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.