Spanish titles. The first movement according to the composer, gives a musical impression of a starry night gradually becoming dark and rainy while the second movement is bright and sparking, with dance-like rhythms. It also

provides a virtuosic workout for the soloist. It’s immensely attractive and approachable music and soloist Omar Tiznado gives a thrilling performance.

Emmanuel Séjourné (b. 1961): Double Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Orchestra. Luis Osca (mar), Josep Furió (vib), Orquesta de València cond. Carlos Garcés (Duration: 28:47; Video: 720p HD) The individualistic music of Emmanuel Séjourné (SAY-zhoorNAY) was heard in Pattaya last week in the annual concert given by the SSMS Orchestra.

Séjourné has composed several concertos for various percussion instruments.

This work dates from 2012 and it gives the opportunity to hear the combined

sounds of the vibraphone and the rather larger marimba, a type of mellowsounding xylophone. The first movement has a driving sense of rhythm, interspersed with more lyrical sections. The second movement is a song-like duet for the soloists accompanied by beautifully-written music for strings. It gradually turns into an elegant waltz.

The third movement opens with an insistent ostinato on the marimba and basses, punctuated with vibraphone chords. It leads into a pleasing dance-like section which drives the work to a heroic conclusion.

Incidentally, as an unexpected encore, the soloists give a virtuosic and entertaining performance of a well-known piece

by Rimsky-Korsakov, popularly known in the music business as “The Bum of the Flightle Bee”.

To watch these YouTube videos, either use your Smartphone to read the QR codes or go to this article online, click on the “live” links and go direct to the videos.

If you have a laptop, sound quality can be improved significantly by using headphones or external speakers.

‘Island of Sea Women’ pits friendship versus tragedy John Rogers Ten years ago, Lisa See was sitting in a doctor’s office leafing through magazines when she came across a brief article about a place she’d never known existed — the Island of Jeju — where the breadwinners were once a hearty band of women who eked out modest livings free-diving into the Pacific Ocean for seafood while husbands stayed home and raised children.

It was a discovery that has led to one of the most compelling — and heartstring-tugging — tales to spring from the mind of the best-selling author of “The Tea Girl From Hummingbird Lane” and nearly a dozen other novels.

Like many of the Chinese American author’s earlier books, it is set in Asia with ties to the United States, although the location this time is Korea, not China.

And like See’s “Shanghai Girls” and “Dreams of Joy,” the story takes readers on a journey spanning generations — in this case 1938 to 2008 — as moments of cherished friendship, unspeakable tragedy and, in the end, a plot twist worthy of Raymond Chandler unfold.

Early on, readers are introduced to Mi-ja and Young-sook, precocious, 7-year-old best friends despite island elders’ misgivings that Mi-ja’s father was a collaborator with the hated Japanese, who controlled the island from 1910 until the end of World War II.

The pair grow up to become “haenyeo” — Jeju’s real-life elite women divers who hone their skills over years to match an innate ability to hold their breaths longer than just about anybody as they deep dive repeatedly into frigid water to grab fish.

Out of the water, the pair grow up to happily compete for everything from husbands to bearing children.

That is until Jeju’s historic 4.3 Uprising, a real-life event (taking its name from the 1948 starting date of April 3) that is arguably one of modern history’s least-known massacres.

It resulted in the deaths of some 30,000 people in 1948-49 as South Korea violently put down a rebellion over what government would control the island’s future.

Mi Ja and Young-sook become innocents caught up in the slaughter. Their friendship, strained by war, death and competing family ties, breaks apart as they struggle on against the island’s real-life historical backdrop.

By 2008, Young-sook is an old woman but still a diver. Indeed, she’s become part of a dwindling group of haenyeo in their 70s and 80s now revered as national treasures on an island that has become both a tourist attraction and a World Heritage Site.

As such she is a bit of a celebrity, much to her annoyance and her general dislike of tourists.

That’s until a day a tourist family from the United States — one that somehow seems strangely familiar — arrives to reveal things she never knew about herself, her family or her best friend. (AP)

VOL. XXVII No. 16

PATTAYA MAIL

FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 15

The old and the new Colin Kaye The SSMS Orchestra (it stands for Silpakorn Summer Music School) exists as a result of Silpakorn University’s summer music residential course, which is held every year at the Siam Commercial Bank premises near the beach at Bang Saray. Advanced instrumental players of different ages and backgrounds come together to study and rehearse a programme of classical music under a team of experienced tutors.

The course culminates in two concerts, the first at Tiffany’s Show Theatre in Pattaya (this year held April 6) and the second at Siam Commercial Bank’s Mahisorn Hall in Bangkok. As usual, the concert was conducted by Hikotaro Yazaki, an internationally-recognized Japanese musician who has presided over many an orchestra in both Asia and Europe.

The concert opened with a performance of Gounod’s rarely heard Petite Symphonie.

We don’t hear much of his music these days, except his often-played Ave Maria based on a keyboard work

by Bach. He was one of the most respected French composers of the nineteenth century and the symphony is unusual in that it is written for a chamber-sized wind ensemble. Dating from 1885, it was one of his later works but could have come from another age, and it must have sounded quite old-fashioned at its first performance in Paris.

Even so, it is delightful music with an undeniable French accent, attractive melodies and bright simple harmonies.

It was given a competent performance by the young musicians. The flute solo in the second movement was especially expressive and the last movement included some attractive oboe playing.

Emmanuel Sejourne is a French percussionist and prolific composer, who was born in Limoges in 1961. His music is rhythmic, romantic, energetic and inspired by both the Western classical tradition and by popular culture. He has written several concertos for percussion instruments and his attractive concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra has been performed over four hundred times since its composition in 2005. At the SSMS concert, the work was played by the brilliant young Thai percussionist Wasupon Tarntira. He studied at Rangsit University and also in the Netherlands and Austria. He is currently studying for his Master of Music degree in Belgium. He is a superb player and I was impressed by his innate sense of rhythm, his dynamic control and his sheer sense of musicianship.

The marimba is a type of large xylophone with wooden bars and large resonators underneath. It is a chromatic instrument with two rows of bars and has a much wider range and richer tone quality than a conventional xylophone. Sejourne’s two-movement concerto opens with atmospheric sustained strings leading to a declamatory flourish from marimba. The solo part contains a great deal of pianistic style writing, requiring the use of four beaters – two in each hand. Needless to say, this requires a great deal of dexterity on the part of the performer, a task which Wasupon performed with confidence and technical agility.

The dance-like second movement is technically demanding and seemed to have Spanish and South American flavours, especially the extended section in which the strings repeat an insistent rumba rhythm to support partly improvisatory passages by the marimba. It was a remarkable virtuosic performance

Marimba player Wasupon Tarntira rehearses at Tiffany’s Show Theatre. (Photo/Peter Tresize)

which the audience clearly appreciated.

The longest work on the programme was Beethoven’s Symphony No 3 in E flat, usually known by its nickname, The Eroica. It’s a significant work because while the structure is rooted in the classical style, Beethoven pushed to the limits in terms of expression, length and content. It marked the start of a new period in Beethoven’s writing and more importantly marked a new approach to composing.

The title page shows the handwritten title “Sinfonia Grande” and Beethoven started sketching out ideas for it in 1803. They were daring ideas too, often casting aside many musical conventions of the time. At its first performance in April 1805, the work must have been a cultural shock to the conservative Viennese audience. The symphony received a mixed reception. A Viennese newspaper review questioned its artistic value and referred to “strange modulations and violent transitions and …abundant scratching in the bass” and that “the endless duration ... exhausts even connoisseurs”.

Beethoven evidently didn’t find the applause in Vienna particularly encouraging but he would have enjoyed the performance at Pattaya, because many members of the audience applauded enthusiastically after every movement. Conductor Hikotaro Yazaki confidently steered the orchestra through this difficult work which makes many demands on individual

Iron Maiden singer made honorary citizen of Bosnia’s capital Bosnia-Herzegovina will survive,” said Skaka.

April 6 is Sarajevo Day, which marks the city’s 1945 liberation during World War II and the start in 1992 of the Bosnian Serb siege that killed more than 11,000 people, including 1,600 children.

Dickinson, who also walked through the city center greeting people and signing Bruce Dickinson poses for cameras with his honorary citizen certificate at the city hall in Sarajevo, BosniaHerzegovina, Saturday, April 6. (AP Photo/Eldar Emric)

Eldar Emric Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia’s capital city has made Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson an honorary citizen for a concert he performed while Sarajevo was under siege during the 1992-95 war.

Mayor Abdulah Skaka presented the award earlier this

month at a ceremony in Sarajevo City Hall, which was badly damaged during the long Bosnian Serb siege of the city and since restored.

“The arrival of Mr. Dickinson in Sarajevo in 1994 was one of those moments that made us in Sarajevo realize that we will survive, that the city of Sarajevo will survive, that

autographs, said that “it’s a great honor to be given the honorary citizenship of Sarajevo.”

“In a world where things only last for about five seconds on social media ... people are still remembering it. That’s really quite something,” he told The Associated Press. “This is a brilliant day, a lovely day and it’s great to be back.”

Hikotaro Yazaki conducts the SSMS Orchestra during the concert in Pattaya. (Photo/Peter Tresize)

players, especially in the woodwind section.

Tiffany’s Show Theatre is an excellent venue, especially since its recent refurbishment, but the auditorium is not designed for classical music concerts. The dry acoustic is rather unforgiving and clearly reveals any errors that would normally pass unnoticed. The Beethoven symphony

kicked off in great style yet the performance of the third movement was probably the most successful, with sprightly rhythmic playing from the strings and confident well-judged playing from the timpani. The last movement is a set of variations and it was well served by the young musicians who brought the symphony to a lively conclusion.

16 FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019

PATTAYA MAIL

VOL. XXVII No. 16

Songkran in Pattay

Pattaya Journalist Association President Samart Thongrod pours water on the hands of Wat Utokkebseemaram Abbot Pra Chonlayanmunee.

Gerd K. Steeb sits with 9 company executives as hotel executives and staff dressed in traditional clothing poured water over their hands at Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort Pattaya.

People receive blessings from monks aboard floats in the relics parade.

Staff reporters

Praichit Jetapai, President of the YWCA Association Bangkok-Pattaya and club members pour water onto the hands of Anan Kingsorn, President of Channel 3 Journalist Association of Eastern Region and Peter Malhotra, President of Pattaya Sport Club and MD of Pattaya Mail.

Children at the Child Protection and Development Center – Ban Euaree pour water onto seniors’ hands and receive blessings according to Thai culture.

At Avani Pattaya, staff dressed in traditional clothing dance to the beat of drums and invite all guests to take part in Songkran activities.

Beach Road at the end of Sois 7 & 8 is always a hive of activity during the Songkran water wars.

CPDC Children perform the water pouring ceremony onto the hands of Sopin Thappajug, MD of Diana Group.

CPDC Children receive blessing from Wat Utokkebseemaram Abbot Pra Chonlayanmunee.

If you come any closer I’ll shoot.

Songkran - fun for the whole family.

Songkran officially ends in Pattaya when the sun sets on April 19, but leading up to the finale, the streets turn to water war zones and traffic descends into gridlock.

There is, however, a gentler side to Songkran that takes place in the middle of all the water throwing madness.

It began on April 13, the beginning of the official Thai New Year, with traditional reverence as people made their way to temples for meditation and meritmaking and watched as the Sanctuary of Truth’s annual relics parade wound its way through the city.

The nine relics came from the Busabok Stupa, which stands in the Sanctuary of Truth’s central hall. Taken once a year from the high perch where they were placed in April 2009 by the late Supreme Patriarch, they are put on flower-laden floats every April 13 and carried to six stops in Banglamung District.

The procession began at 7 a.m., stopping at Chonglom Temple, Nong Ket Yai Temple, the Pattaya Floating Market, Walking Street, the Beach-Central roads intersection, and Crystal Palace Hotel, before heading back to the Naklua sanctuary.

At each stop people – many dressed in traditional Thai clothing – were given the chance to pour holy water on the relics and make donations.

In Sattahip, Rear Adm. Wara Tankham, Commander of the Air and Coastal Defense Command, led alms giving on April 10 to start Songkran celebrations.

Military and government officers and their families then presented dried foods to 10 monks, followed by bathing rites for their Buddha image and seniors, and the release of 15,000 fish.

Nong Plalai’s mayor and 10 senior sub-district government officials started Songkran celebrations with the traditional method of bathing the Buddha. They followed this by pouring water onto the hands of respected senior citizens.

Formalities finished, it’s time for fun water splashing at the Child Protection and Development Center – Ban Euaree.

Water guns in all shapes and sizes are always in demand this time of year.

VOL. XXVII No. 16

FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 17

PATTAYA MAIL

ya, the gentler side

The Sanctuary of Truth relics parade makes its way down Beach Road.

After giving speeches, Nong Plalai Mayor Pinyo Homklin and his officers were seated in auspicious order and had water poured on their hands by their constituents who asked for their blessing.

