Written By: Rika Ogawa Edited By: Valerie Chua & Jolene Wong Photographs By: EusoffWorks
Today marks the start of the beginning of Table Tennis Inter-Hall Games. Our Eusoff male team faced Sheares Hall (SH) in their first preliminary match. The match was played in the King Edward VII’s (KE7) sports hall and all the athletes were sweating before the match even began.
Just a quick recap of the game: A player loses a point when he/she fails to return the ball over the net to the other side of the table. The ball must bounce only once on the table, if the ball bounces more than once, then the person who is receiving loses the point. If the ball misses the table, the person hitting the ball loses the point. The first player to reach 11 points wins the set. Each team match is made up of five individual ties and will end when either side has won three matches.
1st Singles
In the men’s singles, first up we had Yap Choon Hooi from Eusoff. Despite putting up a good fight, he lost the first two sets 11-4, 11-6. However, he sure did not just give up there. Instead, he started the 3rd set with a strong comeback and he fought back, giving his SH counterpart a run for his money. At one point, he was leading 9-2 before he eventually won the 3rd set. However, in the 4th set the opponent was too strong and despite calling for a time out when he was 4-0 down, he did not manage to get back the 4th set. Nevertheless, it was a valiant attempt by Choon Hooi and despite losing 3-1 in the first match, he displayed the Eusoffian spirit and served as an inspiration for the rest of his teammates.
1st Doubles
Next up, we had the first doubles played by Sim Zhi Xin and Mun Le Yuan. Le Yuan was chosen as the outstanding senior to be interviewed for the this year’s senior series and his together with Zhi Xin and his performance definitely justified his title. Despite the team 1-0 down, both Zhi Xin and Le Yuan never lost their cool for a moment. Instead, they went on to win 3 straight sets in 11-2, 11-2, 11-3. Despite some fault services, Le Yuan and Zhi Xin persevered and made Eusoff proud by showing their teamwork and doing a couple of pretty crazy smashes to stun Sheares and win the sets in style. With both Zhi Xin and Le Yuan’s confidence, there was never a moment that Eusoff being uncertain of the win.
2nd Singles
Then, Raimie continued the momentum set by Zhi Xin and Le Yuan. Being an experienced ex-captain, Raimie obviously knew what he was doing. In the first two sets, Raimie came off strong especially in the second set where he led 6-0 after a couple of good backhand smashes and good services which left his opponent helpless. In the last set, although Raimie was slightly down at one point with a score of 5-3, he remained calm and quickly fought back with unreturnable smashes to level the score at 6-6. The rest was history as he never looked back and furthered the lead until he won the 3rd and final game with a score of 11-7.
2nd Doubles
In the 2nd doubles, we had the current captain Carlin together with Chee Wang. Knowing that their game could win the match for Eusoff, they started strong. With a spinning service, Carlin took the lead for Eusoff. Thereafter, they continued to dominate. With good team work and opportunistic smashes, Carlin and Chee Wang soon won the first set, 11-6. In the next set, SH became more aggressive and aware of their opponents, leading to both EH and SH at a tie of 4-4. However, Carlin and Chee Wang clearly showed their full potential and successfully pulled the score to 11-4, securing the win. The second doubles winning 3 straight sets helped to ensure that Eusoff won the match.
3rd Singles
In the 3rd Singles, the best team manager Chee Wan went on court. Despite knowing that Eusoff had already won, Chee Wan was still hungry for victory. He was merciless on court winning the first set with some well practiced smashes that just so slightly scraped the edge of the table. He led the first set comfortably with a score of 11-4. However, in the subsequent sets, the opponent showed his resilience as he began his comeback. In the 3rd and final set, Chee Wan was 7-5 down because of certain brilliant shots by his opponent. However, he quickly caught up to 7-7, 8-8 and finally led 10-8 for the match ball. To complete his comeback, Chee Wan won the match in a deuce 12-10. Chee Wan still proved to be the better player after the nerve wrecking matches.
Due to the brilliant performance by the guys’ team, Eusoff won 4-1 overall against SH! Good job boys!
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