Maybe not such a good idea

Since the Club has started enforcing the use of the new membership cards,  many of us, myself included, have begun tucking our cards into our phone cases  so that we always have them handy...

while this is really convenient,  I've come to realize that it might not be such a good idea for phone usage..

Here's the way most of use talk on the phone when we have these kinds of 'phone wallet' cases:

Notice that the case is folded so that the body of the membership card is fully pressed against the back of the phone body.

For some time, I and my wife have been having some puzzling problems getting reception on our phones, despite having lots of bars (strong signal strength) ..Yesterday, we were trying to make some rather critical phone calls before year end , and I was having persistent transmission problems,  where I could hear the other party, but they could not hear me...     my wife was shouting into the phone to try to make herself heard to the technician on the other end, but it simply wasn't working....

Suddenly, I had a brain flash and plucked the card out of her case while she was in mid-call.... and the problem vanished...

There's a very good reason why this may have indeed been the solution...    What sparked my brain flash was that i suddenly remembered that these membership cards are  proximity cards and they actually have a big antenna coil inside them.  Notice that there is no battery anywhere inside this card.

These cards can work without a battery, because the antenna coil is designed to ABSORB power from surrounding radio waves to power the IC chip inside.  Depending on the radio frequencies involved, this coil has the potential to suck some or a lot of the power from our OUTGOING transmissions... thus, its very possible that this is why the folks on the other end of my calls could not hear me.

Whether its actually the coil sucking all the life out of your call or not...holding a big loop of copper wire against your cell phone is definitely not helping its radio transmitter's signal.

PSC vs Trang

On 12 March 2011 our team travelled to Trang Thailand for a match against Trang Tennis Club Thailand.

The team stopped for a nite beforehand in Hat Yai..and this may have had some impact on our team's performance... In this photo, Peggy appears to be recruiting for a mixed doubles partner

We lost 2 - 5 ... The two hero pairs to win were Jim and Jimmy (Jim Arthur and Jimmy Boon) who won a men's doubles

...and David Lee and Ah Yen won a mixed doubles.

But everyone enjoyed the tennis and the dinner afterwards....

As usual the hospitality in Trang was wonderful.

We look forward to hosting the Trang Tennis Club in Penang next time...

33rd Sakura Cup 27 March 2011

One of the most anticipated events of the year is the Sakura Cup, which is the Penang Sports Club vs the Japanese Community. We've seen an increase in active japanese tennis players at the club as a result of the Malaysia My Second Home and now we have some former members from japan scheduling their holidays in Penang to coincide with the Sakura Cup so they can come back and play.

This year, the returnees from Japan brought some extra firepower with them in the form of some very skilled ladies players. The PSC found itself struggling to find some pairs that could give them a fight.

The japanese brought a total of 7 pairs of ladies and 8 pairs of men...then they combined the pairs to field 15 pairs of mixed doubles.

As the Japanese consul general described it...most people believe that among Japanese, the men always lead in front and the ladies follow behind... but in this Sakura Cup the Japanese ladies were the ones in front. They whacked our ladies 6 -1 .

Fortunately our PSC men were up to the task and swept the Japanese men 8 - 0, although Albert Cheah and Bryant Thor had to go all the way to a tie break to beat Peter McDade and Sasaki-San.

The Japanese men didn't fare much better in the mixed, dragging their ladies down 2 - 13

so at the end of the day, the PSC retained the cup 22-8

As usual, the highlight of the day was a nice lunch with the Japanese providing Bento boxes for all participants and lots of beer and sake for everyone to enjoy.

Hayati Meah Memorial Intersection Tennis

At the last AGM, the members resolved that the Tennis Intersection event should be designated as the Hayati Meah Memorial Intersection Tennis , in honor of the late Hayati Meah. I knew Hayati quite well as he welcomed me to play tennis with him when I first started out playing at the club a few years before he passed away. As any newcomer knows, its often difficult to find someone to play with when no one knows you... I always remember that Hayati would go out of his way to ensure that newcomers didn't go without a game, and would invite newcomers such as myself to join his foursome and play. I now try to do the same because of him.