At Diana Garden Resort, Managing Director Spin Thappajug invited the Pattaya Journalist Association, Tem-Jai Club, YWCA Association Bangkok-Pattaya, AP International Group (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Por-U-Por-Kindergarden, Ban Ma Yim, and Pattaya Isan Club to take part in Songkran festivities at the Jaktheppiman Conference Center with religious rites presided over by Wat Utokkebseemaram Abbot Pra Chonlayanmunee.

Banglamung District Chief Amnart Charoensri led local politicians and the general public the bathing Buddha tires and water pouring on the elderly.

Much fun was the theme of the day at the Child Protection and Development Center, but first HHNFT Director Radchada Chomjinda taught the children how to bathe the Buddha then pour water on teachers and elderly hands before allowing the kids to run outside and splash away to their hearts’ content.

GM Denis Thouvard began festivities in the morning of April 13 by leading staff and hotel guests at the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort Pattaya in offering alms to 9 monks from Wat Sawangfahpruktaram.

Later in the day, Gerd K. Steeb, retired president, and director & advisor of Centara Hotels & Resorts led the Buddha bathing rites at the hotel, and later sat with 9 company executives as hotel executives and staff dressed in traditional clothing poured water over their hands.

Revelers stop to watch as the Sanctuary of Truth’s annual relics parade winds its way through the city.

Young saffron robed monks walk in the Sanctuary of Truth’s annual relics parade.

At Avani Pattaya, GM Somsak Tanruengsri sent out staff dressed in traditional clothing to dance to the beat of drums and invite all guests to take part in Songkran activities.

Once all the religious duties were observed, it was back to “Modern Songkran” which basically translates to getting drunk and silly with all manner of water guns.

People, mostly foreigners, started as early as 8 a.m., but bargirls joined in as the beer bars opened in the afternoon.

Throughout the 9-day Songkran celebration, police and soldiers kept security tight with police manning checkpoints across the area and

stopping vehicles to check for helmet and seat belt use, licenses and registration, and to check drivers for alcohol use and engines for faults.

Pink elephants on parade.

Future stars dress in traditional attire on Beach Road.

Every bar stays open to take part in the modern Songkran festivities.

Beer bars are always the highlight of wild fun and excitement for many tourists during Songkran.

Once all the religious duties were observed, it was back to “Modern Songkran” which basically translates to getting drunk and silly with all manner of water guns.

18 FRIDAYAPRIL 19, 2019

PATTAYA MAIL

VOL. XXVII No. 16

GRACE confronts the scourge of human trafficking

Although the Pattaya City Expat Club meeting last Sunday began lightheartedly with two delightful dance song presentations by Thai children aged 4 to 13, this belied the most serious nature of the presentation to follow.

Our guest speakers Jon and Angie Sullivan spoke passionately about the horrors of human trafficking and what their organization, GRACE (Global Relief Association for Crises and Emergencies), is trying to do about it. Jon has a PhD in Counselling and has discovered that once a person is trafficked, the horror of that experience will forever mar their thinking and subsequently the direction of their lives.

So the organisation focuses primarily on the principle of prevention as the most important tool in fighting this dread activity. Fighting traffickers directly is dangerous and often nonproductive; whilst subsequent rescue of victims has also proven to be a disappointing strategy. But if you

Highest fives all round.

Jon, Angie and the choir.

can save potential victims from the vulnerabilities that lead to trafficking, then you will indeed save them.

Thus the mission statement of the GRACE organization is to ‘foster social change’ through two significant means: by strengthening families; and by eradicating the vulnerabilities that are exploited by traffickers.

Trafficking comes in many forms, including child abduction, forced prostitution (emphasis here on forced), forced labor and marriage, baby selling, organ theft and child begging on the street.

Poverty and ignorance are fertile growing grounds for all these exploitations.

To offset these vulnerabilities, GRACE provides safe havens where children can live in a protected and encouraging environment, getting proper nourishment and receiving (sometimes for the first time in their life) vital medical care including important dental work.

They offer the children sponsorships, with after school and day camp programs. They

They implore others to get involved and they offer many ways to do so. For about $100 a month one can sponsor a child — that will cover all a child needs to succeed. Become a Friend by pledging a monthly or single donation. Become an Ambassador by returning to your home country and encouraging donations from sympathetic businesses or individuals. Volunteers are always welcome for a variety of tasks that need attention at a Family Resource Centre.

Lest you think that this battle is not at hand, during the question session two situations were described that would make your skin crawl and get your dander up.

The local fishing boats (whose lights are seen dotting the bay and the evening Pattaya horizons) may employ cheap foreign labor but when it comes time to pay these undocumented workers, to save money they are often just thrown overboard.

Who would know or care?

Even worse are seemingly

Jon Sullivan.

also run Family Resource Centres (now in Pattaya and Korat but many others are planned for Thailand) where children get loving care, learn English and build dreams for a real future.

The program is working. In the three years that Jon and Angie have been living in

Thailand and working in this program, the children have seen improved educational scores, greater English acquisition and, most importantly, many who otherwise might be looking at bleak times can now begin dreaming about real possibilities for a bright future.

legitimate businesses doing the same things: on a recent prison visit, an aid worker discovered whole families of Cambodians languishing in crowded cells. When asked how they got there, the men replied that they had worked on the Terminal 21 project until it was finished but instead of getting the pay they were promised, immigration was called and these ‘illegal’ workers taken off to prison.

That dear friends is human trafficking, clever but horrid — it makes my blood boil. Thank you Jon and Angie for bringing this cancer to our attention and for the work you are doing to combat it!

Thank you Jon and Angie for bringing this cancer to our attention and for the work you are doing to combat it! GRACE can be reached via the website: www.globalreliefassociation .com or by email to jon@ globalreliefassociation.com or angie@globalreliefas sociation.com. Their phone number is 097-021-5095.

VOL. XXVII No. 16

PATTAYA MAIL

Articles For Sale/Rent

Please - Any unwanted items you have would be appreciated. (Eng) Rev Stephen 086 600 5682, (Thai) 0875 381 586

As611/01-52/ Pattaya Mail Cartoonist Michael Baird (M.J.B.) has 3 brand new cartoon E-Books out. These and his other 10 cartoon EBooks can be bought from www.amazon.co.uk. You will now be able to see all of Mike’s cartoons in FULL COLOUR. His 3 new Kindle E-Books are “Pattaya Cartoon Memories”, “Ladyboy Book 3” and “Pattaya Unforgettable Memories”. These cartoons are for grown-ups and would be unique gifts.

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Businesses for Sale or Rent

Articles/Services Wanted Aw01/01-52/ Missionary in Rayong sponsoring Little Duck Nursery needs help.

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Notices No02/11-20/ Pattaya Panthers Rugby Club is looking to recruit new players. All ages and abilities welcome to come to training nights every Thursday at Horseshoe Point in east Pattaya from 7pm – 8.30pm. For more information, go to Pattaya Panthers page on Facebook.

No01/11-20/ Looking for a game of snooker with a retired ex-professional UK snooker player? Tel. Mike on 089 152 3202

Pets Pets03/01-52/ Homeless puppies available for adoption to warm and caring

FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 19

homes! All puppies are healthy, vaccinated and acclimated to people. If you are looking for a friend for life, just call 088 402 6772 or e-mail to karin@carefordogs.org.

Pets02/01-52/ **Free Cats and Kittens** We are still trying to find loving homes for over 40 cats and kittens.

Please check the pictures on our website or ring Sandra.

Call 085 287 5004 http:/ cats4youinpattaya.webs.com

Property for Rent Houses, Villas Prb03/16-20/ House/condo in Bang-sare. Tel. 0890475604 Prb02/14-18/ Bungalow for Rent, one Bedroom, 2 Baths, living dinning pantry area unfurnished, in Soi Nernplubwan, Mabyailia 17 off Sukhumvit 53. 10 minutes from Pattaya Beach. Rent:

Pattaya Emergency Numbers Pattaya Call Center ................................ 1337 Police Station .......................................... 191 - Pattaya ................................................... 038 424 186 - Banglamung ......................................... 038 221 800-1 Highway Police ....................................... 038 392 001 Fire Brigade ............................................. 199 Pat. Int. Hopsital ..................................... 038 428 374-5 Bkk-Pat Hospital ..................................... 038 259 911 TAT Central Office: Region 3 Pattaya . 038 428 750 Tourist Police ......................................... 038 429 371, 1155 . .................................................................. 038 410 044 (FAX)

20 FRIDAYAPRIL 19, 2019

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6,500 baht/month. More detail: 081-653-1950, E- mail: juanitareed@hotmail.com or Line ID: 081-653-1950 Prb01/09-22/ TOWNHOUSE, Off Soi Khaotalo, Like new, quiet, safe, two bedroom, one bathroom, patio, carport, Thai kitchen, air-conditioned, FULLY FURNUSHED, Guarded Subdivision, Communal Pool, One Year Lease Minimum, B9,500. Monthly, B19,000. Security Deposit.

English, 087-805-5276

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check on our website www. royalparkjomtien.com to see why we are number 1 in Jomtien

Property for Sale Houses, Villas Psb04/16-20/ House/condo in Bang-sare. Tel. 0890475604 Psb03/14-52/ New reformed City Villa in the heart of Pattaya; close to 3rd Road/ LK Hotel; walking distance to Soi Bokhao; 120sqm living space; land approx.

150sqm; 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, kitchen; fully furnished; 2 new Flat TVs; 3 aircons; big storeroom; garden, carport & parking; NO THROUGH ROAD- very quite; 3,950,000 THB (284) GO PROPERTY THAILAND; 093- 161 5995; www.gopropertythailand.com Psb02/14-52/ Luxury Pool Villa in Soi Siam Country Club, close to Mabprachan Reservoir, well maintained, fully furnished, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 1 living room + dining area, air-condition, living space 320 sqm, land size 500 sqm, European kitchen, Thai kitchen, washing machine, salt water pool, Jacuzzi, electric gate, parking for 2 cars, community pool, 24h security; 5,900,000 THB, Rent 38,000 per month (348) GO PROPERTY THAILAND; 093- 161 5995; www. gopropertythailand.com Psb01/14-52/ House located on Thappraya Road, PattayaJomtien; land size 372sqm, living space 250sqm; fully furnished; 1 living room; 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, European kitchen; garden; security 7/24h; community pool; parking; close 10 Baht Taxi Route, restaurants, bars, supermarket, laundry, 8,300,000 THB (281) GO PROPERTY THAILAND; 093- 161 5995; www. gopropertythailand.com

Condominiums Psc101/15-24/ Trust Residence Central Pattaya Condo: fully furnished wifi & swimming pool for sale: 1,250,000 (tax free) Tel. 086633-2948, 083-282-3984 Psc100/13-17/ Porchland Condo in Jomtien, Owner Sale: One bedroom, 48m2, 8th Floor, high quality. All included. 2.1 Million Baht.

Info: 087 138 3523 Psc98/14-52/ Studio, close to TUCOM, City location; 46sqm; 2nd floor; fully furnished; living-bedroom;

VOL. XXVII No. 16

bathroom, kitchen; large balcony; 24/7 security; reception; community pool; car park; 1,050,000 THB; (286) GO PROPERTY THAILAND; 093- 161 5995; www. gopropertythailand.com Psc97/14-52/ Studio located close to Jomtien Beach Soi 7and‘RhompoNightMarket’,3rd floor; living space 47sqm; fully furnished; 1 living-bedroom; 1 bathroom, kitchenette; terrace; WiFi; security 7/24hrs; fitness gym; community pool; garage; restaurants, bars, supermarket, laundry; 1,600,000 THB; (248) GO PROPERTY THAILAND; 093- 161 5995; www. gopropertythailand.com Psc96/14-52/ Studio in Jomtien with sea views, 47sqm, Thappraya Road, 1 living-bedroom, 1 bathroom, kitchen; well maintained, 24h security; car parking, laundry, air-condition, fully furnished, big balcony, fitness gym, community pool, close to 10-Baht Taxi Route, supermarket, bus station, massage shops, restaurants; 2,600,000 THB; (375) GO PROPERTY THAILAND; 093- 161 5995; www. gopropertythailand.com

Land for Sale P/16-20/ Beach/ mountain/ sea views: plots in Bangsare. Tel. 0890475604 P05/14-18/ If you are looking for the perfect building plot to build your dream

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P03/14-52/ 4 Rai land located 45m along Sukhumvit Road, close NONG NOOCH BOTANIC GARDEN; total land size 4 Rai, 134sq-wah; 1 Rai solo: 35,000,000 THB, 4 Rai in total: 120,000,000 THB (321) GO PROPERTY THAILAND; 093- 161 5995; www. gopropertythailand.com P02/14-52/ 3,25 Rai land close Huay Yai Road with 600sqm big house 19,950,000 THB; GO PROPERTY THAILAND; 093- 161 5995; www. gopropertythailand.com P01/14-52/ 1,150sqm land for sale in the town of Bang Saray, (288sqw), few minutes’ drive to the beach, can build up to 7 floors.

