International Squash Friendly Event - HKFC vs Singapore and Hong Kong American Clubs: Saturday 12 March 2016 (bringing clubs and players together). 

By Channi Matharu and Steve Gollop

The Football Club Squash section played host to a joint American Club team comprising players from Singapore and Hong Kong in this friendly fixture.  With the final line-up consisting of 21 players in each team, the first highlight of the afternoon was the team photo, scheduled for 3.20 pm using state-of-the-art photographic equipment (well it was in 1930); enthusiasm for the event was evident with virtually all players present on the squash courts, looking their best for the team snap.

This was a Masters event drawing players from M2 to M4 to match the ability of the touring team and  to ensure that players got a good amount of time on court to build up a thirst and appetite for the apres squash activities in the bar. To this end the three lowest seeds played a round robin on court 6, 2 games to 11. 1 point for a win, 1/2 point each for a draw; all other matches were singles, best of 5 to 11. Although our team was entirely Masters, intel available to our intrepid convener Mr Gollop, suggested that two of the Singapore contingent were not and so Ajay and William were forewarned.

Fred Teng getting physical with Tom Burns (HK AMC) !!

The matches were played in a friendly spirit as was expected but not without a competitive streak typified by Iris Sung who, when asked how she was getting on, stated her intent quite clearly - "I'm down 2-1 but I'm going to get him"; get him she did in 5 hard fought games. Elsewhere on court 6 Simon Ho had a hard battle, losing out narrowly in the fifth; all in all, seven of the eighteen matches played went to the fifth game. The round robin event was also a closely fought affair with the scores level at 4.5 each at the end of 18 games.  

Home court advantage clearly featured prominently on court 7 where the final result was HKFC 10, AMC 2.5 with the Daves (Cross and Murray), Edward Griffiths , Ajay and Elliot producing a clean sweep (regardless of the efforts of Mr. Griffiths who gave up a 7-1 advantage in the fifth game and then came back from 10-8 down to finally bring it home 13-11!)  . Elsewhere matters were extremely close where on Court 1 it was a draw at 5.5 points each, Court 2 a narrow win for the FC (5.5 - 5) and Court 5 (the one with artificial hips, knees and bad backs) a resounding win for the tourists at  5 - 8.5. With proceedings on court being concluded at about 5.30pm, the overall result stood at 30.5 - 26 to the home team, a slightly flattering result given just how closely contested almost every game was.

Iris Sung holds off Tan Eng Sun (Singapore AMC)

Thereafter and in time honoured fashion, the results were discussed and games analysed over a few jars of jungle juice followed by 35 attending a long and very sociable dinner, during which (squash) shirts were exchanged and shields were presented. Quote of the evening goes to James Ng the Singaporean convener who on passing a commemorative shield to Tom Burns (HK AMC convener), mentioned that it was known regionally that they had plenty of space in their trophy cabinet!

As ever, the Club looked after us exceptionally well and a big thank you to the catering staff who not only produced excellent Singapore Noodles, but also moved us inside at very short notice, when it became clear that 6 degrees outside on the Sportsman’s patio would be rubbing salt in to the Singaporean wounds.