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Friday, April 6, 2012

First day of the competition

Dear friends and readers

Yes, the tournament kicks off today with Jaz and Tyz playing the first doubles game.

It is 730 am now. I woke up at 6.30 am to prepare breakfast for the team. Man, I do not get up till 930 am every work morning. I have to work harder when I am holidays???

Half the boys are up while the rest are still sleeping. Guess which ones are still sleeping.

The girls have arrived for their breakfast.

Have just managed to copy some of the photos from Yu Li's ipad.

The team waiting for their official photos
I had to redo the photo cos Alex, told me "Uncle, I am cut off from the picture"


The team has finished their breakfast and they are now preparing for their first game mentally. Amos and Jaz were all pumped and ready from last night. I had to hold them back and ask them to sleep off the excitement.

I went to Salamanca market for a quick walk before arriving at the stadium where the first match was taking place between Jaz/Tyz and Tasmania's Lockett and Stratton. 21/14 and 21/9. Our boys easily won in 2 sets. Shelby and Silvi also won in 2 sets at 21/9 and 21/11 against Watkins and Criggie.

This is a good warm up match for the afternoon against NSW 1.

Edmund and Amos are now playing in one court against Ponsonby and Harvey. Phing and Alex in the next court are playing the Ferguson sisters.

Edmund and Amos are at 11/4 leading.

The first set was won by WA at 21/13. The 2nd set was won by Amos and Edmund at 21/15.

The girls won their games at  21/11 and 21/14.

The next games will be the singles.



Titus will be playing his first singles. The other player is much taller but Titus has a big heart. Titus has won his first set at  21/11. He is leading the 2nd set at 11/1.  He won the final set at 21/3. That is a strong start to his singles campaign.

Alex is playing her first singles too.  She is facing a tougher fight. The other girl seems steady.  However Alex is slowly geting more confident and edging ahead. Her high serves are very accurate. She has won the first set at 21/10.

Her confidence is growing. Her game at the net is getting very strong. She has the first set at 11/1. She is still at 17/1. Gee, she is going to finish at 21/1.

Jaz is next on the singles. he is leading at 11/3.  The fist set was won at 21/7. He reached 11/5 and finished at 21/7. 


Silvi is next on the singles. Her opponent is quite strong. The opponent got to 11/8. Silvi lost at 21/13 and 21/12.

Shelby is now playing the other Ferguson sister.  Shelby reached 11/6.  The Tassie player got back to 12/12. This is a closer game. Shelby has to hang on. The girls are trading blows for blows. Shelby dug deep and finished at 21/18 after I got all the boys to cheer her on.  She got to 11/6 again. Her 2nd set was stronger. She finished at 21/11. That is a good solid performance for her first singles debut for WA. Thank you Canada.

Edmund reached 11/0 against his opponent. He finished the first set at 21/3 after giving away 2 points.
He reached 11/5 at the 2nd set. He finished the game at 21/6.

Phing finished her first set strongly at 21/7. She got to 11/1 on the 2nd set. She finished the 2nd set at 20/6.

Amos is starting his singles campaign against Indiana Ponsonby. He lost 4 pts in a row. Tyzton comes to the court and shouts to Amos to wake up.  He gets 1 point. He gets to 4/8 before waking up.  He is now at 9/9 before getting to 11/9.  The other player is putting up a fight. However, Amos stayed focused and finished the game at 21/16 when Ponsonby served into the net. Amos got to 11/6 on the 2nd set before winning.

Tyz /Shelby are starting their mixed doubles.  They got to 11/3 easily.They won their matches comfortably.

Jaz and Silvi also survived a nervous start before finally winning their 2 sets.

Edmund played well with Alex to win in 2 sets.

Unfortunately, we were not able to finish the games in a high note as Amos and Phing could not find any sync and lost in 2 sets to the Tassies.

Looking at Tassie's results, reminds me of the first time I saw the WA players in their first Under 15s. The players were all new and young and short with Phing the only veteran. The first team they played were NSW 1. They were demolished by NSW 1 with Phing winning the only set. WA still managed to get 4th place narrowly missing on a medal. The experience of losing your first game can break a team's spirit and confidence. The WA players have been through lots of challenges and have always risen from their struggles.