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VOL. XXVII No. 16

Services Provided Sp05/16/ PLANS DRAWN: Residential – Commercial Industrial. Tel. 085-083-4221

Vehicles for Sale/Rent Vc02/16/ Jay’s Rent A Car: Toyota’s & Honda’s. All top of the range, for your safety all serviced by Toyota/ Honda, all have A.B.S./

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Please ring for details: (Thai) 084-865-5102 or (Eng) 085283-4915 Vc01/14-18/ For Sale: BMW 320d GT Sport (Automatic) sedan: 2.0 million baht (o.n.o.). Year 2014, mileage not over 49,500km, excellent condition, well maintained & Serviced at BMW, Mag Rims & Kumho tyres, include spares 4 sets original BMW Mag Rims & RunFlat tyres. Call Christine on 081-996-0708 (English)

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VOL. XXVII No. 16

Adam burns up Phoenix The Jomtien Golf Society Tuesday, April 9, Phoenix Golf Stableford No game on Monday as we were given a reasonable Tuesday rate here at Phoenix, a course we had not played for at least seven months. We played the Lakes and Mountain nines with some very sluggish greens on the back nine.

There were five groups of four out with the equal cut set at 11-15.5 and 16.0.

Leo Adam won division 2 with 40 points, the best score of the day and six points ahead of second placed Andres van De Laan. Willy Van Heetvelde took third

place on 33 and Paul Young was fourth with 32.

In division 1 Darryl Burkett was the winner with 34 points while Neil Gamble edged a 20/17 back nine countback to beat arch-rival Ian Speirs for second place after two scores of 33 came in. Tony Molloy finished fourth with 31 points.

Near pins went to (Div 1) Marc Brunner, Tony Molloy and Dennis Scougall, and (Div 2) Rick Assi and Willy Van Hetvelde (2).

Marc Brunner birdied M8 and Neil Gamble L2 and in division 2 with three rollovers Dave Lehane and Willy Van Heetvelde split the pot.

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Young, in division 1 and Leo Adam was the only near pin winner in division 2.

In the 2s Bob Comartin birdied the 13th and in division 2 Leo Adam the fifth.

This was our last game here for a few months as the management have told us that nine holes will now be under renovation.

Leo Adam.

Dennis Scougall.

Wednesday, April 10, Mt. Shadow Stableford

the best score of the day, winning with 35 points. Kari Aarnio came in second on 33 and Dennis Scougall took third with 28.

Dennis also won a nearest the pin, along with Paul

Only one division out today and playing off the blue tees Paul Young recorded

Friday, April 12, Eastern StarStableford Our last game before our escape to Khao Yai for the Songkran festival and in the two divisions today the equal cut came in at 12-18 and 18.7 plus.

Ron Lavett in division 2 had the highest score of the day with 37 points, Bill Kana was

second on 35 and Andres Van De Laan took third on 34. William Chang and Glyn Evans lost out on a countback for fourth place to Gil Phillips after they all scored 33 points.

The Phoenix boy Ian Speirs won division 1 with 35 points while in the frame again for the third time this week was Dennis Scougall who took second with 32. With 31 point Frank Kelly was third and in fourth place came Paul Butler with 30.

Near pins went to (Div 1) Tony Molloy and Ian Speirs (2), and (Div 2) Bill Kana (2) and Gil Phillips (2).

Ian Speirs birdied the signature 13th hole in division 1 and there are now six rollovers in division 2.

Firkin spread-eagles the field PSC Golf from the Pattaya Links Golf Society Monday, April 8, Plutaluang Stableford A Flight (0-16) 1st Huw Phillips (13) 37pts 2nd Richard Fearby (2) 35pts 3rd Peter Park (4) 34pts 4th Gerner Lykke (14) 34pts B Flight (17+) 1st Brian Tully (24) 39pts 2nd Colin Service (17) 35pts 3rd Niels-Peter Kristensen (21) 32pts 4th Phil Mitchell (25) 30pts Plutaluang’s North and West courses proved to be in very good condition for today’s group of thirty golfers. Some dampness and quite wet patches early in the day had encouraged Phil to call ‘lift, clean and place’ on the fairways, a good decision as players were not seeing much run.

The greens here are much improved and on both nines were true and had good speed. There was some variation to keep golfers on their toes, some of the greens a little slower than most. The weather was again hot, the same for the whole area right now.

Huw Phillips is back inform, again, and took the A flight with a respectable 37 points. Richard Fearby is a two handicap so you would expect him to be thereabouts and he grabbed second spot with 35, making the best gross of 75. Peter Park and

Mike Firkin (center) with Masa Sugaya (left) and Wichai.

Gerner Lykke both scored 34 points, but Peter had a better back-nine to finish in third and Gerner fourth.

Brian Tully has returned after a long absence and produced some very good first up form by taking the B flight and the Green Jacket with a great 39 points, the day’s top score. Colin Service has his ups and downs in this game but today’s 35 points was a good effort which took him to second place. Niels-Peter Kristensen is now used to being in the placings and was there again in third with 32 points, while Phil Mitchell, who we sung farewell to on Friday, re-appeared to score 30 points.

Near pins went to Huw Phillips (x2), Gerner Lykke

and Niels-Peter Kristensen, while the best nines by nonwinners came from Jesper Hansen with 20 points on the front side and Pat Lavin with another 20 on the inward half.

Wednesday, April 10, Pattana A & B Stableford 1st Mike Firkin (25) 43pts 2nd Peter Park (4) 36pts 3rd Niels-Peter Kristensen (21) 36pts 4th Pat Lavin (12) 35pts Twenty golfers headed to beautiful Pattana Golf Club and after the game everyone was heaping praise on the course and especially the greens.

We had just the one flight and Mike Firkin once again snared the coveted Green

Jacket, this time with a magnificent score of 43 points, leaving a seven point gap to the next two players. He does have his ordinary games, but when he is on song can rip it apart, and 43 points is no mean feat at Pattana.

Opposite ends of the handicap scale went to a countback for second and third with Peter Park doing better at the end to keep out that man again, Niels-Peter Kristensen, both with excellent 36 point scores. For Peter Park, that was the day’s best gross of 76.

Pat Lavin, in his final game before heading home for a couple of months did well yet again to take the last spot on the podium with a

Brian Tully.

good solid 35 points.

Anne Stokes managed to get a prize on her last outing, for now, as she and Bob also head off, making the best front nine score for non winners. Kevin LaBar had the best back nine.

Near Pins were hogged by Gerner Lykke (x2) and Darren Beavers (x2).

Friday, April 12, Treasure Hill Stableford 1st Adam Barton (17) 37pts 2nd Gerner Lykke (14) 36pts 3rd Petur Petursson (6) 36pts 4th George Mueller (14) 35pts

The countdown to Songkran was on and so only eighteen players headed for Treasure Hill on Friday. This day was a public holiday, but the 1700 baht all-in pricing was still cheaper and better value than many others around.

Recent rains have given new life to the course as today it was in immaculate condition, with good grass coverage on the fairways and super greens.

We played ‘lift, clean and place’ even though carts did go on fairways, but the course was firm enough that we tended to forget LCP mostly.

It is never expected to see big scores here but three players did manage to equal or better their handicap.

Adam Barton led the way with an excellent 39 points on his last game before going back to work. Then came a countback situation between Gerner Lykke and Petur Petursson, both scoring 36 points but Gerner had the better back-nine. In fourth place was George Mueller, having a good round with 35 points.

Near pins went to Petur Petursson (x2), Masa Sugaya and Kevin McEntee while consolation ‘nines’ prizes were claimed by David McKey and Will Brown.

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VOL. XXVII No. 16

FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 23

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Sweetnam turns up the heat at Burapha The Tara Court Golf Society

Shaun Merriman.

Sunday, April 7, Green Valley – Stableford A quick round today as the course was quiet. Although

Jerry Sweetnam.

our numbers are starting to go down we still had enough for two flights with the cut for the A flight coming in at fifteen.

The scoring was pretty

average with only one player beating his handicap and another playing to his. Terry Mangan (19) won the B flight with thirty five points, Donal McGuigan (16) came

second with thirty three and Joe Peters (24) again featured in the prizes today, coming third with thirty one and beating Paul Butler on countback.

Better scoring came in the A flight which was won by Kevyn Wright (10) with thirty seven points. Shaun Merriman (10) came second with thirty six but actually Shaun was the really big winner today as he had the only 2 and he also collected a big carryover from the previous Sunday when we had none. Michael Williams (12) completed the podium in third with thirty four points.

Tuesday, April 9, Eastern Star Stableford We only had 2 groups today at the very hard but fantastic value Eastern Star golf course.. On arrival we were

told that the greens had just been cored & sanded (not to heavily) and we will use that as our excuse for the very poor scoring today. The rest of the course was in good condition.

The best of a bad bunch today was Craig Hitchens (12) with 30 points, in second was Mikael Andersson (15) with 29 and occupying third spot was Glen Perkinson (16) on 28.

There were no 2’s today.

Thursday, April 11, Burapha - Stableford We were here again for our regular Thursday game in Burapha where we played the A bad B courses. Today the bunkers were showing a bit of wear and tear after all the heavy rain but otherwise the course was is in its usual perfect condition.

We had two flights with the cut for the A flight coming in

at fifteen and while we got reasonable scoring in both flights the top tier was by far the best. The winner here was Jerry Sweetnam (10) with a very good thirty nine points for a clear two shot win. We then had two players tied on thirty seven points and here the countback went down to the last six holes, with Shaun Merriman (10) coming out on top to take the second place and Pete Seil (6) having to settle for third.

In the B flight Bernie Stafford (17) was the winner with thirty six points, Terry Mangan (19) came second with thirty five and we had two players with thirty two points. Here Joe Peters (24) won the countback to take the third place and Ted Morris lost out.

We had four 2s today, coming from Jerry Sweetnam, Shaun Merriman, Bernie Stafford and Mossey Quaid

Cooper at the double Stockman’s smash & grab PSC Golf from the Tropical Golf Group

Tuesday, April 9, Bangpakong – Stableford A-Flight (0-14) 1st Bill Steimann 41pts 2nd Steve Trulove 37pts 3rd John Davis 32pts B-Flight (15-22) 1st David Bailey 35pts 2nd Paul Weatherley 35pts 3rd Kae Dayton 33pts C-Flight (23+) 1st Dave Cooper 40pts 2nd Frank Xin 38pts 3rd Gorden Clegg 36pts Twenty-three Tropical Golfers took the trip to the well manicured Bangpakong course, which was in its usual very good condition. It was a warm day with not enough wind, but the great fairways and open course makes for good scoring chances, and many took advantage.

The high score of the day went to Bill Steimann with an impressive 41 points while Dave Cooper nearly matched him.

Consolation best nines went to Bob Britton, Andre Van Dyk, Henry Wong

Thursday, April 11, Greenwood – Stableford A-Flight (0-17) 1st Steve Trulove 33pts 2nd Andre Van Dyk 33pts 3rd PAul Weatherley 33pts 4th Gerd Reidler 32pts B-Flight (18+) 1st Dave Cooper 44pts 2nd Don Carmody 43pts 3rd Barry Elphick 41pts 4th Roy Dayton 37pts

Steve Truelove (left) and Dave Cooper.

In our last outing before the Songkran break, the golfers paid a visit to Greenwood and twenty intrepid souls showed up for the challenge. Despite the heat, most were planning to walk based on a confusing memo issued by Greenwood that most interpreted to mean only caddies can drive carts - yet the golfer is still responsible for any damage!

When we got to the course we were greeted with a better worded notice that only the driver is responsible, and carts were on special for 200 baht. At that price and the heat, even hard core walkers were riding along.

Assigned the B+C nines we were off right on time. The course was in its usually very good condition, with the better nod to the “B” side as “C” is weedy in spots.

Experimenting with a two-tee format, theA-Flight went off the yellow tees, while the B-Flight went off the whites, and the results were quite noticeable.

Dave Cooper again won his flight with the high score of the day, and big hitting Steve Trulove took A-Flight honors.

Poor Paul Weatherley went from outright winner to third on countback by hitting the wrong ball on the 17th fairway. Moral of the story - don’t always take the caddie’s word for it!

PSC Golf from The Bunker Boys Monday, April 8, Pattaya C.C. – Stableford

Wednesday, April 10, Greenwood B & C – Stableford

1st Geoff Parker (16) 34pts 2nd Terry Hamilton (19) 33pts 3rd Neil Griffin (24) 31pts On our last visit to Pattaya Country Club we noted what fine condition the course was in, so imagine our surprise as we drove in this time to find the fairways covered with sand. Fortunately, it was only the first two fairways as the rest of the course was in good shape.

Buddha Day pricing was in effect which didn’t please too many. There was nobody on the course as we teed off so the prospect of a speedy round looked in store. The weather was fine for most of the round and had we not been held up on the closing holes by one particularly slow group we would have finished dry. As it was thunder and lightning were all around and the rain started to tumble down so we took shelter in the drinks station on the sixteenth tee for about forty minutes.

Scoring was not to the same standard as our last visit with most disappointing. Geoff Parker took first place with a modest thirtyfour. Terry Hamilton, who gave an amazing display of putting, took second with thirty-three, tee to green he was not quite so hot. Third place went to Neil Griffin with thirty-one points.

Only two near pins were claimed, going to Neil Griffin and Kevin Labar.

