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Last season's runner-up Bloomfield went to the top of the 1998-99 Premier championship table and will remain there for at least another fortnight following the decision of the tournament committee to postpone all matches with immediate effect till March 29.

This decision which seems a rational one, was taken by the tournament committee as a result of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka's (BCCSL) one-day triangular tournament which commences today.

The tournament features English county champions Leicestershire and two Sri Lanka teams 'A' and 'B' which comprise virtually all the top performers of the current season, barring the national cricketers.

``With almost 45 players being unavailable (including those touring India with the senior side), the tournament will be diluted drastically. There are so many clubs vying for the championship and to be fair by them as well as the clubs fighting against relegation, we decided to postpone the matches until the triangular is over,'' said tournament committee chairman Carlton Bernadus.

The tournament will resume on March 29 with the matches scheduled for March 26-28 being worked off from this day. March 29 (a Monday) and March 31 (Wednesday) are public holidays. The matches down for decision this weekend (March 19-21) has been rescheduled for April 17. The tournament ends on April 19.

The hunt for the championship title has intensified to such an extent that with only four weekends of matches to go, there is no clear leader. Bloomfield by virtue of taking full points from wooden spoonists Matara SC became the fifth club to top the table for the season, after Moors SC (who held to the top position for the first six weeks), Panadura SC, Sebastianites and NCC (two weeks). With Tamil Union and Moors SC also joining Bloomfield in recording outright victories last weekend, table leaders of the previous weekend, NCC dropped to fourth position following their stunning first innings loss to Sebastianites. Colts , Sebastianites, CCC and SSC, who were without a game last weekend are all in the running for the title.

Bloomfield's massive 414-run win was fashioned out by a fine team effort. Half-centuries from Ramesh de Silva, Pubudu Dasanayake, Sajika Abeynayake and Sri Lanka discard Roshan Mahanama saw Bloomfield hit up 382 in the first innings. It was a total that was sufficient enough for them to bowl Matara out twice. However, with so much of time on their hands, Bloomfield decided to bat a second time and pile on some valuable bonus points before closing their innings. Matara provided feeble resistance being shot out for totals of 110 and 80. Fast bowlers Pulasthi Gunaratne (4/47) and Hemantha Alles (4/30) along with leg-spinner Priyankara Wickremasinghe (match bag of 7/50) had easy pickings. Wickremasinghe, the leading bowler this season took his tally to 69 wickets from 11 matches.

Tamil Union, who moved into the runner-up slot, although defeating Kurunegala YCC by an innings, failed to take advantage of piling on batting bonus points like Bloomfield, when they enforced the follow-on instead of batting a second time. Kurunegala provided rather mediocre opposition and were shot out for the lowest total of the season when they were routed for 65 in the second innings. Tamil Union had their task easier when Kurunegala batted one short. The match played at St. Joseph's College grounds, because of the unavailability of the Sara Stadium due to a school 'Big' match, saw Tamil Union top 400 for the first time this season.

Gayan Wijekoon, hit an impressive century - a career best 142 on which the Tamil Union innings was built around. Mario Villavarayen and skipper Niroshan Bandaratilake wrapped up the Kurunegala batting twice for 140 and 65 with nine wickets between them.

Moors SC kept themselves in the reckoning with a creditable six wickets win over Singha SC. It was a victory which was not in the cards when the final day began with Singha having conceded a first innings lead of 152 runs looked like batting throughout when they resumed at 245 for 5.

Powered by a fine century from skipper Saman Jayantha (104 off 94 balls with 5 sixes, 12 fours) supported by half-centuries from Thushara Sampath and Rohitha Kottachi, Singha went on to score 393 in the second innings, batting well into the third afternoon. Moors were left with the challenging task of scoring 242 off 50 overs and it is to their credit that they chased and achieved it with more than seven overs to spare. Leading the run chase was Ashan Ranaweera, who provided the ideal start by scoring 63 off 66 balls in an opening stand of 82 with Primal Salgado. Asela Jayasinghe (56 off 62 balls) kept up the momentum in partnerships of 74 for the third with Sampath Perera (45) and 53 for the fourth with former Sri Lanka all-rounder Uvaisul Karnain (31 n.o. off 36 balls) to see Moors home. The turning point of the game was when Singha were bowled out for 112 in the first innings. Medium-pacers Suraj Sanjeeva and Rohitha Kottachi took nine wickets between them in the Moors first innings.

Sebastianites recorded the upset win of the weekend, when they took first innings points from NCC. The Maitland Place club were without some of their key players including stand-in skipper Sanjeeva Weerasinghe, who had led the side in the absence of Hashan Tillekeratne. In the circumstances, the reins were handed over to former Bloomfield cricketer Naveed Nawaz. Although the left-hander distinguished himself with a captain's knock of 71, it was not sufficient enough to match Sebastianites' total of 325. NCC fell short by 36 runs. They however were not lacking in their bowling with fast bowlers Ravindra Pushpakumara (4/76), Lester Hannibal (match bag of six), and Chintaka Jayasinghe (match bag of seven) all of them excelling.