He was also a great sportsman who liked to see all the sections of the club interacting , so its very appropriate that we held the intersection tennis on 26 feb 2011 in his honor. To foster even more interaction, we developed a format of play that emphasized cooperation and sportsman ship. We were delighted to have representatives of 7 of 10 sections in the club participating in the event.

The tennis section took part by supplying players to the other sections to balance out the numbers so that we had 4 teams of 7 players participating. The Soccer and Squash sections came with nearly full teams, The Badminton and Hockey sections were joined together to form one team, and the Snooker and Cricket Sections were joined to create the final team.

Each player on each team was given a score card. The cards were divided into two buckets and a draw was conducted to determine who would partner who and who would play against who...

Then the players went down and played 1 set of tennis, before coming back to the terrace and reporting their score. After the 1st round scores were reported, the cards went back into the bins for another draw and another round of tennis.

After playing 3 rounds in the hot sun like this. We reassembled the cards back into their teams and calculated the total games won and lost. Most were predicting that the soccer team would win with the strength of their players...but surprisingly Badminton/Hockey team and the Squash team won the most games , tying at 99 games won each. Squash emerged as the champion losing 84 games vs 90 for Badminton/Hockey.

Again in the spirit of sportsmanship, all the participants received prizes and enjoyed an excellent lunch at the club restaurant. Hayati would have loved it, because at the end of the day, we all had fun and enjoyed our tennis and enjoyed mixing with our fellow club members.

psc vs taiping crc

Francis Loh brought a strong group from Taiping to play in the annual series vs PSC. They gave us a good fight... their first pair whacked Koay and Nordin 8 -1 ... and Albert and Teng Jin (first time they ever play together) were down 5 - 1 and I started to get worried... but our ladies, Pauline and Keiko made short work of their opponents and luckily Albert and Teng Jin got things sorted out and went on to win 8 - 5... and we went on to win all the other matches and finished the day up 6-1 ... Congrats to all the players and supporters... The club also won the series overall ....

Hard Court Resurfacing Update

The PSC has awarded a contract to resurface our 2 hard courts (courts 18 and 19). For the past 15 or 20 years at least, the hard courts have been a simple coating of acrylic over a bitumen (asphalt) base. After 5 or 6 years, cracks will always start to appear as old cracks in the asphalt base (which have been filled and coated over) propagate upwards thru the new acrylic due to water penetration and thermal expansion/contraction.

Also, the members seldom like to play on the hard courts because of the aches and pains the hard surface inflicts on their knee and ankle joints.

This time we are trying several things that are different.

1. After filling the cracks in the old surface, the contractor has laid down a new fabric mat called a geo-textile. This synthetic non-woven fiber material will serve as a boundry surface to separate teh old base from the new. This will help prevent the old cracks from propagating thru to the new surface. You can see it as the white fabric layer in the photo above.

2. The club decided to purchase a cushioning layer , also referred to as a rubberized 'shock pad' which is laid just after the geo-textile and is about 5 mm thick.

This will provide a considerably more comfortable playing experience for our member's knees and ankles. You can see this as the black granular material being laid in the top photo.

The contractor will put down several more layers over these before finally putting down a top coat of 100% acrylic. The resulting surface will be essentially the same as that of the courts at Melbourne Park, where they play the Australian Open.

The project is expected to complete by the end of Sept. When its done, come out and have a hit.

Heah Swee Lee Cup 26-27 Mar 2010

This post from Arthur Chin's website http://www.imtnews.com/

Photo: PSC Dream Team, L-R: Byrant Thor, Luke Leighton, Sasaki Masami, Loo Choo Teng, Tah Nian Yang, Ooi Soon Hong, Jos Fraajie, Koay Theam Hock and Andrew Tijo

Penang Sports Club captured the Heah Swee Lee Cup 2010 by beating Penang Chinese Recreation Club again today at the PSC Tennis Complex to maintain their unbeaten run against CRC. PSC have never lost to them since 1995. (Editor's Note: CRC won the cup last year, but i'm not sure what the head to head is with PSC vs CRC- TedT.)

The HSL Cup which is the oldest inter club tennis tournament in Malaysia, first played in 1948 was a keenly fought tournament in the yesteryears where up to 15 clubs via for honors.

However over the years the numbers of participating clubs have shrunk. There were 4 clubs this year compare to 7 last year.