1st Dave Stockman (8) 36pts 2nd Ross Schiffte (18) 35pts 3rd Jimmy Carr (18) 33pts Today at Greenwood we were allocated the B and C nines and we found the course in the best condition ever, it was a real credit to the management and ground staff. Fairways were freshly mown, bunkers were immaculately raked and greens ran true without being too fast. Most courses are now seeing the benefit of recent rain so golfing conditions are at their best.

Today we were pleased to welcome Dave Stockman to our ranks and he duly did a ‘smash and grab’, taking first place with a round of thirtysix. Ross Schiffte took second place one adrift, with Jimmy Carr in third place on thirty-three points.

Three of the four near pins were won with one each to Ross Schiffte, Les Cobban, and Michael Brett.

Friday, April 12, Khao Kheow A & B – Stableford 1st Ross Schiffte (18) 35pts 2nd Jimmy Carr (18) 35pts 3rd Dave Ashman (21) 32pts We were allocated A and B nine on a day that we used umbrellas to shade from the sun on the front nine and the rain on the back nine. Despite the sky being generally all blue, one dark cloud appeared above us on the back nine and unloaded upon us requiring a twenty-minute

Ross Schiffte.

stoppage in play. The course was busier than any we have been to lately and was in excellent condition. Apart from the rain, there were no other holdups in play.

Scores were mediocre at best with nobody excelling.

All four players in our second group visited the water on the A7 hole (Geoff Parker is rumored to have visited parts of the course never before seen). In a day of peculiar play, Neil Griffin in his last game for now, used his driver on all the par-threes regardless of length from tee to green. Dave Ashman won all three sixes in his group.

Ross Schiffte claimed first place with a score of thirtyfive, points beating Jimmy Carr on countback, Dave Ashman took third with thirty-two points.

In only his second game with us, Australian Steve Morrison collected a near pin and enjoyed his time with the Bunker Boys, our resident entertainment guru Jimmy may have had something to do with that. Ross Schiffte, Jimmy Carr and Dave Ashman took the other three near pins.

24 FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019

PATTAYA MAIL

VOL. XXVII No. 16

Tiger Woods caps comeback with victory at US Masters

Francesco Molinari, of Italy, takes a drop on the 12th hole during the final round for the US Masters golf tournament, Sunday, April 14. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Doug Ferguson Augusta, Ga. (AP) — Fallen hero, crippled star, and now a Masters champion again.

Tiger Woods rallied to win the Masters for the fifth time last Sunday, a comeback that goes well beyond the twoshot deficit he erased before a delirious audience that

watched memories turn into reality at Augusta National.

Woods had gone nearly 11 years since he won his last major, 14 years since that green jacket was slipped over his Sunday red shirt. He made it worth the wait, closing with a 2-under 70 for a one-shot victory and setting off a scene of raw emotion.

Davies continues winning ways PSC Golf from Siam Country Resort Pattaya

He scooped up 10-year-old Charlie, born a year after Woods won his 14th major at Torrey Pines in the 2008 U.S Open. He hugged his mother and then 11-year-old daughter Sam, and everyone else in his camp that stood by him through a public divorce, an embarrassing DUI arrest from a concoction of painkillers and four back surgeries, the most recent one just two years ago to fuse his lower spine.

Woods 15th major leaves him just three short of the standard set by Jack Nicklaus. It was his 81st victory on the PGA Tour, one title away from the career record held by Sam Snead.

“I had serious doubts after what transpired a couple of years ago,” Woods said. “I could barely walk. I couldn’t sit. Couldn’t lay down. I really couldn’t do much of anything. ... To have the opportunity to come back like this, it’s probably one of the biggest wins I’ve ever had for sure because of it.”

It rates among the best because Woods has meant so much to so many in a sport he ruled for so long. Whether he can dominate it again is still to be determined.

It was the first time Woods won a major when trailing going into the final round, and he needed some help from Francesco Molinari, the 54-hole leader who still was up two shots heading into the heart of Amen Corner.

Molinari’s tee shot on the par-3 12th never had a chance, hitting the bank and

Patrick Reed helps Tiger Woods with his green jacket after Woods won the US Masters golf tournament Sunday, April 14, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

tumbling into Rae’s Creek for double bogey. Until then, Molinari had never trailed in a round that began early in threesomes to finish ahead of storms.

“There were so many different scenarios that could have transpired on that back nine,” Woods said. “There were so many guys that had a chance to win. The leaderboard was absolutely packed and everyone was playing well. You couldn’t have had more drama than we all had out there, and now I know why I’m balding. This stuff is hard.”

It didn’t look that way when he was younger, healthier and the most popular sporting figure in the world.

Woods lost his impeccable image to a sex scandal, one of the swiftest and most shocking downfalls in sports. He lost his health to

back problems. He went two years without even playing a major.

Now the comeback is truly complete. And the race is on.

“A big ‘well done’ from me to Tiger,” Nicklaus tweeted.

“I am so happy for him and for the game of golf. This is just fantastic!!!”

With the final group still in the 15th fairway on Sunday, there was a five-way tie for the lead. And that’s when Woods seized control, again with plenty of help.

Molinari’s third shot clipped a tree and plopped straight down in the water for another double bogey. Woods hit onto the green, setting up a two-putt birdie for his first lead of the final round. The knockout punch was a tee shot into the 16th that rode the slope just by the cup and settled 2 feet away for birdie and a two-shot lead with two

holes to play.

Woods finished at 13-under 275 and became, at 43, the oldest Masters champion since Nicklaus won his sixth green jacket at 46 in 1986.

Dustin Johnson (68), Brooks Koepka (70) and Xander Schauffele (68) tied for second. Molinari (74) was another stroke back with Jason Day (67), Tony Finau (72) and Webb Simpson (70).

When it was all over, some players admitted to being a little awestruck at what they had just witnessed.

“With what we just witnessed with Tiger coming off 18, it was a throwback, seeing him in red in the mock turtleneck,” 25-year-old Xander Schauffele said. “It’s what I saw as a kid, and it was just really cool to know him a little bit now and congratulate him.”

Poussier at the top of his game PSC Golf from The Growling Swan Monday, April 8, Mt. Shadow – Stableford

Paddy Devereux, Paul Davies and Willem Lasonder.

Tuesday, April 9, Pattavia - Stableford

Thursday, April 11, Eastern Star On Tuesday we went to Stableford

Pattavia with 3 groups and found the course in very good condition with nice fairways. We had warm sunny weather with a nice breeze.

Paul Davies was the man today and played very consistently to win again with 40 stableford points. Paddy Devereux followed with 37 points and Willem Lasonder was third with 35.

The near pins went to Neil Harvey, Sam Gettinby and Dave Smith.

Eastern Star was our venue on Thursday and we went there with 4 groups. The course was in very good condition and a pleasure to play.

Today it was Stan Rees who played a solid round and he won with 38 points.

Jonathan Pratt followed in second on 36 points and taking third was Sam Gettinby with 35.

The near pins were claimed

by Stan Rees and Jonathan Pratt.

1st Rod Weekes (19) 34pts 2nd Keith Buchanan (13) 33pts 3rd Glenn Henriksen (13) 33pts Near Pins: Glenn Henriksen, Alex Field, Lee O’Neil.

Long Putts: Keith Buchanan, Mark Stapleton.

Thirteen golfers came to play at Mountain Shadow on Monday. There is still a lack of rain in the area but the curators did their job as the course seemed to be in good condition with plush fairways, greens that ran true and clean bunkers. But if you ventured from the fairways you could find yourself in deep trouble.

The management has decided to close down the front nine holes here to upgrade them, so if you are to play this course over the coming months you will be playing the back nine holes twice.

We had no hold ups as the course was near empty and

Patrick Poussier and Rod Weekes.

we attacked the course from the blue tees, with just the one flight and all six novelties in play.

Rod Weekes, yet again as a late inclusion, came up with the game to win on the day. His 34 points put him one shot in front of second and third places which had to be separated by countback. Winning that was Keith Buchanan

ahead of Glenn Henriksen in third spot.

Thursday, April 11, Khao Kheow Stableford 1st Patrick Poussier (27) 43pts 2nd Rod Weekes (19) 41pts 3rd Steve Younger (12) 36pts 4th Mark Stapleton (18) 34pts 5th Paz (18) 34pts Near Pins: Keith Buchanan (x2), Bill Steinmann.

Long Putts: Travis Richards.

With one late pull out we travelled to Khao Kheow with seventeen golfers. There was not one complaint regarding the condition of the course and all were saying that it was in real good nick. Fairways were mowed and tidy, greens ran true but a little quick and the bunkers were clean and raked as well.

We were playing only the one flight and attacked the A & B course from the yellow tees.

Patrick Poussier stole the show with his 43 points and certainly made the most of his day. Following two shots behind was Rod Weekes, playing in his last game before heading back to Australia. Third past the post was the ever-green Steve Younger, while Mark Stapleton and Paz needed to be separated by the countback system. It was Stapo that got the nod to take fourth place.

VOL. XXVII No. 16

FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 25

PATTAYA MAIL

Marsden drives for gold at Phoenix PSC Golf from the Billabong Bar Monday, April 8, Phoenix Gold Stableford A very hot day ensued for the golfers today but thankfully there was no rain. Phoenix Lakes and Ocean was the challenge and the course was in great condition.

Only a small field and the scoring went from terrible to excellent. There was a threeway countback on 32 points that Thiery Petrement won to take third spot, second went to the ever-consistent Graham Beaumont on 38 but Kiwi Bill Marsden showed all and sundry what you can do with a Rogue driver, scoring

41 points to take the top spot ranging the bell back at the bar to celebrate.

With such a small field it was decided not to pay 2s.

Wednesday, April 10, Green Valley Stableford The grass at Green Valley is in serious need of some refreshment as many areas are now brown and bare. It might help if all the sprinkler heads were working as they were designed to.

In the men’s competition, Wayne Cotterell (13) had a good front nine with 20 points but a serious blip on the way home with only 4

Glyn Davies, Nipper Truscott and Thiery Petrement.

DATE:

PSC

true. Just 4 teams today but the scoring was very good, with 35 points giving 3rd place to Thiery Petrement, 2nd going to Glyn Davies on 37 and the top spot being claimed by Nipper Truscott.

There was only one 2,

FRI 19

SAT 20

Miss Sasicha and Miss Nu.

points in 5 holes earned him only 15 points and 35 overall for 4th place. Something remarkable happened with Charlie (22) for he only had 11 points on the front nine.

What happened on the 10th tee one can only guess for he had 6 pars thereafter and 25 points over the nine holes and 36 points overall for 3rd spot on the podium. The Billabong Champion, Auke Engelkes (12), can blame too many 1-pointers for his 37 points, missing out on top spot by a single point to Jeff North who started with 21 points going out and 38 in total.

SUN 21

Treasure Hill

Bunker Boys

No Game

Friday, April 12, Burapha - Stableford The rain has gone for the moment but the heat has come with a vengeance and it super hot at Burapha where we played the A and B nines. The course was in grand condition with greens that were quite fast but also

MON 22

TUE 23

WED 24

THU 25

Treasure Hill Laem Chabang

Cafe Kronborg

FRI 26 Treasure Hill

The Emerald

TBA No Game

Green Valley

Growling Swan Billabong Golf

Many ladies were not in attendance today, possibly travelling for Songkran, but Miss Nu (16) won today with 32 points ahead of Miss Sasicha (21) in 2nd with 28.

We only had two 2s today, going to Selwyn Wegner and Steve Wattons.

The next PSC monthly tournament is a 2-person scramble on May 16 at Phoenix Golf Golf Club

Apple’s Irish

Colin’s Golf

coming from Thiery.

One of the guys playing in the second group had 16 points after the first 5 holes but unfortunately damaged his elbow and finished down in the field with only 32 points. Another day mate!

TBA

Silky Oak

Royal Lakeside

Pattavia Burapha

Green Valley

Plutaluang Crystal Bay

Phoenix

Le Katai

King Naga

Green Valley Greenwood

King Naga

Burapha Plutaluang

Pleasant Valley

Lewinski’s The Links

No Game

Laem Chabang

Burapha

I Rovers Retox Game On

Plutaluang Hua Hin Trip

Pleasant Valley

Siam Country

Greenwood Pattavia

Treasure Hill

TBA

TBA

TBA

TBA

The Golf Club

TMB

Green Valley

The Players Lounge

Khao Kheow

Pattavia

Harry’s Golf

Valley View Hackers

King Naga Mt. Shadow

Sugar Shack

Tropical Golf

Eastern Star

Greenwood

Khao Kheow

Pattaya C.C.

