PSC vs Ipoh Swimming Club

This match was held at home on 28 June 2009 and our Captain of the Day was KK Chee. This was part of an annual series. Chee doesn't look so happy in this photo... but he certainly was happy with the results...Chee and Dato EK Chong gave this pair 8 -1 and PSC won the tennis 5 - 0. Only Danny Toh and Naidu's match against these two youngsters was close at 8 - 6.
Chee provided this assessment of the day's events, since your vice captain blogger was quarantined with a runny nose:

- Special Thanks to Lisa, Paul, Koay and Elaine for responding to the last minute call for players.

- Elaine and Shi Pei , our promising juniors secured a point (for PSC , winning 8-2)

- Captain's morning call at 8:15am and our guests arrived at 9:30 am , Captain stayed till mission accomplished

- Robin Cheah turned to standby in case we needed his service

-Rain started at 9:30am ...slowed down at 10am and stopped just as the games started... good weather for that!

Haris's wife wound up on the turf after twisting her ankle during the friendly... we wish her a speedy recovery and hope to see her back on the courts soon!

PSC vs Trang Tennis club

I was captain of the day for this event. Mr. Sampol brought a big contingent of 24 tennis players and 16 supporters from Trang. They had a good range of players from some 24 year old youngsters that managed to beat our Luke and Danny to some still spry 70+ year old players that gave our Huntu and Toshima-san a good game. They enjoyed the tennis so much, they continued to play friendly matches almost until dinner time.



We wish to say a special word of thanks to our Mr. Tan Kok Pooh for donating one barrel of beer... and to our Captain, Mr. Loo Choo Teng, who donated the next barrel... and to Koay Theam Hock , Ooi Soon Hong and (me!) for donating the third barrel or balance thereof...

As you can see from that list...we had a LOT of beer.... and good food!

Members from both clubs really enjoyed themselves after the matches..with lots of food, beer and karaoke... I enjoyed having my speech translated to Thai by Mr. Andre Agassi

and there was and exchange of beautiful souvenirs, each reflecting icons from the two respective clubs... our PSC cannon and dugong carvings from Trang


Many folks have asked me where Trang is...as you can see from this map... Trang Province is halfway between Hat Yai and Krabi... Trang town is inland on the road that runs north to south between Krabi and Satun... We're looking forward to visiting Trang and play tennis against the Trang Tennis Club next year.... or next week!

PSC vs Royal Klang Club

Our Toshima-San was captain of the day for this event... which was a new annual series of games vs Royal Klang Club on 30 May 2009. PSC won 3-2

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.