The in-form T.M. Dilshan and Ranga Yasalal played the stellar roles in Sebastianites' total contributing 76 percent of the runs scored by the side. Dilshan made 95, the third occasion he had missed out on a century for the season, and Yasalal, a career best 158 as they put together a magnificent second wicket stand of 247 - the highest for the season. A former student of S. de S. Jayasinghe MV, Dehiwela, Yasalal showed promise as a potential fast bowler being sent to the MRF Pace Foundation in Madras along with former Sri Lanka speedster Ravindra Pushpakumara, five years ago. He has now developed into a fine top order batsman for Sebastianites coming to bat at first drop and scoring six fifties before finally turning it into a big hundred last weekend. Dilshan pushed his season's total pass the 900-run mark and looks in line to become the first batsman to top 1,000 runs.

Colts' innings win over Police lifted them to fifth position in the table. Their handsome victory was fashioned out by former Tamil Union wicket-keeper/batsman Indika de Saram, who scored a superb108 off 145 balls - his first century of the season. De Saram's century supported by Jeevantha Kulatunga's fifty enabled Colts to total 336, a figure which Police failed to reach in two batting attempts. Police were put out twice for totals of 156 and 141, falling to the speed of Erik Upashantha (match bag of six wickets), Ishara Amarasinghe (match bag of seven) and the spin of Sajith Fernando (4/29).

CCC's first innings win over Galle CC was highlighted by the all-round efforts of Hemantha Boteju, who has won himself a place as an all-rounder in the Sri Lanka team for the Pepsi one-day triangular in India. Boteju made 63 and 42 and took 3 for 39 to give CCC their seventh win of the season (6 on first innings). Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Champaka Ramanayake and leg-spinner Gamini Perera distinguished themselves for Galle with five wickets apiece.

BRC owed a lot to the batting skills of Indunil Hittethiyage for steering them home to a narrow first innings points win over Panadura. At the end of the second day it looked as if Panadura were poised to take the lead when BRC chasing 285 were 223 for 7. But Hitthethiyage unbeaten on 26 overnight defied the Panadura bowlers for 25 overs to raise the BRC total by 68 runs and his personal score by 39 to earn his club an exciting six runs win. It was Panadura's fourth defeat in a row and saw them plummeting down to ninth place, after at one time being on top of the table. Manjula Silva scored a century as Panadura batted out the second innings in search of bonus points. Panadura's problems lie with a weak bowling attack. They have 24.195 batting points,but only 14.2 points for bowling. Unless they can bridge the gap, they will continue to lose matches regardless of running up big totals.

Premier Championship Standings

At the end the eleventh weekend of matches on 14 March:

                                                                   Bonus
                P     WOR   W1st  LOR 	L1st  ND   Btng    Bwlg    Pts
Points          12    8               	             .005   0.1
		   	 	      	    	 
Bloomfield      11    4     4     1   	1     1    19.500  17.9    117.400
Tamil Union     11    5     2     0   	3     1    18.015  17.1    111.115
Moors SC        11    4     3     0   	4     0    20.300  17.7    110.000
NCC             11    3     4     1   	2     1    21.770  18.3    108.070
Colts           11    4     2     0   	4     1    17.640  18.1    99.740
Sebastianites   11    2     5     1   	2     1    21.615  13.8    99.415
CCC             11    1     6     1   	2     1    18.620  17.8    96.420
SSC             10    0     7     1   	2     0    18.730  16.4    91.130
Panadura SC     11    2     3     1   	4     1    24.195  14.2    86.395
BRC             11    2     2     5   	2     0    17.810  16.6    74.410
Singha SC       11    0     5     2   	3     1    19.245  13.0    72.245
Galle CC        11    1     3     1   	5     1    17.490  15.5    68.990
Kurunegala YCC  11    1     3     3   	3     1    15.265  13.4    64.665
Antonian SC     10    1     0     4   	4     1    16.990  12.8    41.790
Police SC       10    0     1     3   	5     1    14.900  10.6    33.500
Matara SC       10    0     0     5   	4     1    11.930  11.8    23.730

(Subject to confirmation)

Note: The following matches have not been played: Police SC v Matara SC scheduled from Jan. 22-24 and, SSC v Antonian SC scheduled from Mar. 12-14.

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL INNINGS: 217 (n.o.) - Mahela Jayawardene, SSC v Colts at Maitland Place on Feb. 13.

FASTEST CENTURY: 66 balls - Saman Jayantha, Singha SC v Panadura SC at Panadura on Jan. 31.

BEST INNINGS ANALYSIS: 8/47 - Priyankara Wickremasinghe, Bloomfield v Moors SC at Reid Avenue on Jan. 30.

BEST MATCH ANALYSIS: 11/90 - Ruwan Kalpage, NCC v BRC at Colts grounds, Havelock Park on Feb. 14.

HIGHEST INNINGS TOTAL: 485/4 decl. - Sebastianites v Antonian SC at De Soysa Stadium on Feb. 6.

LOWEST INNINGS TOTAL: 65 - Kurunegala YCC v Tamil Union at St. Joseph's College grounds, Darley Road on Mar. 14.