Green Valley TBA Green Valley

Pattavia Green Valley

Treasure Hill Green Valley

Green Valley

The Bunker Boys meet at Woody’s Bar on Soi Skaw Beach for golf outings every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (www.bunkersociety.com) or call 094368 3580, 081 788 2338 or 087 693 7803. Transportation leaves from Cafe Kronborg on Soi Diana Inn at 8:15 a.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, (contact Dave on tel. 038 602 2117). Colin’s Bar plays golf Sun/ Mon/Wed & Fri (www.colinsbar.com). The Growling Swan plays golf on Monday & Thursday (www.thegrowlingswan.com). Lewinski’s in Soi Pattayaland 1 (Soi 13/3), play Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Transport is available, call Marcus on 089 503 9179 for further information and booking. The Pattaya Links Hotel Golf Society departs from Soi Buakhao on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Call Phil on 0625 933 380 or visit www.thelinkshotelpattaya.com. The Golf Club is located on Soij LK Metro. Call Phil on 090 769 3778. Tropical Golf meets at BJ’s Holiday Lodge at 8am on Tuesday’ & Friday. Call Derek on 089 034 0629. Retox Golf – Tel. (Paul) 0923744276, Email retoxgolf@gmail.com

26 FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019

PATTAYA MAIL

VOL. XXVII No. 16

Lomachenko stops Crolla in 4th, defends lightweight belts Greg Beacham Los Angeles (AP) — Vasyl Lomachenko wanted a bigger challenge and a more prominent opponent than Anthony Crolla for this Hollywood showcase.

When he couldn’t get one, the lightweight kingpin took it out on his overmatched foe.

Lomachenko defended his WBA and WBO 135-pound belts with a violent fourthround stoppage of Britain’s Crolla last Friday, demonstrating his pound-for-pound excellence with another virtuosic display.

“For me it was very comfortable, because I worked with two hands,” Lomachenko said. “By the second round, I knew it was going to be good for me.”

Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) brutalized the mandatory challenger for his WBA belt

throughout their brief fight, and the Ukrainian nearly ended it late in the third round when he knocked Crolla into the ropes.

Lomachenko started to celebrate by leaping on the ropes, but referee Jack Reiss allowed the fight to continue to the bell. Lomachenko shook it off and finished crisply after the break, ending it with a right hand that dropped Crolla face-first onto the canvas with an apparently broken nose.

“I thought it will be very hard for me, because his style is always in defense,” said Lomachenko, still smiling despite a cut near his left eye from a fourth-round head butt. “I always need to find a key for his defense. After the second round, I understand him, and it is what it is.”

Even when Lomachenko can’t get an ideal opponent,

Vasiliy Lomachenko (left), from Ukraine, hits Anthony Crolla, from Britain, during their WBA and WBO lightweight title boxing bout Friday, April 12, 2019, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

he still puts on a show — and the raucous crowd of 10,101 at Staples Center enjoyed it.

While he waits for the promotional stars to align for a big-money showdown with Mikey Garcia, Lomachenko had hoped to take on Richard Commey in a three-belt unification fight in this matchup. Commey’s injured hand forced Lomachenko’s

promoters to make this fight with Crolla, rather than surrender his WBA belt.

Lomachenko then showed why it was a bad idea for Crolla (34-7-3), whose toughness wasn’t enough.

Although Crolla retreated and dodged Lomachenko’s attacks from the opening minute onward, Lomachenko picked apart Crolla’s defense with his peerless combination

of athleticism and technique, working the body and head with equal aplomb.

Crolla couldn’t escape Lomachenko’s combinations on the ropes late in the third round, but made it to the bell at Reiss’ discretion.

Nothing got better in the fourth, and Lomachenko hurt Crolla before finishing him in dramatic fashion.

“I’ve been doing this for well over 50 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that guy,” said Bob Arum, Lomachenko’s Hall of Fame promoter. “He’s almost breathtaking.”

Lomachenko headlined at Staples Center for the first time in his brief professional career. The Ukrainian has developed a significant fan base in the boxing-savvy Los Angeles area, where he lives and trains.

“I feel at home here,” Lomachenko said. “I feel like I’m in Ukraine here.”

Lomachenko’s profile has grown exponentially in recent years as he headlined at Madison Square Garden,

in Macau and other Los Angeles-area venues before his step up to Staples.

Lomachenko’s next fight is likely to be even bigger, whether as a unification bout or a showdown with one of the other lightweight greats of this era.

“I want Mikey Garcia, (but) I want to unify titles,” Lomachenko said. “That’s my goal. I want historic fights.”

In the co-main event, longtime super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramírez remained unbeaten when his light heavyweight debut against Tommy Karpency was stopped by Karpency’s corner before the fifth round.

Karpency got in the ring with a black eye, and his nose was damaged early by Ramírez, the rangy puncher who had just one previous stoppage victory since 2014. Ramírez appears determined to make a career at 175 pounds instead of returning to 168, where he has dominated most of his competition for a few years.

Folau says he will quit rugby if it is ‘God’s will’ Sydney (AP) — Coach Michael Cheika said on Monday he would not have been able to select fullback Israel Folau for the Wallabies after his latest “disrespectful” social media posts attacking gay people.

Cheika spoke to reporters Monday for the first time since Folau, a devout Christian, posted on Instagram that gay people would go to

hell unless they repented.

Cheika was flanked by Daryl Gibson who coaches Folau’s Super Rugby team, the New South Wales Waratahs, and Michael Hooper who captains the Wallabies and Waratahs, and who said he would have been reluctant to play beside Folau after his latest comments.

A day after Folau told a newspaper it would be

“God’s will” if he never played again, Rugby Australia on Monday served him with formal notice that he had breached its Code of Conduct, starting a process expected to end with the termination of Folau’s Wallabies and Waratahs contracts.

“We appreciate this matter will attract significant interest but due process must be followed,” Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle told reporters.

“It was made clear to Israel in writing and verbally when I met with him last year that any social media posts or commentary that in any way were disrespectful to people because of their sexuality would result in disciplinary action.”

Cheika said he had already formed the view that Folau couldn’t be chosen for the Wallabies after his latest posting. In 2017, Folau was warned by Rugby Australia after his use of social media to express opposition to gay marriage.

Chieka said Folau’s latest comments crossed a line.

“We’ve had the discussion about it after the last time about his right to believe and our support in that,” he said. “But getting out in that disrespectful manner publicly is not what our team’s about.

“We’ve had the discussion about it and that line’s then been crossed. When you

Australian rugby union player Israel Folau is shown in this June 25, 2016 file photo. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

play in the gold (Wallabies) jersey, we’re representing everyone in Australia.

“I felt that I needed to talk to him (Folau) about why, but I haven’t had that chance as yet.”

Asked if he would find it difficult to play next to Folau, Hooper, who looked deeply uncomfortable, reluctantly said he would.

“You take your friends warts and all, and your teammates,” Hooper said. “Like was said before, in this current state and being here and talking about this as a rugby player, it makes it hard, it makes it difficult.

“It’s hard being here. We’re rugby players for sure, we are trying to create the best team environment we possibly can and at national level.”

Gibson expressed disappointment that the issue of

Folau’s religious views had arisen again.

“I’m disappointed in the fact that we’re here again, second year running, that we’re fronting up around an issue that on a large extent we’d settled and the impact that it has on the team,” he said.

Monday’s developments came after Folau told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper it would be “God’s will” if he didn’t play again.

The Herald interviewed Folau after he attended a church service in western Sydney last Sunday at which speakers praised his comments and said he was being persecuted for his faith.

“First and foremost, I live for God now,” Folau said.

“Whatever He wants me to do, I believe His plans for me are better than whatever I can think.

“If that’s not to continue on playing, so be it. In saying that, obviously I love playing footy and if it goes down that path I’ll definitely miss it. But my faith in Jesus Christ is what comes first.”

Folau, 30, said he had no intention of retracting or apologizing for his comments about gay people which, he insisted were based on his Christian beliefs.

“I’ll stand on what the Bible says,” he said. “I share it with love. I can see the other side of the coin where people’s reactions are the total opposite to how I’m sharing it.”

Folau indicated he was unlikely to legally challenge his termination, though some legal experts believe he would have a strong case if he asserted his right to freely express his beliefs.

Meanwhile, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen told reporters in Wellington Folau had let himself down with his latest social media statement.

“I think we all know what he has said isn’t right,” Hansen said. “There’s no point me adding my name to the end of that list and it’s been dealt with pretty strongly by his employers.

“He’s got the right to have an opinion, but I think he’s probably let himself down in the way he’s gone about that. Even this morning I read he firmly believes it, so he’s just missing one piece of the jigsaw puzzle I think.”

VOL. XXVII No. 16

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FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 27

Rins wins MotoGP in Texas after Marquez crash Jim Vertuno Austin, Texas (AP) — MotoGP’s Spanish king of Texas has been dethroned, replaced by his countryman.

Six-time defending race champion Marc Marquez crashed his Repsol Honda halfway through the Grand Prix of the Americas last Sunday, opening the door for Suzuki’s Alex Rins to snatch his first career MotoGP victory.

“It was unbelievable,” Rins said. “I tried to stay calm on that last lap.”

Marquez had been so dominant in six consecutive wins at the Circuit of the Americas that other riders had dubbed him

track royalty. And he was well on his way to another easy victory when he went spinning and tumbling through the corner at the end of the long straight.

Marquez was all by himself in the lead when he fell, stunning the field behind him and the crowd that was so used to seeing him dominate the Texas track. He tried to get his motorcycle restarted but gave up when he saw his foot brake was damaged, and then collapsed onto the ground on his back in a dramatic gesture of frustration before he was driven back to his garage.

“Today I did a big mistake,” Marquez said. “Sometimes happens. This is racing. It’s

winless in his two previous seasons in MotoGP and Suzuki hadn’t won at the top level since 2016. He now stands third in the season championship and Rossi considers him a contender for the title.

“When Marc crashed I was surprised. I tried to ride at the maximum. We were fast, (but) at the end Rins was faster,” Rossi said. “For sure he is an opponent for the title. He rides very clever he’s very smooth with everything.”

The fall knocked Marquez from first to fourth in the season championship after three races as he chases his Alex Rins, of Spain, celebrates after winning the Grand Prix of the Americas sixth title in seven years. motorcycle race at the Circuit of the Americas, Sunday, April 14, 2019, in Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, who finished fourth Sunday Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) and won the season-opendisappointing ... I was inside ‘C’mon Alex, you need to ing race in Qatar, is the chammy limit. I was riding a very drive. You need to do a bit pionship leader with Rossi good pace. I was riding very of a spectacle,’” Rins said. second. smooth, trying to save the “When he made a small misFour riders are now within front tire. But we are human. take I overtook him.” nine points of the lead as the Rossi hasn’t won since series heads to its European Mistakes are there.”

Rins had started on the third 2017. He stayed close enough heartland, starting with the row in seventh and was run- for one final move to pass next race in Spain. ning third behind Yamaha’s Rins at the same corner “It’s been a long time since Valentino Rossi when where Marquez crashed, but I win and it was a great opMarquez crashed. He passed couldn’t hold the position. portunity,” Rossi said. “(But) Rossi with four laps to go by Rins had won at the track in these points are important cutting under the seven-time Moto2 and Moto3 but was for the championship.” former series champion at the track’s elevated switchback Read Pattaya Mail Online Updated Daily left turn at the first corner. www.pattayamail.com | Facebook/pattayamail “When I was behind Email: ptymail@pattayamail.com Valentino, I was saying,

Infantino holds Kuwait talks on staging 2022 World Cup games Rob Harris Kuwait City (AP) - FIFA President Gianni Infantino held talks in Kuwait last Sunday about the country staging 2022 World Cup matches as he pushes to enlarge the Qatar tournament from 32 to 48 teams.

After meeting with the emir of Kuwait and soccer officials, Infantino flew to Doha to see Qatari leaders on Monday about the prospect of overcoming the logistical and political complexities of adding 16 more teams to the hosting, which requires at least one additional Gulf country being used.

FIFA maintains it is working jointly with Qatar on the viability of a 48-team tournament, but the concept is mired in complexities stemming from the boycott of Doha by neighbors. A FIFA internal report concluded last month that the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia cannot join the hosting unless they restore economic and travel ties with Qatar that were severed two years ago.

FIFA instead turned to Kuwait and Oman, who have remained neutral in the diplomatic dispute, as potential hosts. But Oman’s foreign minister last week said his country does not have time to prepare to host World Cup games, leaving Kuwait as the only current viable option to cope with the Nov. 21 through Dec. 18 tournament swelling to 80 games.

Infantino met with Kuwait’s ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim and the management of the Kuwait Football Association, FIFA said in a statement. The discussions

FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

(AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

were “about football in the country in general, but also about the FIFA World Cup 2022,” the world governing body said.

FIFA’s feasibility study into expanding the World Cup determined that two stadiums in at least one additional country were required to cope with the demands of extra games. Kuwait City’s Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium has 60,000 seats but Sabah Al-Salem Stadium only 26,000 and requires upgrades.

Ahead of Infantino arriving in Doha, Qatari officials held their first World Cup board meeting of the year on Sunday chaired by the ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

“The latest Qatar 2022 developments were reviewed, including infrastructure projects, stadiums and security plans for the tournament,” said Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.

But those plans are in flux amid Infantino’s determination to enlarge the tournament with less than four years to go until kickoff.

Qatar is still working on a 32-team tournament as it completes eight stadiums over just a 30-mile radius in

the tiny nation with just 2.7 million people, most of them foreign workers.

