KEJOHANAN BADMINTON PIALA PUSINGAN HARI MERDEKA 2014



L to R : Aaron, Thaanesh & Jia Jie

This was PBVKL’s third tournament this year. After their disastrous first tournament, they had cleaned up their act in the second one. However, their poor organisation reared its ugly head once again here. Not only was the publicity poor, but they also failed to publish the draw on time. Therefore, we went into the tournament blindly unaware who the boys will be playing against.

Aaron had just recovered from a spell of bad cough and fever - no thanks to the dry spell the country is now experiencing. Furthermore, his mid-term school exam had just concluded the week before. Therefore, he was a little short in fitness coming into this tournament.

When we arrived at the Champions badminton hall in Kepong, Ryan immediately searched for the draw. He immediately reported to me in dismay that he was up against the defending champion, Lim Chun Yeh in the first round. I was disappointed with the draw but instead of brooding over the bad luck, I worked on Ryan’s mind in the hope that he will not be distracted by it. It didn’t work. He went down 22 – 30. This is the third time Ryan lost to Lim Chun Yeh this year.

Aaron’s was at the bottom half – thus avoiding both favourites Lim Chun Yeh and Tan Jia Jie. However, in his half, he will face with last year’s Piala Merdeka Champion, Thaanesh Devar whom Aaron lost to him by just 1 single point. Despite being a little lethargic, I told Aaron to put everything into the game. It was a tense game as Aaron took the first set. I knew he had a chance, so I advised him to play a patient game in the second set to force Thaanesh into making mistakes. It didn’t work. Thaanesh upped his game and won the second set. In the decider, we change tactics by pressing Thaanesh with smashes. The game went Aaron’s way and he finally won.

In the final against Tan Jia Jie, I felt it was a one sided game as Aaron committed mistakes after mistakes and made it difficult for himself to give a decent challenge. In the end he exited tamely in straight sets.    

In the U12 doubles, both brothers were out of sorts and were not at their best going down disappointingly in the first round to Lim Chun Yeh & Willi Wong. 

Despite Aaron’s lack of fitness, he was blessed with a favourable draw and made it to the final after all. Ryan on the other hand was not so lucky, as he bowed out in the first round both in the singles and doubles matches. He return home empty handed. Next week, both brothers will participate in the Flex Pro U12 Junior League and I hope Ryan can redeem himself what he failed to deliver here.

BOYS SINGLES U12

1^st Round - Ryan vs Lim Chun Yeh             22 – 30

 1^st Round – Aaron vs  Oon Zhi Yung         30 – 7

2^nd Round – Aaron vs Mohd Hafiz             30 – 28

Qtr Final – Aaron vs Ham Yet Joe               30 – 15

Semi-Final – Aaron vs Thaanesh Devar      22 – 20, 15 – 21, 21 - 17

Final-Aaron vs Tan Jia Jie                              12 – 21, 18 – 21

BOYS DOUBLES U12

1^st Round – Ryan/Aaron vs Lim Chun Yeh/Willi Wong                       22 - 30

PBVKL “PIALA PUSINGAN BELIA KL 2014”

In this Tournament, only Lim Chun Yeh stood in their way. 

This is the second instalment of PBVKL’s tournament in 2014 held in Champions Badminton Hall in Taman Kepong, KL. This was a much better organised tournament than the first one in Stadium Badminton Cheras KL although some of the nets with gaping holes needed replacing.

Ryan was on song in this tournament. In his quarter final match against a gutsy Hossin, Ryan was trailing 0 – 7 and 10 – 15 before the changeover. We noticed Hossin left a sizeable gap in front of the net and during the break we pointed to him to take the net. His caught up and eventually persevered and won the match 30 – 25.

In the semi finals, Ryan met Lim Chun Yeh again whom he lost a week ago at the Sunlight tournament. This time Ryan fought tooth and nail all the way to rubber set and was leading 19 – 17. Somehow, Lim Chun Yeh found it in his reserves to force a deuce 20 – 20.  Then two winners from Chun Yeh rendered Ryan second time unlucky going down 20 - 22. He was in tears but we consoled him because he had displayed marked improvement in prolonging his rallies and making successful front lunges. Most of all, his mental approach to this tournament was exemplary.

Aaron was not very much troubled in his run up to the final but I noted his game was smeared with bits of silly errors. He may be trying out some stuff and I was not very convinced that he was heeding to our advice.  In the final vs Lim Chun Yeh, his body language after coming out short in the first set did not look very good. Lim Chun Yeh had all the answers to his attempts and he was getting frustrated as the game progressed. Up to the last third of the second set, Aaron snapped and flung his racquet out of frustration. The game was lost after that.

