2016 10th HKFC International Squash 3s (by Dallas Reid)

The Club was delighted to host the 10^th International Squash 3’s event from the 27^th to 29^th May. This is a hugely successful event comprising of a series of matches between teams of 3 players (hence the name) with a maximum of 4 in a squad. Even with 4 players this is a pretty tough event as teams have to play two and sometimes three matches in one day. There are Mens, Ladies, and Masters categories with the former two attracting some very high level players from around the region. Making this an even more special occasion, squash Legend Geoff Hunt MBE, had agreed to attend the event, and host a Q&A session at the lunch following the finals on the Sunday.

Victorious Perrier Kowloon Cricket Club Team with Geoff Hunt

(Yeung Ho Wai (C) , Ng Ka Yiu, Anthony Lau, Chris Lo)

Running more or less alongside this event, was the annual PSA event, which is a professional squash event with many of the higher ranked players in the world attending including Hong Kong’s own Max Lee, Leo Au and sister Annie, all top 20 world ranked players. This gave the 3’s players plenty of amazing squash to watch and some of the Pro’s even agreed to play in the 3’s after they had exited from the PSA event.

The pros entertaining us – Jenny Duncalf and Annie Au in action

This combination also meant that the squash section’s powers of organization were stretched to their limits, but as ever the event was magnificently and efficiently run, with special thanks due to David Murray, Phil Head, and Dave Cross. In addition to the section’s own organisers, Steve Cubbins of Squashsite kept the world squash community fully up to speed on events. Somehow he was able to run between matches to take great photographs, prepare match reports, and then update the Squashsite website with all the information before the end of the day. Anyone interested in seeing a full set of his pictures of the 3’s event can find them on https://plus.google.com/photos/+SteveCubbins/albums/6289564185630157761 or visit his site at squashsite.co.uk for all sort of great squash related pictures and information.

After a tough three days of squash, Perrier KCC emerged as the winners with a squad of three young and super-fit players, narrowly beating out the international challenge from the Singapore Stingers.

Ladies winners Squash Energy Team from Shanghai with Geoff Hunt

(Li Dong Jin, Gu Jin Yue, Hong Shen (C))

Squash Energy won the Ladies event, whilst “I can’t believe they’re not better”, a motley crew looking suspiciously like the HK Club’s M1 team confounded their own name by snatching the Masters trophy.

Masters winners looking very pleased with themselves -

‘I can't believe they're not better’ (David Robinson, James Barrington, Gillem Tulloch, Dallas Reid (C))

After the finals most players enjoyed an excellent lunch put on in the Chairman’s bar and after enjoying the food and several bottles of sparkling wine, were entertained by James Barrington interviewing Geoff Hunt, after which the floor was thrown open and a very interesting Q&A session followed.

“I don’t care if you’re called Barrington, I’ll still thrash you!”