Infantino said last week that he now believes there is only a 50% chance that the 2022 World Cup will see a fasttracking of the jump to 48 teams that is already agreed to happen in 2026 when the United States, Canada and Mexico are joint hosts.

After coming under pressure from human rights groups since winning FIFA’s hosting rights vote in 2010, Qatar was forced to improve worker rights and improve labor conditions. FIFA has told potential new co-hosts they have to provide human rights guarantees, which have yet to be specified publicly.

Qatar has an exemption that allows foreigners to drink alcohol, but Kuwait has a complete ban which could be problematic for FIFA, which has Budweiser as a major sponsor.

FIFA has already had to adapt to cope with taking its showpiece tournament to the Middle East for the first time.

While Qatar won a vote in 2010 on the basis of staging a June-July World Cup, FIFA shifted the tournament from its usual slot because of the fierce summer heat.

Belgian veteran Gilbert beats Politt to win Paris-Roubaix Roubaix, France (AP) — Veteran cyclist Philippe Gilbert beat German rider Nils Politt right at the end of last Sunday’s ParisRoubaix race to win it for the first time.

Gilbert strategically placed himself behind the 24-year-old Politt, and then attacked him down the left to win by about a length after nearly six hours of riding. Belgian rider Yves Lampaert finished in third.

The race is one of cycling’s five high-profile classics, along with the Tour of Flanders, Milan-San Remo, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia. The 36-year-old Gilbert, a former world road race champion, has won all except Milan-San Remo.

“I still have this dream to win all them.

Little by little I’m getting there,” an elated Gilbert said afterward. “Politt’s very courageous. In the end the best rider won, and thankfully it was me.”

Last year’s Paris-Roubaix winner Peter Sagan joined Gilbert and Politt near the front with about 20 kilometers left. But Sagan dropped off, leaving Gilbert and Politt to contest victory as they reached the Roubaix velodrome in northern France.

Paris-Roubaix is known as the Queen of the Classics because it is the most prestigious of the five, which are otherwise known as “monuments” of cycling.

But the grueling and dangerous 257-kilometer trek is also known as the “Hell of the North,” because of its treacherous profile including more than 50 kilometers (31 miles) of cobblestones spread out over 29 sectors.

“A lot of people said cobblestones aren’t for me. But I’ve won Tour of Flanders and now I’ve won here,” Gilbert said. “I rode a good race tactically.”

Philippe Gilbert of Belgium celebrates as he crosses the finish line ahead of Nils Politt of Germany (left) to win the 117th edition of the Paris-Roubaix cycling classic at the velodrome in Roubaix, northern France, Sunday, April 14. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )

Belgian cyclist Tiesj Benoot crashed into the back of a Jumbo-Visma team car near the end of Sunday’s race, smashing the back window completely. He was taken to hospital but his injuries were not immediately known.

Last year’s Paris-Roubaix was overshadowed by the death of Belgian rider Michael Goolaerts, following a crash.

28 FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019

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VOL. XXVII No. 16

Are today’s cars too good?

BIMS sales show promise for 2019 How many cars were sold at the Bangkok International Motor Show? There was no surprise on the Toyota stand, with 6110 orders taken during the 40th Bangkok International Motor Show (BIMS), with only Mazda (5211 orders) and Honda (4910) getting close.

MG continues to grow in Thailand. Now well entrenched in this country, MG continued to become a major player with 2225 orders.

Compare that to Nissan with 2255 and Suzuki at 2319 or Mitsubishi at 3019 orders.

One manufacturer which I expected to do better was Ford with only 1836 orders.

However, compare that to Chevrolet with only 532,

Chicago (AP) - Whenever Rachel Orden calls for an Uber, the 20-year-old Michigan State University sophomore immediately walks to the back of the vehicle to check the license plate number, then opens the door and waits for the driver to say her name before getting in.

Even then, she devises a backup plan in case she feels uncomfortable. “How could I get out? Could I unlock the door? Who do I have on speed dial? Could I jump out safely if I needed to? All that goes through my

McLaren.

but both well beaten by Mitsubishi at 3019.

As in previous years, Mercedes outsold BMW, with 2405 orders taken versus 1569. Neither of these two German manufacturers have cars at the lower end of the sales spectrum, and Mercedes does look more up-market than the BMW.

At the stratospheric end of the market, there were 22 people with deep enough pockets to order a Maserati, 10 bought a Lamborghini, 9 ordered an Aston Martin, 6 (yes, six) ordered a RollsRoyce, 5 wanted a Bentley, but McLaren were out for a duck despite offering test drives to the well-heeled.

mind,” said Orden, of Naples, Florida, who uses the ridehailing service about once a week, usually when going out at night. She said the March 29 slaying of University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson, who mistakenly got into a vehicle she thought was her Uber ride, has made her even more cautious.

It also has prompted law enforcement agencies and ride-hailing companies to intensify efforts to warn passengers against getting in without checking to ensure both the vehicle and driver are legitimate. Although no

official tallies exist, there have been several high-profile cases involving wouldbe robbers and assailants posing as ride-hailing drivers — often at bars.

Lyft said it also provides photos of the driver and information about the vehicle, and some Lyft vehicles have a display on dashboards that changes color to match the passengers’ app to help them identify their ride. “We ... are always exploring new, innovative ways to improve the experience for all users, and most importantly, to keep our community safe,” the company said.

Autotrivia Quiz Last week I asked some MG history. The letters XPAG and XPEG do have a connection with the pre-Chinese MG’s. What was it? The XPAG was a 1200 cc engine (as used in the MGTC) and the XPEG was 1500 cc (as used in the MGTF 1500).

So to this week. Why did Rolls-Royce change the color of the two R’s?

For the Automania dehydrated beer this week (just

An old Morry Minor.

the steering which had gone from 6 turns lock to lock to 8 turns? Power steering? How strong were you?

Headlights? Remember the early VW’s with the 6 volt system. At anything over 50 kph you tripped over your own headlights. Now we have car headlights that can illuminate the other side of the moon.

In the rain we used to go out to enjoy sliding around the roundabouts – now the onboard computer reduces the power to the driven wheels to stop the slide.

The new cars may be very comfortable and smooth, but they are dull to drive.

What did we learn from China?

Minimizing risk in ride hailing Tammy Webber

I have a 10 year old car I drive to work. I have a 20 year old car I keep for sentimental reasons. I have a 40 year old car that I have modified for racing and put a “new” 20 year old engine in it.

Compare those cars with 10, 20, 40 year old cars of the 1960’s. Rust was the biggest problem with the cars four decades ago. Engines didn’t last either. The power wasn’t there.

Climbing some hills was a heart in the mouth exercise. Brakes? Not all models had hydraulic brakes, but many were still cable actuated. I can remember lying in the dirt, clicking over the adjustment in the drum to try and get the rear brakes to act together.

Even windscreen wipers were exciting. The mid-50’s Ford Customlines had vacuum operated wipers. Lift the accelerator and the wipers went mad, but put the foot on the accelerator and the wipers stopped! Going up hills in the rain was quite a task.

Steering was ‘vague’ at best as very few cars had rack and pinion back then. Worm and peg was common. Did you push the peg out, turn it 90 degrees to take the slop out of

MG TC.

add hops and water and store in a dark cupboard), be the first correct answer to

email automania@pattayamail .com or viacars@gmail.com.

Good luck!

I hope the Chinese enjoyed their Grand Prix, as from my chair in Fletcher’s Folly, it was rather boring. It was the same old script, be first into the first corner and you just leave the others behind.

Even though Bottas (Mercedes) had pole (again), he fluffed the start (again) and trailed Hamilton (Mercedes) to complete another 1-2 for the three pointed star (again).

Bottas gave the reason he could not keep up as “dirty air” (again).

Ferrari’s star Sebastian Vettel came third, but a long way off the Mercedes silver arrows. Vettel was another who fluffed the start, allowing the young rookie Charles Leclerc to climb into 4th behind Verstappen (Red Bull).

Unfortunately for the young lad, Vettel convinced the Ferrari pit was that he was quicker than his team mate, resulting in Leclerc being told to let Vettel through.

After the pit stops, Leclerc

then found himself behind Verstappen and remained in that position to the flag.

Further back, Pierre Gasly (Red Bull) took sixth place behind LeClerc while Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) took a lonely seventh ahead of Sergio Perez (Force India now renamed Racing Point).

The final F1 points positions were wrapped up by Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) and in 10th, Thai/Brit Alexander Albon (Torro Rosso).

The bottom half of the field saw some action in the opening laps, with “Torpedo” Kvyat (Toro Rosso) managing to hit both McLarens at the same time, something we haven’t seen for some time.

For his lack of judgment, the stewards awarded a 10 second penalty on his race time, however he didn’t finish so it didn’t matter.

George Russell and Robert Kubica in the Williams were the final two running.

This was the 1,000th F1

Grand Prix since the first which was held at Silverstone in 1950. Liberty Media, the owners of the F1 series missed a publicity opportunity to slot the Silverstone GP last weekend in place of the Chinese, combining the 1st and the 1,000th. One reason may be the fact that Liberty Media is a financial operation, not racing enthusiasts.

Hamilton’s victory at the Shanghai International Circuit is the 75th of Hamilton’s career, his second of the 2019 season and sees him now clear at the top of the driver standings for the first time this year.

The man of the meeting award went to Thai “luk kreung’ Alexander Albon who started from pit lane in the repaired Toro Rosso and finished 10th.

The extra point for the fastest lap went to Gasly (Red Bull) who slapped on a set of soft tyres two laps from the end to get the point. All fairly pointless.

Nissan shareholders OK ouster of ex-chair Ghosn Yuri Kageyama Tokyo (AP) — Nissan shareholders approved the ouster from the Japanese automaker’s board of its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, who is facing allegations of financial misconduct.

The approval, which was expected, was indicated by applause from the more than 4,000 people gathered at a Tokyo hotel for a three-hour extraordinary shareholders’ meeting. Other votes had been submitted in advance.

An internal investigation, revealed payments of a consultation fee to Ghosn’s sister for 13 years. The investigation has also found too much

power had been focused in one person, he said. Ghosn’s salary was USD 16 million.

Ken Miyamoto, 65, a Nissan shareholder, said he was disappointed. “It is really such a pity as he was a brilliant manager,” Miyamoto said of Ghosn before heading into the meeting. “I guess he became complacent as people kept praising him too much.”

Ghosn says he is innocent of all allegations and has suggested the accusations were made by some people at Nissan hoping to remove him from power.

He has been charged with under-reporting his compensation in financial documents, and with breach of trust in having Nissan shoulder investment losses and making suspect payments to a Saudi businessman. Ghosn says the compensation was never decided on or paid, no investment losses were suffered by Nissan, and the payments were for legitimate services.

Ghosn was arrested in November, released on bail in

early March and then re-arrested for a fourth time last week. The latest arrest was in connection with fresh allegations that $5 million sent by a Nissan Motor Co. subsidiary and meant for an Oman dealership was diverted to a company effectively controlled by Ghosn.

Yokohama-based Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric car, March subcompact and Infiniti luxury models, was on the brink of bankruptcy when Renault sent Ghosn to turn it around two decades ago.

How the mighty have fallen. It is only a few years ago that Ghosn was considered the white knight to save Nissan (and Renault) and was lauded for the turnaround he had managed.

Now he is being pilloried and he hasn’t even been given his time in court.

The Renault-NissanMitsubishi Motors alliance now rivals auto giants Volkswagen AG of Germany and Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. in global sales.

VOL. XXVII No. 16

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FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 29

E-mail: comhaps@pattayamail.com

Fax: 038-427596

Events The next meeting of Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) will be held on Sunday, April 21. The PCEC program varies, but usually involves a guest speaker on a topic of interest to Expats. The program starts at 10:30 am with a buffet breakfast available from 9:00 to 11:00 am on the 4th floor of the Holiday Inn’s Executive Tower located behind the Holiday Inn’s Bay Tower on Beach Road.

The Singha Sattahip Navy Beach Run 2019 will take place at HTMS Chakri Naruebet in Sattahip on Saturday, April 20. For runner registration, visit website: www.runningconnect.com/ event/STH2019 This year’s annual Chris Kays Pattaya Rugby Festival will return to Horseshoe Point in East Pattaya and be held from May 4-5. Overseas teams will compete against the best that Thai amateur rugby has to offer at 10’s style rugby in a round-robin format. There will be lots of diversions to keep the little ones happy while the adults can enjoy some great rugby, good food and cold beer. The tournament kicks off at 10am on Saturday May 4. Spectators are welcome and admission is free of charge. For more information and directions to the venue, check website: www. pattayapanthers.com.

The popular annual Pattaya International Firework Festival will be held along Beach Road, opposite Central Festival Pattaya Beach shopping mall on May 24-25. The event features parades, live music concerts, traditional dance shows, food fair and more.

The Eastern Seaboard Businessmen’s Dinner is a monthly event taking place at the Mantra Restaurant at the Amari Pattaya Resort on the last Thursday of the month. It brings together

business leaders from various backgrounds including Automotive, Aerospace, Real Estate, Architecture, FMCG, Electronics, White Goods, Logistics, Recruitment, Legal, Consulting, and others in a relaxed atmosphere. If you are interested in attending please contact Anuttra.Sukruen@tinfish.co.th.