Good luck to the Tasmanians for their other games. I am sure this experience will help them improve tremendously and I am sure they will have the heart to beat their next team.

It is back to the apartments. Irene has cooked her special soya sauce pork. It was beautiful with tofu.

I think the team is so lucky to have the parents cooked substantial meals for them.

They are all having a rest before meeting the NSW 1st team. That will be a closer challenge. This is time for sweet revenge from the Under 15s.

2012 Li-Ning June Bevan Trophy

Last updated: Sunday, April 08, 2012 10:58 PM
Print

Western Australia (JBT12) - Tasmania (JBT8): 14-2

Time:Sat 4/7/2012 10:00 AM
Draw:June Bevan Trophy - Box A
Score:14-2
Match overview
OrderEventWestern Australia (JBT12)-Tasmania (JBT8)ScorePoints

Duration
1MD2
Jazton Tan
Tyzton Tan
-
Corey Lockett
Korey Stratton
21-14 21-91-0

0:12
2WD2
Shelby Milne
Silvi Botha
-
June Watkins
Kate Criggie
21-9 21-111-0

0:15
3WD1
Phing Teo
Alexandra Phan
-
Bonnie Ferguson
Daisy Ferguson
21-16 21-141-0

0:22
4MD1
Amos Yi
Edmund Xu
-
Indiana Ponsonby
Aaron Harvey
21-13 21-151-0

0:18
5MS4
Titus Tan
-
Korey Stratton
21-11 21-31-0

0:15
6WS4
Alexandra Phan
-
Kate Criggie
21-10 21-11-0

0:15
7WS3
Silvi Botha
-
Bonnie Ferguson
13-21 12-210-1

0:16
8MS3
Jazton Tan
-
Aaron Harvey
21-7 21-71-0

0:17
9MS2
Edmund Xu
-
Corey Lockett
21-3 21-61-0

0:13
10WS2
Shelby Milne
-
Daisy Ferguson
21-18 21-111-0

0:15
11WS1
Phing Teo
-
June Watkins
21-7 21-61-0

0:20
12MS1
Amos Yi
-
Indiana Ponsonby
21-16 21-111-0

0:20
13XD4
Tyzton Tan
Shelby Milne
-
Corey Lockett
Kate Criggie
21-6 21-91-0

0:14
14XD3
Jazton Tan
Silvi Botha
-
Aaron Harvey
Bonnie Ferguson
21-14 21-61-0

0:15
15XD2
Edmund Xu
Alexandra Phan
-
Korey Stratton
Daisy Ferguson
21-16 21-101-0

0:17
16XD1
Amos Yi
Phing Teo
-
Indiana Ponsonby
June Watkins
17-21 19-210-1

0:15
Statistics

PointsWonDrawsLostMatchesGamesPoints
Western Australia010014-228-4649-363
Tasmania00012-144-28363-649




Thursday, April 5, 2012

Preparing for the start of the tournament

Dear friends and readers

I went to sleep last night at 9 am Tassie time. Got up at 2.30 am wondering what to do. Had to try and get back to sleep and managed to stay asleep till 6 am. This is one of the the longest hrs I have ever slept.

Managed to get breakfast prepared for the team. For lunch, we are having noodles soup with fish balls, meat balls and pork balls.

The boys had to be pushed out of bed to get ready for their training.

The mums yakking before the opening ceremony

I am going fishing with Yuan Wah to try and get some extra supplies for the team. Wish us luck. This is as up to date as you can get on the blog.

Well, Yuan Wah organised for 2 of his work colleagues to drive us to a fishing spot.

When we reached the place, we realised how steep the descent was to the rocks.


Man, that is a steep descent to get to the fishing spot



The beginning of the descent with Yan Wah, Darren and Wai


It was a good day fishing although Yuan Wah did most of the work. The ones I caught were too small and had to be released.


1st fish






















Yuan Wah and his fishes
Yuan Wah did the cleaning of the fishes and we BBQ some of them for the players. They enjoyed the fresh taste.

I skipped the official dinner and went with Touk Krei, Irma, Irene and Yuan Wah for a good fish dinner.


First official team photo. Yu Li has better shots and I will copy from her ipad tomorrow.


The dinner at the Waterfront






Five about to sleep beauties.



It has been a long day. Time to sleep. Night.