Something needs to be done by the state tennis governing body to ensure that the tournament does not die a natural death in years to come.

One way is by opening up the tournament to all tennis clubs within the IMT Growth Triangle states instead of confining it to clubs in Penang only.

( by Arthur Chin... original article available by clicking here )

Tennis Section AGM

We held our Tennis Section AGM on 26 March 2010. Most of the committee agreed to stand again and were returned to office unopposed. Datin Lau Mei Aei and Ooi Soon Hong retired from the committee after serving very well last year. We wish to thank them for their service. Wong Poh Lam stepped up to the treasurer post vacated by Soon Hong . Arthur Chin and Haris joined the committee as new members unopposed. We look forward to working with them in the coming year. I also wish to thank the section members for their continued support.

2010 Sakura Cup

PSC vs the Japanese Community of Penang... PSC won 22-11 ... Results were very interesting.. the japanese ladies did quite well, overall they drew with the PSC ladies and won many of the mixed doubles events... Japanese Men lost all their matches vs PSC men... conclusion= Japanese Ladies are GOOD!

Penang Invitational Veteran's Tennis Tournament 11 - 13 Dec 2009

After months of preparation, our Penang Invitational Veteran's Tennis Tournament (PIVTT) was held on 11 - 13 Dec 2009. We had 13 teams participating with almost 200 players representing 4 countries.

In addition to 10 teams from Malaysia, we also had visiting teams from Japan, Thailand and Australia.

Our objective in hosting the tournament was for all the participants and supporters to enjoy themselves. We played tennis over 3 days, enjoying glorious weather throughout.

We raised almost RM50K in funds to finance the tournament and we gave back over 90% of that to the participants in the form of goodie bags, t-shirts, food, drink, entertainment, prizes and prize money.

We had prize money for the champion, the runners ups, the semifinalists, and the plate (loser pool). We also succeeded in ensuring that every team had a reason to come and play on the last day (Sunday) by adding a shield event for the quarterfinal losers. So in the end, 6 of the 13 teams took home prize money and everyone enjoyed plenty of tennis and fun.

The results were as follows

Cup champion - Penang Sports Club Red

Cup runners up - Lakeview Club Subang Jaya

Semifinalists - Penang Sports Club Black and Trang Tennis Club Thailand

Shield champion - Chinese Recreation Club Taiping

Plate Champion - Penang Sports Club Yellow

Judging from the photos, I think you can see that we achieved our objective of making sure everyone enjoy!

On behalf of the organizing committee and the tennis section I want to thank the main sponsor Prince for their generous donations of prizes and balls...

I also want to thank the dozens of other sponsors and club members who generously donated cash, prizes and valuable time to make the event a success. I was especially thankful to Prince for contributing shoe bags and strings for the goodie bags and also to our club members whom we approached for local items to stuff in the goodie bags. I also want to make a special thanks to Datin Lau Mei Aei who's tireless fundraising efforts succeeded beyond all expectations.

Lastly I want to thank the members of my secretariat staff who made my job as Tournament Director so easy and for the whole tournament to run so smoothly.

you can see several hundred photos from the tournament by visiting my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/tedtarg

also, as far as I know...this special lucky draw prize (smelly socks) is still unclaimed....

Straits Settlements Games 4th & 5th Dec

The PSC took a big contingent to Singapore to play the 9th annual Straits Settlements Games against the Singapore Swimming Club and The Melacca Club. This year the games were composed of tennis, football, badminton, squash, table tennis and snooker. Our Toshima-san was captain of the day for Tennis. The first match against Melacca was interrupted by rain, and we had to resume the suspended matches at 8:30 am... despite the early start, we still managed to prevail 4 -2 over Malacca.

Raymond and Dr. Alif enjoyed themselves on the court. Paul and Sasaki were too strong for all their opponents.

The courts at the Singapore Swimming Club were in great condition and we had some intense games against the SSC .

Eventually we also prevailed over the SSC 4-2 . PSC also took home the cup overall.

PSC vs Hat Yai Municipality Tennis Club 14 Nov 2009

This annual event has been deemed the Freddy Choong Cup since 1982 and we took the cup with us to Hat Yai along with one of the stronger teams we’ve had in years for this match on 14 Nov 2009. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the courts in Hat Yai had been beautifully resurfaced and were in tip top condition. I later learned that Police General Pingpang had donated some 9 million Baht to resurface the 9 courts and refurbish all the lighting.

