HKFC Perrier International Squash Tournament (by Steve Gollop)
Two unique squash tournaments were played at the Football Club in October, when over consecutive weekends, players from The Indonesian National Team, The British Army Team, The HK Sports Institute and our own Club competed in both Mens and ladies singles competitions.
The Tournament came about through the desire of the Indonesian National Team to play in a testing tournament as part of their build up to the 2015 SEA games and the fortuitous identical timing of the visit by the British army.
The Club offered excellent hospitality to both touring sides, which included temporary membership and daily training facilities, whilst Chris Clark (a long time friend of the club) was instrumental in running the logistics of the tournament. In addition to the extensive support of the Club, Vincent Wan provided very generous sponsorship via Perrier, which greatly added to the success and enjoyment of the event.
The format of 16 players each playing 4 matches produced some excellent squash, with every game vital in achieving final position. In the first session played on Sunday the 5th, special mention should be made of the British Army Team who arrived spot on time and ready for action, despite the fact that they only arrived from the UK on the previous night!
With a number of victories, the Indonesian team quickly asserted just how good they were, signaling their intention to take the majority of the silverware in both competitions. Individually, mention should be made of Lincoln Chan (HKFC) who battled out a long match against Eris Setiawan (INA) narrowly losing 3-2. Earlier, 11 year old Renee Wu (HKFC) played an exceptional match against the British Army No1 Rosie Hamilton, eventually losing to this very strong player 3-1.
The second session was played out on Saturday 11th and being finals day, the squash just got better. In the Ladies final, Catur Yuliani (INA) came back from 2-0 down to win the match and cited the size of the Perrier Trophy as her inspiration! Meanwhile, Chan Ho Ching (HK Sports Institute) came back from 2-0 down to take 3rd place from Yessy Gitawati (INA). This still left 3 of the 4 lady INA squad finishing in the top 5.
In the men’s competition, special mention should be made of Ho Fai Chiu, who in winning the Men’s tournament pushed the very strong Mens Indonesian National team into 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places respectively. A tremendous achievement, especially when you consider that he only dropped 1 game in the whole tournament.
Top 3 positions;
Ladies :-
- Catur Yuliani (INA)
- Rosie Hamilton (Army)
- Chan Ho Ching (HK sports institute)
Men:-
- Ho Fai Chiu (HKFC)
- Ade Furkon (INA)
- Sandi Arishma (INA)
The whole tournament was played in the best of spirits and I would also like to thank the markers who volunteered for the final Saturday and significantly enhanced the afternoon for the players and organizers.
It all ended with over 50 attending the awards dinner in the evening where the Trophies were presented and very appreciative speeches were made by Sandy Surjo for the Indonesian National Team and Major General Tyrone Urch CBE for the Army, both of whom were very happy with the progress of their respective teams during their stays in Hong Kong and extremely complimentary towards HKFC. After the formalities, team challenges (initiated by the Indonesian Team) and some drinking continued long into the night!
We hope we can host similar events in the future, we should be very proud of the hospitality extended by all at the club to our visitors. Having helped in their preparation, we now wish the British Army victory in their future matches against the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, and for the Indonesian National Team, we wish them every success in the 2015 SEA games.
Sandi Arishma (INA) Ade Furkon (INA) Ho Fai Chiu (HKFC) Catur Yuliani (INA) Rosie Hamilton (British Army) Chan Ho Ching (HK Sports Institute)
Awards dinner outside Sportsman’s which over 50 attended
Anthea Yung (FC) putting pressure on Irma Maryaini (INA), but ultimately went down 0-3, and finished 6 overall, our best placed lady.
Kristy Chung (FC) stretching to a return shot from Paulina Radus (INA) in a very close match which Kristy finally lost 2-3.
Vivi Sclosser (FC) digs the ball out of the corner in her local derby match with Nicol Cheung (FC), which Nicol won 3-1.
Another local derby with Tim Fan (FC) battling with Malcolm Kerr (FC) for 7th place. Malcolm went on to win 3-1.
