Men’s Squash Captain’s Report 2016/2017 Season

The Hong Kong Football Club squash section had another excellent season in the Hong Kong squash league. We fielded 16 Main league teams and 7 Masters teams, together with the 6 Ladies teams as reported by the Ladies Captain.

There were several promotions of teams since the previous season so competition was significantly increased.  We fielded two teams for the first time in both Division 8 and 10, whilst dropping one of our Division 14 teams as players moved up divisions compared to the previous season.

We were particularly successful in our teams playing in the strongest divisions. We won the leagues across the top Divisions 2, 3, 4 with teams HKFC2B and HKFC4 winning the Double in the playoff as well.  Given the ever-increasing strength of these Divisions across Hong Kong this was a remarkable achievement.  Strength was also shown in our mid-ranked teams with division championships in Divisions 7 and 10A, as well as playoff series champions in Division 8 and 11. All 14 of our teams at Division 11 or a higher standard made it to the finals series.

Thanks to the convenors and all the players for sustaining our record of success:

Congratulations go to teams and convenors who led their teams to these titles:

•  HKFC2B – League and Playoff Champions – Convened by Homing Chiu 
•  HKFC3 – League Champion – Convened by Terence Teo
•   HKFC4 – League and Playoff Champions – Convened by James Li
•   HKFC7 – League Champion – Convened by Dave Chan
•   HKFC8B – Playoff Champion – Convened by Philip Ting
•   HKFC10A – League Champion – Convened by Vinod Harjani
•   HKFC11 – Playoff Champion – Convened by Rajesh Mulchand

Besides 8 players who were unbeaten this season (shown in attached table), congratulations also go to the two players who topped the charts as the highest ranked players in their respective divisions:

•          David Champion – Division 5
•          Jeff Leung – Division 11

The league and playoff double by Division 2B team led by Homing Chiu was a historic milestone of success for HKFC squash. Division 2 is the highest amateur division of squash in Hong Kong and the level of play in this division gets stronger from year to year.  Strengthened by bringing in South Africa ex-professional Rudi Willemse (highest world ranking 189) at number 1 this season, Ho Ming’s team brought home an extraordinary 4-1 victory over Kowloon Cricket Club in the playoff final.

Division 4 also had an excellent season led by James Li, strengthened by two young and upcoming players Ray Man and Wilson Chan at 1 and 2 as well as veteran Chris Caves who all newly joined the club this season. HKFC4 were the only team across all of Hong Kong squash in any division that were unbeaten in any match this season!

Other memorable team performances include Terence Teo leading Division 3 to victory in another exceptionally strong division.

Dave Chan brought home a fantastic league championship win on the tough Division 7 Friday night.

Philip Ting and Rajesh Mulchand continued their success as convenors with yet more silverware in consecutive seasons leading Division 8B and Division 11 respectively to playoff championships.

Vinod Harjani led his Division 10 team to victory in a very tight division.

In terms of other strong individual performances, Carmen Lee won all 13 of her games in Main League Division 3 providing a deep support to that team to win the Championship in a particularly tough division. Two of our new members Chris Caves and Charles Ko were unbeaten this season.

Stuart Gates showed incredible improvement through the season in Division 10 and in Division M2.

Finally, Jeff Leung was unbeaten with the most wins of any player across all our teams (18 wins), dominating Division 11 and clearly set for a stronger division next year.

Many thanks go to vice-captain Nathan L’Huillier for all his help throughout the season, in particular for taking up the challenging tours role. I wish him every success as he moves back to Melbourne, and hope he can find a chance to come back and see us often in Hong Kong.

I look forward to building further on our success in the coming season.

Julian Tanner

HKFC Squash Men’s Captain

Team League and Playoff Positions

Highest HK Squash League Ranking Point Players (>5 games and >20 points)

Unbeaten Players in Main League (>5 games)