But many of us had difficulty adjusting our timing to the new surface (or was it an aftereffect of the night before?) and we were quickly in jeopardy as a first three pairs (including myself and Jimmy Boon) went down "american breakfast" ( Sausages and Eggs).. Our Ladies Josephine and Keiko put up a good fight as did Nick Chua and Sasaki , but also lost their matches. We were only saved from a kosong by Lisa and Jos.

As usual, our Thai hosts gave us great hospitality with a dinner hosted by 3 VIPs , General Pingpan, Mr. Chinchan (president of Hat Yai Municipality Tennis Club and Member of Parliament), and Ms. Marika (also Member of Parliment). Special thanks also goes to Ah Seng for acting as liaison between our team and the Thai hosts.

General Pingpang gave a special souvenir for all the visiting ladies (ladies only!) and all the team had a great time in Hat Yai and we look forward to winning back the cup when they visit us in 2010!

To see more photos from our Hat Yai trip click here

Mydin Head Malaysian Super Doubles 2009

8 Section members travelled to KL to participate in the Mydin Head Malaysian Seniors Age Group Super Doubles Championships 30 Oct - 1 Nov 2009. This year they had a special event sponsored by 100+ in which the mixed doubles pairs ages had to add up to 100+ years. We were delighted to watch our Jos Fraije and Keiko Sasaki reach the finals of this event despite some tough competition and lots of gruelling matches. Congratulations to Jos and Keiko for being runners up in this great event. Also we must congratulate our Albert Cheah for also reaching the finals and becoming runners up in the 60+ group despite his partner Fadillah Ghani being hampered by some kind of bug and hardly able to move (or is it due to his new young wife?)

you can see more photos of this event by clicking here and here

Dato' Freddie Choong Cup 2009 (Annual Interclub Veterans Team Competition)

PSC again won this annual PLTA interclub veteran's competition held on 31 Oct - 1 Nov 2009

Winner Team PSC Red, 2nd Placing : BMTC, 3rd Placing : Team FTS, 4th Placing : CRC, 5th Placing : PSC Black, 6th Placing : PDC Team

Congratulations to our PSC veterans for another great performance.

PSC vs Kelab Sungai Petani

I always look forward to playing against my old club Sungai Petani. This year we played at home on 24 Oct as part of an annual series with Darts , Badminton, Table Tennis, Hockey and Tennis.

Our Captain of the Day was Ooi Soon Hong, who did an excellent job of pairing our PSC team. I was especially grateful that he made sure I didn't have to play another decider match after doing so in the last two events. I had the pleasure of partnering Luke Leighton against the KSP first pair.

KSP captain Hang brought a full team for the official 5 -1 - 1 event, including some lovely ladies.

but the Penang Sports Club home team was too strong and we prevailed 6 - 1.

ATP Malaysian Open

Lisa and I had a great visit to the ATP Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur after we played the Selangor Club match... If you've never seen top class tennis live and in person you really should plan to go and see next year... You really can't grasp how they hit the ball when you see it on TV. Its amazing to see live....

The first day we saw some great tennis action from Taylor Dent

who was nice enough to hit one of the 'prize' balls to me after he won his match, perhaps with a little persuasion from the friendly prize ball girl...

I won a player's towel... (which i hope they improve the quality of next year... Berdych complained about the towels)....

We also saw a great match with Marcos Baghdatis and Asia #1 Lu Yen Hsun from Taiwan. Baghdatis is one of the most entertaining players to watch on the tour... It was a real pleasure to watch him win this match in 3 hard fought sets.

The tournament was really top class. The venue and the court was excellent...a very exciting group of players . They even had a hawkeye system installed and I could finally get a look at the hi-res cameras that make it work. As an engineer , I've always been fascinated by the technology behind hawkeye... Click here to read an excellent explanation of how hawkeye works.

All in all, it was a great tournament and an incredibly good value opportunity to see world class tennis right here in Malaysia... no need to travel around the world ...can see closer and better live next year in Kuala Lumpur....