In the U12 doubles, the brothers were also untroubled until the semi finals against Times BA duo of Kingston Tan and Lee Chen Shen.  Both of them were lanky and had strong smashes. It was a contest of fast exchanges between both pairs. The brothers was overwhelmed in the first set but made a strong came back in the second. In the decider, both brothers could not last the pace and their defence began showing signs of cracks with many unforced errors. At last, they conceded to the better pair. Both Kingston and Lee eventually became champions.

While Ryan struck a right tune in this tournament, we cannot say the same for Aaron. We saw the untamed side him let loose in the heat of the moment. Despite the glittering medals the boys brought back home, there wasn’t much celebration to it. Maybe it was due to lack of product sponsors or monetary reward and the boys must have sense that taking losses badly is not very sportsman like. I talked this over with Aaron’s but this young man with little words may need his own time and space for this. This is what he will get.

BOYS SINGLES U12

1^st Round – Aaron vs  Bye

2^nd Round – Aaron vs Lee Choon Shen    30 – 22

3^rd Round – Aaron vs S. Khabilan              30 – 16

Qtr Final – Aaron vs Wong Hong Yuan     30 – 27

Semi-Final – Aaron vs Roslin                        21 – 9, 21 – 11

Final-Aaron vs Lim Chun Yeh                       17 – 21, 12 – 21

1^st Round – Ryan vs Hosinth Rao                  30 – 12

2^nd Round – Ryan vs Muhd Taufik Faisal     30 –  9

3^rd Round – Ryan vs Chai Chun Hong          30 – 11

Qtr Final – Ryan vs Hossin                             30 – 25

Semi-Final – Ryan vs Lim Chun Yeh           21 – 19, 9 – 21, 20 – 22

BOYS DOUBLES U12

1^st Round – Ryan/Aaron vs Zairi Idris/Chai Chun Hong                      30 – 12

Qtr Final – Ryan/Aaron vs Hosinth/Pavithran                                      30 – 22

Semi-Final – Ryan/Aaron vs Kingston Tan/Lee Chen Shen                16 – 21, 22 – 20, 12 – 21

KEJOHANAN BADMINTON PBWKL, PBVKL “PIALA PUSINGAN WPKL 2014”

Aaron (centre) receives RM50, medal & cert for Boys U12 Singles Runners-Up.
His club mates, Jie Yang (L) & Darren (R) made it to the semis for Boys U12 Doubles.

I had an uneasy feeling about this tourney because based on last year’s experience, the quality of this tournament left much to be desired. It was originally scheduled on 15 & 16 Feb 2014 but was later postponed to 22 & 23 Mar. These were tell-tale signs that insufficient thought process was put into it.

When the draw was published in www.sportscentral.com.my in the evening on 21^st Mar, my worst fears came true. It was a sketchy hand-written draw without match number and time. I had to call twice to clarify the confusion as I belief many parents/coaches would have done the same.

The person behind the phone number verbally informed that U10 & U12 will start at 9am and finished by noon, followed by U14 in the afternoon and U16 to be played in the evening. The intention was to complete all U10 & U12 in the morning so as we do not have to wait the whole day. This was far from the truth.

Because there was no match number and time, we had to be jailed in the stadium to listen to the announcer to bark out names of players all the time. Secondly, the majestic Stadium Badminton Cheras had 10 courts but was not fully used at any one time. There were insufficient empires let alone schooling kids taking the high chair without linesmen and worst of all, with only one playing shuttle.

To cut the long tale short, we had to wait until 6pm before all U10 & U12 completed their singles (up to last 16) & doubles matches (up to quarter final). At the end of the day, the boys and I were mentally drained. This agitation was aggravating when Ryan had to bow out in both singles & doubles in the first round. What was agonisingly disappointing in the singles was that Ryan had beaten his opponent just a week ago in a friendly match. In the doubles, both brothers also went down uncharacteristically to the SJK(C) Puay Chai No.1 doubles who eventually took the boys U12 doubles title.

Only Aaron was left to battle alone in the boys U12 singles which lifted our otherwise insipid weekend by making a fine run up to the finals before bowing out.

In the end, although the organisers tried hard to make up for their blunder on the second day,  only Aaron gave us something to cheer about  and lifted our dampened spirits.  Otherwise, this will surely go down as one of the most poorly organised public tournament we have participated in.

BOYS SINGLES U12

1^st Round – Aaron vs  Bye

2^nd Round – Aaron vs Wong Jia Lee          30 – 4

3^rd Round – Aaron vs Ng Ee Hern              30 – 16

4^th Round – Aaron vs Jason Cheng            30 – 21

Qtr Final – Aaron vs Mohd Haris Sufian      30 – 21

Semi-Final – Aaron vs Chew Chen Hong    21 – 15, 16 – 21, 21 – 19

Final – Aaron vs Tan Jia Jie                      17 – 21, 15 - 21

1^st Round – Ryan vs Hadrian Soh               28 – 30

BOYS DOUBLES U12

1^st Round – Ryan/Aaron vs Tan Shau Heng/Daryl Foo      23 – 30

The brothers before their doubles match.