Raintree Invitational 2009 - Final result

The PSC played the final against Raintree. It was a rematch of their first round encounter and of course both teams juggled their lineups...

Raintree got a bad fright from us in the first round and brought in all of their top guns for the final including Khoo Chin Bee who is a former ITF Women's circuit champion (won doubles final in New Dehli) and two time All-American NCAA player.

They also had former Malaysia men's number ones , Wilson Khoo and Suresh Menon... Suresh is also the ITF development officer for Asia and has been the National coach for both Malaysia and Indonesia.

They had 4 ex-Davis Cup players, Wilson Khoo, Terence Chia, Suresh, and Selvarajoo

So needless to say, they were a pretty strong team and they got the better of us 3 -2 in the final.

here's the detailed scores and results of the final tie

30's-Poh Yang Hong-Chua Jin Ghee lost ... 4-6, 3-6 Terence Chia and Wilson Khoo

40s-Luke Leighton-Ooi Soon Hong...lost 3-6, 4-6 Suresh Menon and Terry Wong

Mixed doubles -David Ng-Lisa Targosz...lost 4-6 , 1-6 Khoo Chin Bee and KM Tan

60s-Albert Cheah-Jimmy Boon... leading , awarded walkover by raintree opponents Danny Hor and James Lee

50s-Robert Tie-Masami Sasaki ... trailing , awarded walkover by raintree opponents Selvarajoo and Melvin Song

The PSC had a great run to the final this year. Its been 3 years since we landed in the final. But despite the good result, the stress of managing the team and juggling all the players took its toll on Captain Cramp... he wound up stressed out and cramping again before final, eventually he checked in to Gleneagles KL for a drip. He's ok now, but he better get his blood chemistry sorted out before any more big matches... the stress is sometimes greater on the non-players/managers than it is on the players themselves.

Also , we'd like to give a word of thanks to Poh Yang Hong for hosting a dinner for the team but unfortunately most of the team couldn't make it due to Captain Cramp's hospital visit... Thanks anyway Yang Hong and we hope to have nice dinner for you next time you are in Penang. Captain Cramp promised to treat the players with the accumulated prize money from the past two years.

Finally we'd like to give a word of thanks to all the players who made up the team this year..They trained and worked very hard to get a good result

Team Roster

Ladies (30 years >)
Lisa Targosz
Keiko Sasaki

Men (30 > 39 years)
Chua Jin Ghee
Otto Tie
Poh Yang Hong

Men (40 > 49 years)
Luke Leighton
Ooi Soon Hong
Chuah Hong Yik
Koay Theam Hock

Men (50> 59 years)
Masami Sasaki
David Ng Hoi Pong
Chee Kok Khoon

Men (60>)
Albert Cheah
Robert Tie
Jimmy Boon

Non-playing but cramping captain
Loo Choo Teng

Raintree Invitational 2009 - we're in the final!

Saturday afternoon the PSC team beat Raintree 3 -2 to win the group The three winning pairs were Robert & Sasaki, Albert & Jimmy, Luke and Soon Hong. Otto and Jin Ghee lost to Terrance and Wilson Khoo. Lisa and David lost a tiebreak after fighting back from 3 - 7 down.

This appeared to throw a wrench into Raintree's calculations. By winning the group PSC set up a semifinal match with Taiping CRC. Raintree will play Lakeview (who we often had problems beating in previous semifinals).

In the Semifinal, Yang Hong and Jin Ghee made quick work of Taiping CRC 6-1, 6-4 , 60's pair won 6-4 6-3, 40's pair won 7-5 4-6 super tiebreak 10-4. Being up 3 - nil, we gave walkover for the remaining matches to let the players rest for the final.

Raintree indeed had a tough time with Lakeview in the other Semifinal going 2 - 2 and Raintree won the 50's decider on super tie break best of 3 sets 10-4

Raintree Invitational 2009 - first round results

I didn't go down to KL this year as I'm taking care of our furry four legged daughter, but i'm keenly following the results ...

First Tie (Friday nite) - PSC vs Kelab Darul Ehsan PSC won 5 - 0 ... only Lisa and Nick Chua struggled in the mixed doubles ... they found themselves down 4 - 7 before coming back to win 9 - 7.

Second Tie (Saturday morning) - PSC vs Sandakan PSC won 4 - 1 Mr. and Mrs. Sasaki also struggled in the Mixed doubles pairing and couldn't claw their way back.

There is still another tie to play Saturday afternoon against Raintree Tigers ( A team)

But based on the first two results the PSC should be already safely in the Semi-final on Sunday morning.

Courts 5 - 8 resurfacing

Folks, at the Penang Sports Club AGM held on 26 April 2009, the members approved a proposal to spend not more than RM300,000 to resurface courts 5 - 8. As you are probably aware, there's no material left to repair these courts and now court 7 is becoming a trip hazard.

The previous job of resurfacing courts 1 - 4 commenced on 25 August 2008 and was completed exactly one month later at a cost of RM240,000. With the recent devaluation of the Australian dollar vs the Ringgit and the general deflation of raw materials prices it should not be a problem to resurfaces courts 5 - 8 within the approved amount.

The Tennis committee is of the opinion that we should match the synthetic turf of courts 5 - 8 as closely as possible to courts 1 - 4 so as to keep the playing conditions as similar as possible. (Our Teik Ho may have to adjust his court preference or start to play grass court! )

The Tennis committee is working together with the GC in the process of requesting quotations. We hope to have a vendor selected soon and can schedule the work to commence mid-year.

PSC vs Satun

Since I didn't make it up to Satun, I have requested Doug Howard to be a guest blogger for this event:

PENANG TENNIS AWAY VS SATUN, THAILAND, by Uncle Doug
I was cleaning out my PSC file and came across a schedule of events for June 2001 that had us going to Satun. Naidu remembered that it had been canceled due to the spread of violence from the east coast to the west coast of southern Thailand and that we had not been there for over 10 years.
I remembered that our group had taken a Thai van to Hat Yai and hired a very old Mercedes taxi that struggled over a dirt road full of big potholes for about 2 hours. This year, however, Naidu found a new road that went to a border crossing close to Satun. The scenery was fantastic, and we had a much pleasanter and faster trip for our driver and his passengers B.T. Tan, Jimmy Boon, and yours truly.
DR. Michael chauffeured Jack and Toh. Rusli, having flown in on the Hantu Express Broomstick, was waiting for us at our hotel.
Our local hosts also greeted us at the hotel and provided transport to and from the new tennis facility. It was now located in a fairly new sports complex. The club had four courts and were all full before our match. Their lady players were quite disappointed when only 8 old male reprobates showed up!
We had a VERY friendly match, with PSC winning a "grand" total of 6 games (Editor: and zero matches) , half of those won by our two oldest players. We were much more competitive when we adjourned to an impressive restaurant for a sit-down dinner. Our captain, Naidu, made a nice, brief speech inviting our hosts to please return to Penang after such a long absence. They appeared to be very receptive and eager to renew our old competition.