PSC vs Kamakura Lawn Tennis

"And there is a Japanese Idol at Kamakura...
O ye who tread the Narrow Way
By Tophet-flare to judgment Day,
Be gentle when 'the heathen' pray
To Buddha at Kamakura! "

The first lines in the novel "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling written in 1901 (full poem available here: The Buddha at Kamakura )

For more info about the Giant Buddha at Kamakura click here.


The Penang Sports Club played a very enjoyable friendly match against the Kamakura Lawn Tennis club from Kamakura Japan on 25 Dec 2008 Christmas Day! The Kamakura Lawn Tennis club is a very old and prestigious club established in 1924.The Japanese players were delighted to play on our grass courts as for many of them it was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to play on grass... Each of them played at least two matches and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Although the overall score was 7 -1 in favor of the Penang Sports club, the Kamakura team was made up of very skilled and steady players... In fact, four of the matches went to tie-break before the PSC's home field advantage tipped the balance in favor of the home side.

All in all it was a delightful day of tennis and we followed up with an great dinner , with lots of beer and with two bottles of Chivas contributed by the Japanese.
The Japanese were also very keen to play another match: karaoke after dinner...


Our PSC home team was also very strong for this event...
One Japanese told Jerry Moi, "You must be a Professional Singer!"


To see all the photos from this day, please click here


and lastly, while researching for this posting, i came across this lovely photo of Mt Fuji as seen from the beach at Kamakura....Wouldn't it be great to visit there and play tennis next year?

I was also delighted to learn that you can actually see a live webcam from the tennis courts of the Kamakura Lawn Tennis club ... to see it, click here


if you look carefully, you might see your opponents playing there now!

8th Straits Settlement Games

This year it was The Melacca club's turn to host the 8th Straits Settlement Games 6th to 7th Dec. There were 6 games in the series, Football, Tennis, Table Tennis, Squash, Badminton, & Snooker.

The Melacca club's sports center is about 10 Kilometers out of town at lovely location on the seaside...
We were to play both our matches on Sunday... so we had a good opportunity to view the opposition when Singapore Swimming club played the Malacca club on Saturday. Their tie ended 4 - 3 in favor of Malacca, but was not quite completed because of rain.

On Sunday morning, our tennis team whacked Singapore 6 -1 with several kosongs delivered... and the 1 loss was also a very close tie break in the ladies doubles....

We had seen the previous day's match get interrupted by rain and we tried to get the Malacca folks to start early , but the best we could do was to get them to start 2 pair at 3 pm with the clouds already threatening...

It looked as though we were going to repeat the same treatment for Malacca as our first mixed doubles pair was up 3 - 0 and our veterans were up 4 - 1 when the rain began to come down and we had to abandon the match.

As all three teams had played one match , it fell to a countback to award PSC the tennis championship based on our 6 -1 result against Singapore Swimming Club...

So tennis delivered for the PSC...but in the end the Straits Settlement Trophy wound up as a tie between PSC and the Malacca club...so the cup stays at Malacca for 6 months and then will be sent to PSC.

To see more photos from our trip to Melaka, click here

Audrey Oh Cup - PSC vs Royal Selangor Club

We played this match at home on 29 Nov 2008. This is one of the longer running annual matches that the tennis section plays. The match is between PSC and the Royal Selangor Club and was inaugurated in 1960. This means we have been playing this match for the past 48 years!

Before the match, we had a bit of confusion as we looked high and low for the Cup and couldn't find it at PSC... Eventually we learned that although we had won the match the last time it was played at RSC, we apparently were so well entertained by the RSC that we forgot to bring back the cup and it was still with them!

As our captain Loo Choo Teng was overseas, I was captain of the day for this match. About 40 of the RSC folks came by bus this time, but unfortunately i was informed by their convenor Mr. Kumar, that they could only convince one of their lady players to travel.

Thus we agreed upon a format of 6 Mens Doubles and 1 Mixed Doubles. First to reach 9 with a tie break at 8 all. The weather cooperated (it had been raining all morning) and we were able to start on-time at about 3:30 in the afternoon.

Our home ground advantage was a bit too tough for the RSC folks, but they played gamely. Their 4th pair nearly won a tie break against our young men, Wei Khah and Eric... but in the end PSC prevailed 7 - 0.

The RSC folks were understandably disappointed but they were able to drown their sorrows in a lot of beers and we had some great food from the new caterer...so everyone was pretty happy when we welcomed the cup back home!