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.

Fun Tennis

On 14 March 2009, we held another fun tennis event to mark the farewell for several of our Japanese players who are going back to Japan. Our Japanese friends who are returning to Japan are:

1. Mrs. Harumi Toida

2. Mrs. Miyuki Kawata

3. Mr. Satoru Kawata

4. Mr. Shigetoshi Harada

5. Mrs. Kumiko Toida

and you can see the ladies from that group seated in this photo:

I organized the tennis as poker tennis , with a great deal of valuable help from Lisa and Patsy. Koay Theam Hock arranged all the food which everyone agreed was really delicious.

As we drew cards to determine our first partner, the pairings were naturally "rojak" (all mixed up)... and some players were concerned about their partner...but they quickly learned that poker tennis had little to do with tennis and everything to do with your skill in choosing your cards after you come off the court...

Proving that he's a better gambling man than a tennis player, Toshima emerged the winner with a Full House... and Hiroshi San came in second with a flush...
Datin Mei Aie generously donated some nice farewell gifts for the ladies and I'd like to once again thank Tan Kok Poo for generously donating the 1881 Brand playing cards from his factory , Yong Guan Heng & Co.
Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves with the food, beer, sake, shochu , and whiskey that we consumed at lunch time... Although the excess amounts consumed had a predictable effect on the organizer after he got home.
That shochu must have had kryptonite in it! We wish our departing Japanese friends all the best and we hope to see them in Penang again soon!

PSC vs. Kelab Shah Alam Selangor

This match was played on 7 march 2009. Captain of the day was Loo Choo Teng, who was still suffering the effects of his cramping the previous weekend. Nevertheless he led the team to a 6 - 1 victory over Kelab Shah Alam.

31st Annual Sakura Cup

I was captain of the day for this year's Sakura Cup, held on 1 March 2009. For those of you who don't know... the Sakura cup is an annual competition between the Penang Sports Club and the Japanese Community of Penang. The cup was first donated in 1979 by the Consul General of Japan, so this is the 31st consecutive year we've held this event.
The Japanese community in Penang doesn't have a tennis court so we jointly share in hosting the event at the Penang Sports Club every year. As a result, its one of the most fun and social tennis events of the year. We always wind up with lots of Japanese food, sake and beer!

However, this year the tennis was a bit more intensely played as we somehow managed to lose the cup to Japan last year for the first time in 30 years...

Also, nearly all the japanese in the community who play tennis regularly are also members of the Penang Sports Club...so its only this one day of the year that they play against the club...

This fosters some very interesting and intense matches....
This is our top pair, Danny "World Class" Toh and our Tennis Captain Loo Choo "Cramps" Teng flanked by and Mr. "Always Comes Back" Haruo and Mr. "Never Die" Saskai... Our top pair turned out to be one of PSC's few losing pairs on that day...

We played 27 matches that morning, 10 men's doubles, 12 mixed doubles and 5 ladies doubles... We were blessed with beautiful clear skies and although it was a bit hot (damn hot actually), we finished everything on time and retired to the air conditioned restaurant for some good food and fun...

The most enjoyable part of the Sakura cup is actually the friendly bonding that goes on between our japanese friends and our local PSC members.... particularly after a few jugs of beer!

This year we didn't have Karaoke session out of respect to our club president who passed away a few days before the event....

So I'm quite sure they are NOT pointing to Lisa to ask her to go up and sing! I'm pretty sure they are indicating to the waiter that His Excellency, Mr. Hideaki Hoshi, the Consul-General of Japan needs more "biru" (japanese for beer). Mr. and Mrs. Hoshi paid us the honor of coming out to court side and watching most of the events.... and it was great pleasure to have he and his wife join us at our lunch...

The tennis result this year was a return of the cup to the Penang Sports Club with an overall result of 23 -4 in favor of PSC. Our SEC chairman , Albert Wong, is shown here accepting the cup from his excellency Mr. Hoshi.

But the social result was , as always, a delight. Lots of good japanese food, (the japanese contributed a beautiful bento box of japanese food to each player), lots of beer (His excellency donated 5 cartons of Asahi Beer!) , lots of Sake and Sochu, Lots of new friends made, and a few bittersweet farewells for some Japanese who'll be going back home soon...

We hope to see them back in Penang soon and we look forward to playing the Japanese community in the Sakura Cup for many more years to come.

Men’s Doubles League

Our Men’s Doubles League was held on 21-22 Feb 2009.

We decided to have it over a single weekend rather than drag it out over several weeks.

The results are as follows:

Group A Champions - Masami Sasaki and Nick Chua
Runners up- Albert Cheah and Robert Tie

Group B Champions – Robin Cheah & Koay Theam Hock
Runners up- Hiroshi and Shan

Spot the Oh Lang

Can you spot the Oh Lang (Black Man) in this photo? This photo was taken from the Jacob's creek wine bar, from which Lisa and I were relaxing in air conditioned comfort, sipping a cold sparkling wine while watching Gael Monfils play in the over 40C heat and blistering sun... (I saw a tournament official check the court surface temperature that day and it was 60C)


click here to see the "Oh Lang" .... cooked black by the sun, hint: Its not Monfils !

Australian Open 2009 Melbourne

Lisa and I followed our Tennis Captain, Loo Choo Teng to Melbourne this year for the first week of the Australian Open. If you've never been , you really should consider going next year...it really is one of the best shows in the world for tennis...

You can see all our photos from Melbourne at my flickr site: Ted and Lisa at Australian Open

Also, have you ever been curious as to exactly what the surface is at the Australian Open? The vendor had a booth there and the surface is called "Plexicushion" It was changed to Plexicushion from Rebound Ace in 2008. Both Plexicushion and Rebound Ace differ from the USA Open's hard court ( Decoturf ), the ball slows down slightly less on the bounce and bounces slightly lower on the DecoTurf.

The Plexicushion Systems consist of a Plexicushion substrate (which is a blend of latex, rubber, and plastic particles) and the 100% acrylic Plexipave Surface. The substrate forms a layer which absorbs body shock and reduces muscle fatigue. The speed of the surface is classified as medium to medium-fast