Happy new year to all. 2014 is almost behind us and we will start playing 40+ balls soon. Good luck to all in your game and have a strong & healthy 2015.
Make it a point to have some of the rallies you see from this 6 minute clip, published today. Merry Christmas!
Anthony Yeh (’69) had a good rally with a few members and friends of our table tennis team during his visit in Toronto. Click the image to see more pictures.
We had a fun day with the New Horizon charity tournament yesterday. Although we were not able to advance to the second round of the tournament, we tried out a variety of combination of double partnership for our future tournaments.
Team A lost to Ying Wah Boys B and DBS A team and beat Raimondi school in the preliminary round.
Thanks to Andrew who came to support us and took pictures for the event.
We not only shared the good time among our alumni, we also shared the fun with alumni of other schools. We even shared the bragging right for the tournament with them this year — the championship title. We will return next year to claim it back, right?
For Team B, we lost to YWC Team A (0-3) and CCS (0-3) and beat DBS Team B (3-0) in Pool #2 but Tim, George, Johnson & Wilfred had a lot of fun today.
Click here to view a video clip from OMNI TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YA6gQ6xQEs
Note: Service tactics change, players’ low cg, follow through and foot recovery !
Now we have two teams established to enter the New Horizon Lion’s Club event to be held on Sep 14 from 1-7pm. The team members are Mike Yam, David Ho, Bill Ip, Chris Tam, Wilfred Wei, Tim Cheung, George Cheng and Johnson Leung.
We already had two sessions of practice on last two Thursdays. We need a lot more practice to have a good mix of the double partnership which might prove important to in some matches. Please come to participate in the practice as well as have fun.
Please make sure you are available and be present on Sep 14 from 12 till 7pm. We have to be there one hour before the start of the tournament.
Nigeria’s Segun Toriola produces an incredible defensive display to win a 41-shot rally against Singapore’s Ning Gao during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. This match was part of the Men’s Team – Table Tennis tournament. Singapore would go on to defeat England for the Gold Medal while Nigeria defeated India for the Bronze.
2014 Hong Kong Inter-School Alumni Associations (HKISAA) table tennis tournament was held on Saturday June 28th. 16 teams from alumni associations of 12 schools participated. WYKAAO Team B captured the 2nd runner-up prize in the consolation competition. Click here to see more pictures.
Here is the good news:
We are sending in 2 teams :
Team A: David Ho (captain), Mike Yam, Allan & Michael Luk (as defending champion) seeded #1
Team B Wilfred Wei (acting captain), Bill Ip, Chris Tam, Jeff Mah.
All school logo will be featured on the big banner (Kenny Wan in charge) we produced last year with the money gathered. We will bring our own Association banner.
See below for rules & participation schools in this 17 team event.
http://www.hkisaa.ca/rules.html
No waiver needs to be signed BUT every player MUST arrive at 9 am on 6/28 Saturday (we have keys to get doors open early for practice since we have many matches to finish by 6 PM.)
We need to submit names by latest 6/21 to form tables ($30 per head all inclusive) at the presentation banquet at Fancy Restaurant (14th & Kennedy) starting at 7 PM. Need players and alumni to sign up. I am attending.
Here is the not so great news
Group 1
If we lose to KC in round robin, we play top team from Group 2. MSC Team A for final 4. If we emerge as winner, the journey is much easier and we get into final 4 for sure with a shot of playing for gold against LSC Team A
Group 2
Group 3
If our Team B comes out 2nd in this group , we get into final 8 but face LSC Team A. If we beat CCS (good luck to us ) we could potentially beat DBS to get into final 4 .
Group 4
Above are all pre game predictions every team is betting on but we had a bad draw for Team A last year and came out as the first winner on this HKISAA Cup.
We need all the cheer leaders and photographers to present that day and volunteers to join the Presentation dinner (last year Jeff, Andrew, Chris (not available this time) and I attended.
Ben Zhao Ping Cheng (CCTTA) has agreed to be Referee (replacing the less experience Vincent from last year. Jeff Wong has to officiate a Butterfly main tourney at MTTC that day, not available. Ben calls all games & schedule (who plays who after round robin as he is the highest rank official referee Kenny Wan was able to get for this tourney).
It bled my heart to watch live HK went down to Japan in nail biting games. I thought we had a shot going into the 2014 World Team final against mighty China, with an upset this morning despite logic tells me otherwise.
The local crowd/supporters made a huge difference, as expected, in this semi final outcome. Japan won 3-1 in three 5 set winners with plenty of drama.
The critical game is Game 3 when 吳穎嵐 was up 2-0 (down 0-5 in 2nd) against 平野 早矢香 and could clinch the all important 3rd game to give HK a 2-1 lead overall. I thought the upset on the way against home court favorite. >From the game line up. We will clinch the game with a tight 3-2 in 5th set with veteran 姜華珺 strategically placed to face a lesser Japanese competitor in the final and deciding game.
Ng collapsed in Set #4, lost momentum, fought a good battle in 5th set and lost (too tentative in her last 3 sets. Wits made a slight difference in the final outcome). That sealed the final outcome of this semi final.
Game 4 was a nail biter but 李皓晴 (#14 World ranking with a great climb in ranking this year) has never beaten 石川佳純 (was #8, currently #9). Lee played fearlessly and went down in 5 sets and I consider that a major boost in confidence going forward for this young lady. BRAVO. She won the only point on record for Hong Kong in the opening game against Yuka Ishigaki (石垣優香), who was recent Egypt Open winner (a medium pip chopper) and could have been the heroine of the day. She is a passionate player like 石川佳純 who wept after clinching her 2nd 5 setter winner over Hong Kong.
The two 21 years old HK born & trained players LEE & NG are a big part of the HK team future success and should hold their heads high going forward.
So bring your friends to 6/28/2014 HKISAA Table Tennis Tourney at CCTTA and cheer for our team even if you are not playing.
SUPPORT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!
We are the defending champion but opponent strength has been deepened and they have home court advantage in a way. Re-ignite your passion and support our team (s)!
You can watch the games on tape now on http://www.ittf.com/ittv/
Go WYK go! Come to the Game on 6/28/2014 Saturday from 9.30 am to 6.00 pm and join banquet after. We need your help!