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| 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 21st 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
1st Round – Aaron vs Bye
2nd Round – Aaron vs Wong Jia Lee 30 – 4
3rd Round – Aaron vs Ng Ee Hern 30 – 16
4th 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
1st Round – Ryan vs Hadrian Soh 28 – 30
BOYS DOUBLES U12
1st Round – Ryan/Aaron vs Tan Shau Heng/Daryl Foo 23 – 30
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| The brothers before their doubles match. |