A Farmers’ Market takes place every 2nd Saturday of the month at the Holiday Inn hotel on Pattaya Beach Road from 10.30 am - 3.30 p.m. Products range from wellness items, jewelry, freshly prepared food, organic vegetables and fruits. The next market will be held May 11.

Join Royal Cliff’s Funtasea Easter Wonderland on Sunday, 21 April at Panorama.

Enjoy fun, unique games, an exciting lucky draw and special treats lined up for the whole family. Every game has a winner and every winner gets a prize. All kids will get a chance to decorate colorful Easter eggs and bunny cookies or take part in an exciting Easter egg hunt. The party is from 2:00 – 5:00 pm. Admission fee is THB 500 per person for hotel guests and THB 550 per person for all outside guests. For more information contact Ms. Cherry at 038250-421 Ext. 2064 or email funtasea@royalcliff.com.

A stamp market is held every Sunday from 10.00 a.m. till 3.00 p.m.at Rahnpintang Moe Kata Restaurant, Panji Place, on Soi Ponphraphanimit 7 (200m from the Bangkok Highway underpass). Here can you exchange stamps from the whole world. Call 089 091 3418 for more information and directions.

Dining Join Hard Rock Pattaya for an Easter Egg Hunt and dining promotion on Sat 20 & Sun 21 April from noon to 9pm. For each main course ordered, a kids’ menu item is offered free of charge. Kids can hunt for eggs throughout the cafe and win fun prizes. For reservations, call 038-428-755.

Oasis, the all-day dining restaurant in Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort Pattaya, has a menu of ocean-fresh seafood every Sunday evening to Friday evening. The Oasis chefs present Thai, Japanese and Asian recipes, with the freshest sushi, sashimi, oysters, crab, mussels, lobster, and fish steamed, grilled, fried and barbecued available from the food stalls and the buffet table. The price is only THB 999 per person, and half price for children under the age of 12 years. Buffet served from 18:00 to 22:30 hrs. For more information or reservations, contact 038 714 981.

Celebrate Songkran at Avani Pattaya on Wan Lai Day, April 19, with a party on the elevated terrace bar at Benihana restaurant from 12:00 noon – 12:00 midnight. Dive into seriously addictive sushi and sashimi or sip a ‘pail of cocktail’ with a floating whiskey.

For more information, call 038 412120 or email: pattaya@avanihotels.com, www.avanihotels.com.

Throughout April, Horizon Rooftop Restaurant & Bar at Hilton Pattaya invites you to experience the succulent taste of ‘Giant Lobster’ while enjoy a stunning view of Pattaya Bay at one of the best rooftop restaurant & bars in Pattaya city. Try Lobster Thermidor served with 3 flavors of dipping sauces including BBQ sauce, Thai seafood dipping sauce and

mango salsa, with a choice of your favorite side dish selections include Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Truffle, Sauté Heirloom Potato with Chimichurri Sauce, Grilled Pear with Fennel Salad, Saffron and Lemon Rice or Baked Macaroni and Cheese. A set of Giant Lobster Thermidor is priced at THB 3,250 net per set. Horizon is located on level 34 at Hilton Pattaya.

Open daily for dinner at 6pm – 11pm. For more information call 038-253-000 or Email to: bkkhp.pattaya.horizon@hilton.com.

Persimmon restaurant at Pattana Golf Club & Resort offers 3 weekly theme nights for customers to enjoy exciting dining concepts. Pizza/ Pasta Night, 299 Baht net per person, every Tuesday invites you to personalize your favorite Italian dishes. Wednesday is Seafood Night, 399 Baht net per person, with unlimited amounts of the freshest seafood from the local market.

On Fridays, enjoy a variety of barbecued meats during the Carnivore Night at 499 Baht net per person. Book your seat prior and enjoy your dinner at Tel. 038 318 999 ext. 11230 or email to: restaurant@pattana.co.th.

L’Olivier Restaurant invites you to enjoy a daily cold buffet and 4-course menu comprising soup, salad bar, main course and dessert for only 395 baht.

The buffet menu is changed every two days. The restaurant specializes in French Provencal cuisine, traditional Thai food and rare Vietnamese dishes. Dine in air conditioned comfort or on the terrace. Located on Jomtien Walking Street between View Talay 2 and Jomtien Complex on the main taxi thoroughfare. For reservations, call Ms. Wan on Tel. 061 854 4848 (French, English & Thai spoken).

The Bay Grill & Buffet at Dusit Thani Pattaya: Dine with a sea view and enjoy seafood and meat barbecue accompanied by Thai and international items from soup, appetizers and main courses to dessert for only THB 1200++ per person. Free flowing beverage for additional THB 599++ per person. The Bay is open daily from 18:30 22:00. Call 038 425 611-7 ext.

2149 0r 2150 for more information and reservations.

Big Fish restaurant at Siam@Siam Design Hotel Pattaya enhances its seafood buffet with more premium catches and live music entertainment. The restaurant offers a nightly Seafood BBQ Buffet at only THB 777 net or THB 1,099 net with free-flow wine. Enjoy highquality, premium seafood cuisine as you listen to acoustic guitar and piano music from prominent local artists. Seafood BBQ Buffet at Big Fish is available every night from 6:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. For reservations call 038 930 600 or email fbsec@siamatpattaya.com.

After 14 years as the Landlord of an Irish Pub, the name Kim Fletcher has not disappeared. Kim may have gone from Jamesons, but his wife Goy has ensured that the name Fletcher has not died by opening Fletchers’ Folly, a boutique pub on the Dark Side. Kim is trying to get used to being retired, but the new ‘pensioner’ loves regaling the drinkers with stories from his lifetime in pubs, punctuated with his characteristic laugh. Fletchers’ Folly is on Siam Country Club Road, opposite Maxxis tyres and 300 meters before the “Chicken Crossroads”.

Food and drinks at very reasonable prices.

Pizza and Pasta All You Can Eat at Mövenpick Siam Hotel Na Jomtien: Twist Restaurant features Italian classics like creamy Carbonara or meaty Bolognese with a choice of pasta, or the delicious Prosciutto Pizza with your choice

of regular or whole wheat dough. The menu also includes original Thai-fusion pizzas and pasta such as the Tom Yam pizza with chili paste, prawn, squid and Thai herbs or the tasty Green Curry Pasta.

Available all day from Sunday – Thursday at only THB 500 per person, with a glass of soft drink. For more information or reservation, call 033 078 888.

The Thai Garden Terrace Restaurant offers nightly dining presentations with different themed “all you can eat” buffets at the resort poolside: Monday – Italian buffet; Tuesday – BBQ buffet; Wednesday – multi-cuisine buffet; Thursday – German buffet with roasted pig; Friday – Thai buffet; Saturday – international buffet; Sunday – steak & skewers buffet. The buffet starts from 6 p.m., runs until 9 p.m. All this for just 399 baht net per adult. What you see is what you pay, no additional service charges or VAT. For reservations call 038 370 614 or make your booking at www. thaigarden.com under “buffet reservation”. Thai Garden Resort is located on North Pattaya Road, 200 meters from the Dolphin roundabout and 200 meters before Tesco Lotus.

Yupin’s Restaurant in Jomtien Complex offers some fabulous culinary options including Fines De Claires Oysters arriving fresh ‘Par Avion’ from Normandy in France. Served on ice with lemon and on request a spicy Thai sauce for dipping. An amazing experience. Only 595 baht per six oysters. Yupin’s fantastic French onion soup is now available again! For more information or reservations, call 038 250394 or visit website: www.yupins.com.

Note – Yupin’s will be closed for Songkran period from April 10 until April 21.

Linda’s Restaurant is large with seating for 200 people, with a covered al fresco verandah outside for those who wish to smoke.

Inside, in air-conditioned comfort, there are comfortable chairs and decent sized tables, with white starched napery. Linda’s Restaurant Continued on page 31

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VOL. XXVII No. 16

Marino’s at Pan Pan

Do as the Romans do - Pizza by the meter The menu is detailed and larger than most other Italian restaurants. Salads are either as a starter or a main (B. 295-395) followed by three soups at B. 175, including a minestrone.

Starters range between B. 175-365 covering antipasto, bruschetta and Parma ham.

Two styles of pasta are on offer. The usual penne, linguine, spaghetti and home made fresh pasta (B. 245 to 295) with ravioli, tagliatelle, fetuccine and gnocci, followed by risotti also B. 295.

Heavyweight pizza slices.

Terminal 21 has certainly become home to many restaurants, and the Dining Out Team went to the third floor to look for a new Italian restaurant, Marino’s at Pan Pan, which serves pizza by the meter! This is a Roman style we were told.

With so many restaurants to choose from, you can get “lost” inside Terminal 21, but Marino’s Italian is very close to the elevator and is on a corner on level 3. There is al fresco dining around the restaurant, as well as an interior seating area. There are large display cabinets along one side, with the Italian kitchen behind.

It was busy, always a good sign. While perusing the menu we settled on a New Zealand Clearwater Cove Sauvignon Blanc – Marlborough 2017 (B. 190 glass and B. 990 bottle).

The wine list is very comprehensive with most around B. 1,300. There are 15 wines from Italy (naturally) with others from both the old and new worlds. The wines also

Anyone for a pork steak?

have explanatory tasting notes taking the guesswork out of wine selection. (Well done, Marino’s.) There are also two proseccos and one spumante for all those with something to celebrate.

In the non-alcoholic list is a most interesting “Marino’s Living Water,” enriched with hydrogen and oxygen, no fluoride, no aluminium and in a glass bottle too, at B. 60for one liter.

The next section is called Meat Main Courses and begins with a rather interesting burger with Australian beef, Italian bacon, fontina cheese, tomato and onion at B. 285.

This section has chicken cacciatora, veal escalope Milanese, a pork chop (B. 390), NZ lamb shank (B. 490) right the way through to Australian Angus rib eye steak (B. 650).

And finally to the pizza page with 16 pizzas including some vegetarian examples.

The dough is left to mature for 48 hours, in the Roman tradition, before being rolled out to one meter long and then cut into slices. I was told that one meter gives 16 slices and most customers will eat 2-3 slices. For example, a Margherita is B. 70 per slice, B. 525 for half a meter and 995 for the full meter which will generally feed four diners.

We began with a choice of four different pizza slices and they were all very filling. On the table were the expected balsamic vinegar with olive oil, and when the pizzas arrived, we were given shakers with oregano and dried chilies.

Succulent homemade pasta.

Look for the bright lights.

Trendy interior.

A pork chop was on next with a carefully cooked chop, and tender right through.

Another slice with Parma ham later, saw us have the offered second glass of the NZ Sauvignon Blanc.

We finished with a grappa and an Averna, something akin to an Italian Jägermeister.

We were delighted with the evening. All the items were of high quality, the service excellent and the way the pizzas are handled, there

can be enough for one or for eight. A great dinner party could be built around a meter pizza and a bottle of Prosecco. (Just remember to invite us!) Undoubtedly some of the best Italian food in Pattaya. Really! We will be back for this one!

Marino’s at Pan Pan, Terminal 21, level 3, North Pattaya Road, plenty of secure parking, open seven days, 11 am to 10 pm.

(Photos by Marisa Corness)

VOL. XXVII No. 16

FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019 31

PATTAYA MAIL

E-mail: comhaps@pattayamail.com

From page 29 is located on Thappraya Road opposite the Jomtien Complex. Open seven days a week from 7.30 a.m. until late.

For reservations, Tel: 038 252 726, visit www.lindasrestaurant .com, or Email linda@ lindasrestaurant.com.

Yamato Restaurant located on Soi Yamato has been around for more than 39 years and the soi was named after its oldest tenant. This is a restaurant to take a few people with you. The prices are certainly not over the top, and the quality is superb. Yamato Japanese restaurant, 219/51 Soi Yamato (13/1), close to Beach Road end, telephone 038 429 685 or 038 421 618. Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. for dinner.

The legendary Somsakdi Restaurant has been in operation in Pattaya for more than 40 years. Proprietor and Chef Somsakdi is still cooking and running his amazing restaurant at 78 years of age.

The menu is probably the largest in Pattaya, with 374 individual items. Each dish is in Thai with an English explanation underneath. Rather

than be swamped by choices, let Somsakdi guide you. After all, who knows his dishes better than he? Somsakdi Restaurant, Pattaya Soi 1, tel.

038 428 987, 038 423 284, 038 429 869, limited parking plus on-street parking in the soi.

Hours 11 a.m. until 11 p.m., seven days.

Entertainment Hard Rock Pattaya’s 6th annual Guitar Battle will see 20 finalists perform live in front of fans and judges at the Hard Rock Cafe Pattaya on Saturday, May 11, from 5:00pm until 9:30pm. Entrance is free for spectators.

For more information, call 038 428 755 or 038 426 635.

Sunday night is Latin night at Havana Bar & Terrazzo Restaurant – April 21 & 28.

