HNB and Dialog – Best at TMC’s Wisdom 2010 quiz

The Hatton National Bank team bagged top honours in the Banking Sector at TMC’s Wsdom 2010 Quiz event worked off at Galle Face Hotel on Saturday 18 September when the Management Club, TMC as it is popularly known – formed under the auspices of the Chartered Management Institute UK – organised this table quiz for the fifth consecutive year.

Incidentally, Hatton National Bank was taking part in TMC’s Wisdom Quiz for the first time, having missed out on previous occasions due to other commitments. Upalie Elaptha, Chief Manager of its Card Centre and Vageesha Harshawardane also from the Card Centre, Janani Gunarathnam and Nadeesh Costa from the Head Office branch and Chamilka Munasinghe from the Cinnamon Gardens Branch formed the HNB Quiz team.

Dialog Telekom emerged as the best team in the Mercantile sector this year too – The third successive time it has achieved this honour at the TMC Wisdom Quiz.

The Dialog team was led by Emmanuel Fernando attached to their Group ERP Services Division and comprised of Savindi Doranegama from the same division, Mohammed Rikaz from the Credit Division, Heshan Perea of Contenet Management Services and Thilak Rahulan from Group Supply Chain Management Division.

After a keen and fiercely competitive battle and three thrilling tie breaker rounds, which amply reflected the great interest and enthusiasm for quizzing in Sri Lanka, a team of dedicated individuals led by Poorna Molligoda bagged top honours at the fifth edition of TMC’s Wisdom Quiz edging out an equally determined outfit lead by Kasun Pathirage.

The team led by Mahesha Weerasinha was being placed third while Hatton National Bank – who won the top slot in the banking sector were placed fourth in the overall rankings. The competition as usual was open to four sectors – Schools and Educational Institutions, Mercantile Sector, Banks and Financial Institutions and Teams of Individuals.

Dharmaraja College Kandy, also first time participants at the TMC Wisdom Quiz, beat all other schools and educational institutions to emerge as the best team in that sector.

A total of 32 teams were in the fray at this year’s competition – with leading schools such as Ananda, Nalanda, Royal, St. Thomas, St. Josephs, Wycerley International and APIIT Law School together with Dharmaraja pitting their skills with one another in the Educational Institutes category.

Two teams each from People’s Bank and PABC and teams from Seylan Bank, Commercial Bank and HNB represented the Banking sector while Dialog had to overcome the challenge from Suntel, Aitken Spence Cargo, DHL Global Forwarding and Hayleys Advantis in the Mercantile category.

A comment from a team that won: “The TMC Quiz held at Galle Face Hotel for the past four years has been a great success bringing corporate quizzing to a higher level. This quiz has given many corporates the opportunity to show their amazing talents while at the same time improving their knowledge.”

A comment from one of the judges: “Indeed it was a pleasure to have witnessed this great event and also to have participated in it. The organising of this event is truly a commendable service to our nation as it helps people enhance their knowledge whilst paving the way for young talent as well.”

A comment from a team that did not win: “We were encouraged by the intense competition generated by the 32 participants and the thrilling tie breaker moment that showcased that there is a great interest in quizzing in Sri Lanka. The quiz standard was certainly one that tested all facets of our knowledge and highlighted areas that we need to be more competent in. Our team will most certainly take part next year and the interest showed by our members in this year’s event will certainly ensure that we will try harder in the next edition of WISDOM to hopefully secure a place in the rankings.”

Keen contestants at the TMC Wisdom Quiz as usual were several teams formed by individuals. They represented the cream of quiz talents in Sri Lanka though not being a part of any company or institution belonging to the other three sectors These teams were led by Deran Hewawitharana, Dammika Atapattu, Imran Furkan, Indika Jayasinghe, Kasun Pathirage, Lathikka Niriella, Mahesha Weerasinha, Navin Ratnayake, Poorna Molligoda and Srimal Ratnasingha, all well known personalities in the quiz arena

Conducted as a team event with five members in each team the questions were based on five subjects – Current Affairs, Sports, General Knowledge, Space & Astronomy & Arts/Literature and Entertainment – with each round consisting of 10 questions.

Ranked as one of the best table quiz competitions now in Sri Lanka, a high standard was maintained as always and the questions were compiled by TMC’s founder member and Sri Lanka’s representative of the International Quizzing Association UK, Ruwan Senanayake who was TMC’s official Quiz Master for four years in a row.

This year however the Quiz Master’s role was played by the immediate past Chairman of TMC – Galle Face Hotel, Varuna Ratnaweera, who was nominated by Ruwan to stand in for him as he was away in Australia and could not make it for the quiz.

A message sent by Ruwan to all the quizzers at the competition wishing them success with words of encouragement to continue in the quest of seeking knowledge was also read out.

TMC said it was thankful to all those who supported this programme and hoped to continue with the WISDOM Quiz which has now come to stay in its annual events calendar.