Live DJs spin a variety of Latin music throughout the night and enjoy complimentary Salsa Lesson from 8pm8:30pm with Roby representing rumPUREE World Dance Studio Bangkok. Social dancing starts from 8.30pm onward. For more info call: 038 725 555 or E-mail: Fb. holidayinnpattaya@ihg.com.

Despacito Fridays at Siam @Siam Design Hotel Pattaya –Start off the weekend with

Chicken with Basil This recipe comes from a very talented Thai chef who worked in restaurants overseas. It is a very traditional Thai recipe and one that is easy to do. A true ‘wok’ dish, it has a tantalizing flavor that comes from the combination of so many items. By the way, it is important to crush the garlic and chili together. As usual, if this is a little hot for your taste, you can reduce the amount of chili and remember to remove the seeds before combining!

Ingredients Sliced chicken breast Onion sliced Red capsicum Green capsicum Basil leaf (chopped) Garlic Chili (red) Vegetable oil Fish sauce (Tiparos brand is best) Sugar Oyster sauce

serves 4-6 500 gms 200 gms 100 gms 100 gms 5-6 2 cloves 3-4 4 tbspns 4 tbspns 1 tbspn 1 tbspn

Cooking Method Add oil to the wok and heat. Crush the garlic and chili together and add to the oil and fry quickly. Now add the sliced chicken and stir fry until cooked (do not overcook). Add the onion and the capsicum until cooked, followed by the sugar, fish sauce and oyster sauce.

Finally, add the basil leaf and stir for one minute and then serve with steamed rice.

Fax: 038-427596

a sensual step Latin night at the Roof Sky Bar, every Friday from 4pm – 10pm with DJ Ro-Bi-El Gordo and DJ Rocky, plus zumba classes. Free admission, ladies enjoy a free drink until 5pm. For more information, call 038 930 600.

Enjoy great music from Thomas Reimer, one of the most famous European Jazz guitarists, playing live every evening (except Tuesday) from 6.00 p.m. - 10 p.m. at the Sugar Hut restaurant on Thappraya Road, call 038 364 186 for details.

Community Services The North Star Library on Sukhumvit Road, north Pattaya holds regular Thai language classes Mon - Fri from 10.30 a.m. till 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. till 2.30 p.m. Cost of admission is 100 baht per session for library members and 200 baht for non-members. Private lessons are also available for 200 baht per hour. In addition, the library also holds Yoga training every Tuesday from 1 - 2 p.m. at the Father Ray Foundation. Cost is 1200 baht for 6 sessions (first session free).

For more information, call 081 575 4854 or email wan_nujan@yahoo.com Alcoholics Anonymous: The Pattaya Group meets Monday, Tuesday and Friday at 5 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. All meetings are closed (alcoholics only) and are held at Soi Skaw Beach (off Pattaya 2nd

Rd). Contact Carl 08-456-31671. The Good Morning Pattaya Group meets 9 a.m. every morning. All meetings are ‘open’: contact 084 564 8479. The Jomtien Group meets every day at noon at Jomtien Long Stay Hotel: Contact, Andrew 086 107 6631. The Scandinavian Group meets on Tuesdays and Fridays 6 p.m. at the Norwegian Seaman’s Church, Thappraya Road Soi 7: contact Hans 085 135 7755 or Rune (Rayong) 089 754 9515.

10.30 a.m. meetings every day at Satree Pattana Centre on Soi Skaw Beach off Second Road. Call 084 564 8479.

The Samaritans of Thailand English Help Line operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide support to the expatriate community.

English-speaking staff, trained in crisis intervention will provide active, non-judgmental and empathetic listening services on the phone. All calls will be handled on an anonymous basis and are free of charge. (02) 713-6791.

Overeaters Anonymous The ‘Up to You’ group meets Wednesdays 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the housing area just behind Pan Pan Restaurant in Jomtien on Thappraya Road.

Call Steve at 038-364-207(h) or 089-250-1359 (cell) for directions or more information.

Narcotics Anonymous Hotline: 082 811 2686. 3 English speaking meetings in Pattaya near Central Festival and 2 in Jomtien each week.

Also regular Thai speaking meetings at 12 noon every

Sunday, and Persian Farsi speaking meetings at 5.30 pm on Thursdays. Please call the Hotline for details.

Groups & Associations Rotary Club of JomtienPattaya (English) meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at Royal Cliff Grand Hotel, Pattaya City.

Fellowship begins at 18.30 hrs and Dinner meeting at 19.00 hrs. President Vutikorn Kamolchote Email: <vutikornk@hotmail.com> Rotary Club Eastern Seaboard (English) meets at the Siam Bayshore Hotel, 17.30 hrs for 18.00 hrs on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month, followed by dinner (Fellowship) President Brian Songhurst Email: <bjs2904@yahoo.com> Rotary Club Phönix Pattaya (German) meets every Tuesday at the Holiday Inn Pattaya at 19.00 hrs.

President Peter Schlegel Email: info@rotary-phoenixpattaya.org.

Le Rotary Pattaya Marina, seul Rotary Francophone d’Asie, vous accueille les premier et troisième vendredis de chaque mois, début des réunions 19h, à l’hôtel Pullman G Pattaya Wongamat 445/3 Moo 5 – Soi 16 – Pattaya Naklua Road. Venez agir avec le Rotary pour changer des vies. Pierre Yves Eraud

Président 2018-2019 Email: < info@ rotarypattayamarina.org.

Rotary Club of Pattaya (Thai-English) meets at the First Pacific Hotel, Central Road on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month. Meetings begin at 19.00 hrs. President Stephen Devereux Email: < stevecarlow@gmail.com> Post 12146 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States of America (Ban Chang – U-Tapao, Thailand) meets the second Saturday of each month at 13:00 at Sinthavee Park Condo, 2/ 1 Moo 5, in Ban Chang. If you are interested, please contact Membership Chairman Dan Morgan at <ban changvfw12146membership@ gmail.com> or visit website: www.banchangvfwpost12146.org.

The Royal British Legion Thailand meets on the last weekend of every month at various locations around the city. Please join and like the Face Book page and you will see the all the social events listed. You do not have to have served in the Armed Forces to become a member and can join in the many social events arranged throughout the year. The Legion’s primary aim is the care and welfare of those who have served and/or their dependents. For general enquiries send an email to - chonburi. secretary@rbl.community.

32 FRIDAY APRIL 19, 2019

PATTAYA MAIL

VOL. XXVII No. 16

Hamilton wins his 6th Chinese GP, Mercedes 1-2 for 3rd time Stephen Wade Shanghai (AP) — Mercedes has gone 1-2, 1-2, 1-2 in the first three races of the new Formula One season, a great start for the sport’s dominating team.

Lewis Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas completed their third straight

double in last Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix. That kind of start has not happened since 1992 when Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese went 1-2 in the first three races.

“As a team, we didn’t expect to have three 1-2s,” Hamilton said. He acknowledged there’s been some luck involved, particularly in

Fitz Club’s 6th squash tournament a smashing success

Jan Lorenzen, Resident Manager of the Royal Cliff Grand Hotel, presents prizes to Kittipong Santilert, the winner of the 6th Fitz Club Squash Tournament, and Pisanupong Sontiya, the 1st runner-up.

Fitz Club at the Royal Cliff Hotel in Pattaya recently hosted another thrilling squash tournament for the 6th time, bringing squash players and supportive fans together in an exciting 2-day event.

The tournament adopted the round-robin scoring system which allowed competitors

the chance to play several matches against friendly opponents, making it an enjoyable weekend of fun and competitive games for all.

Jan Lorenzen, the Resident Manager of the Royal Cliff Grand Hotel, presented prizes to the winner Kittipong Santilert and 1st runner-up Pisanupong Sontiya.

Tiger Woods caps comeback with victory at US Masters

Tiger Woods reacts as he wins the US Masters golf tournament Sunday, April 14, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. Turn to page 24 for a full report. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Bahrain when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc should have won, but was undone by late engine trouble.

“I think we’re over-delivering a little bit at the moment,” Hamilton said.

Last Sunday’s race turned out to be over in the first 30 seconds.

Second on the grid, Hamilton beat pole-sitter Bottas to the first turn and then led for the entire 56 laps. It was Hamilton’s sixth victory on the Shanghai circuit. It was also the five-time and defending champion’s 75th career victory, which moved him into the lead in the overall standings after three races.

The next race is on April 28 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was third ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Leclerc.

“The start is really what m a d e t he difference,” Hamilton said. “And after that it was kind of history.”

The Mercedes 1-2 streak — two wins for Hamilton a n d o n e f o r Bottas — comes despite early hints that Ferrari had more flatout speed.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain leads the field at the start of the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, Sunday, April 14, 2019. (AP Photo/ Andy Wong)

“You can see it is still very close between us all,” Hamilton said. “We have no idea how the next race is going to turn out.”

Bottas acknowledged he was done in by his slow start, with Hamilton racing ahead out of the first turn.

‘I think I lost it in the start, honestly,” Bottas said. “It’s a shame about the start. It’s small details, but it’s early days in the season. But we’ve done three perfect weekends so far.”

The 21-year-old Leclerc of Monaco was upset after about 10 laps when his Ferrari team ordered him to let Vettel pass. Vettel was in fourth at the time and Leclerc was third.

“Let Sebastian by. Let Sebastian by,” the team radio told Leclerc. He replied, clearly irritated: “But I’m pulling away” as he backed off and watched Vettel pass.

Ferrari team head Mattia Binotto told reporters earlier in the week that preference

would be given to the fourtime champion Vettel over Leclerc. At least early in the season.

“If there is any 50-50 situation where we need to take a decision, the advantage would have been given to Sebastian, simply because Sebastian has got most of the experience,” Binotto said.

Despite benefiting from team orders, Vettel was not thrilled with his finishing position.

“I’m happy to be on the podium,” he said. “It’s tough. We tried to stick with them. But we just couldn’t.

They were too quick right from the start.”

Hamilton has 68 points after three races followed by Bottas (62), Verstappen (39), Vettel (37) and Leclerc (36).

The race was billed as the 1,000th in Formula One history dating from the first race in 1950 at the Silverstone circuit in England. That was won on May 13 by Guiseppe Farina in an Alfa Romeo.

NOTE: For more on the F1 Chinese Grand Prix turn to Automania on page 28.

NCL Dynamites retain Chiang Mai Sixes title Defending Chiang Mai Sixes champions NCL Dynamites won six matches in a row to reach the Cup final this year as they comfortably disposed of UN Irish Pub in the semi-finals, but their opponents in the final, the Gloucestershire Gipsies, had matched the Dynamites win for win and were regarded at potentially the stronger side.

It was a different story when the two teams met in a high-class Cup final however as Dynamite’s Faysal Ahmed bowled Henry Cooper, the leading run-scorer in New Zealand first-class cricket last season, with the third ball of the innings and Toufiqul Haque then dismissed Ben Hyde in the next over as the Gipsies slipped to 16 for 2. Nick Kelly and Tom Smith had launched an array of shots earlier in the competition, but although they rebuilt the innings they found the Dymamites bowling and field tough to combat.

A total of 52 for 2 rarely proves enough to win the Cup final but Gipsies gave their all in the field, even after Syed Mokammel blasted 27 from 10 balls. Ben Hyde

The NCL Dynamites pose for a team photo on finals day at the Chiang Mai Sixes cricket tournament at the Gymkhana Ground in Chiang Mai, Saturday, April 6.

claimed his wicket and only conceded six runs in the third over but Toufiqul Haque, so effective with the ball throughout the week hit two sixes to take his side to victory with seven balls to spare.

NCL Dynamites had done it again and Toufiqul was named player of the tournament for taking six wickets as well as scoring 102 runs without being dismissed.

There were five other finals as well as eight semi-finals on an action-packed finals day April 6 which saw Central Spirit defend their Ladies Cup after a spirited performance

from Thai Angels was brought to an end by Rose Moore who took three wickets without conceding a run.

Ios Malakas were popular winners of the Spoon as they celebrated the memory of Terry Skillett as they beat NT Bushrangers with eight balls to spare. Sol Chatterjee hit 21 from 10 balls helping to raise 6000 Baht for junior cricket as Sons of Pitches and Malakas hit donated 1000 Baht for each of his three boundaries.

Gymkhana Cavaliers used to be regular contenders in the Spoon but they have

raised their game thanks to the addition of several talented youngsters, and were able to celebrate their 20th competition by winning the Bowl as they beat Awali by two runs.

Thai Thevada had come into fine form later in the week to reach the final of the Shield as Chanchai hit thirties in wins against Darjeeliing and Clifton Hill, but even though he made it three in a row against Yorkshire Puddings, it was not enough to chase down their total of 74 for 1 as the bowlers cleverly took the pace off the ball. The Puddings finished as worthy winners of the Shield as Thai Thevada finished 14 runs short.

Following the excitement of the Cup final, Red Lion Wombats faced Tokyo Dingbats in the final of the Plate to bring the 32nd Chiang Mai Sixes to a close.

The Wombats have played in all 32 tournaments but their total of 58 for 2 was easily overtaken by the Dingbats inside three overs as their opener Peter Richardson hit 34 from nine balls.

(Report & photo courtesy chiangmai sixes)

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