The team departs for Tassie

The 2012 June Bevan State Team

























































































































The team with parents and supporters



The team departs for Tassie. This looked like de ja vu for me. Did I not do this 2 years ago with Jaz and Tyz in the Under 15s'?

Well the boys are bigger now and have more training than when they went for their first national competition.

I still recall the first Under 15s when they were just 11 and 13 years of age. When they saw the first team, they were totally dwarfed and over-awed. I still remember Olivier saying "why they so tall"

There were group photos taken and the BAWA president Judith was kind enough to see everyone off.


Amos, Tyz , Jaz, Edmund and Titus at the departure lounge







John , Irma and Silvi



Titus with mum and dad


The Tans


The Teos

The Phans



The Xus

Shelby , Judith and Kay


Alex , Phing and Shelby are travelling alone although Shelby's parents will be meeting her in Tassie.

There were some emotional hugs as the girls said goodbye to their families.

I have been hard at work planning the meals for the team. I am only concerned that with the requirement to drive, I may not be able to cook. Thank god for Irene. Touk Krei and Irma.


On the flight I was surprised to see  a familiar face sitting next to me with his wife. It was Peter Cooper. I had played against him in pennants organised by BAWA. He was always the tough opponent.

I had a long chat with him and found out that he also represented Australia  in 4 Commonwealth games and was also one of Australia's no. 1 for over 6 years in the 1960s.

It really is a shame that all these histories are not recorded and easily searchable on the Internet in this modern age.

Their glory and history may be glimpsed when you visit the BAWA office and see some plaque on the wall. I even recall a photo of a young Paul Kong with a full head of hair.

The flight was delayed for 40 mins because some idiot checked in his luggage and then failed to board.

They had to go through all the luggage to remove the luggage of the idiot.

Most of the team have gone to sleep cos its is now 12 am. I am used to staying up late working and will have trouble sleeping lthough I know I should cos I have to drive.

We are supposed to have a 2 hr wait in Melbourne during the transit.

Touk Krei is already in Tassie as she had to catch an earlier flight. She warned us that the cafes at Melbourne airport will not be open when we arrive.

However as we had been delayed in Perth, we had to play catchup with no time to even go to the loo before we had to report at the next checkin.




The team landing at Tassie




We arrived at Tassie at 7 am. The place is not as cold as we thought it would be.

The accommodation was better than expected. The boys and my family are sharing a big 3 bed room house. Feels just like home.

The house kitchen will be used as the main dining room.

The team had a walk to the town for breakfast. Hobart is much busier than what I had expected.

After breakfast, it was time to force the boys to take a power nap of at least 1 hr as they had their sleep routine totally ruined by the red eye flight to Tasmania.

The team went to the stadium for their first training session. The parents including myself went to look for groceries.

There was a huge discussion between the parents as to what to buy. It is amazing how a democratic process evolves and each parents volunteers their skills and contribution.

It was decided to do a BBQ for the first day as the weather was so good. The BBQ spot looks great and we had lamb, beef and sausages. The chicken sausages were free range chicken which was a luxury. I was told by Irene they were on sale.






The parents relaxing


The boys having dinner

The girls having dinner


Irene and YuLi


Edmund practising his Kiwi Haka which will be used to taunt the opponents


Tyz's haka



Sleepy heads, Amos and Jaz

The team is settling in well and the parents have worked out what each has to do. The common question was why are we going through all these trouble? Cooking and cleaning, running around! Is that not what we do for our kids. Just hope they appreciate what we do.



Sunday, April 1, 2012

Special Sunday games

Dear friends and readers

The boys got up early for a breakfast of bacon and eggs and hash browns. I am told that during the Under 19's competition , Nick Kidd, the coach, would not allow such a heavy breakfast as it would slow the players down. What do I know other than that the Under 19s won a bronze team medal.

As mentioned in my last blog, Paul coaches Tyzton, Edmund and Amos on Sundays. This was the last chance for Paul to throw the boys some extra tips before departing to Tassie.

The boys started the morning well against the following invited players :

Chai
Tony
Anthony
Donald
Ed and Gwen Bitao
Alfonsus
Lee

Some of the players with Paul Kong and parents



It was a good morning workout for the boys. The boys managed to win most of their games despite playing against the older and more experienced players.

Paul was quite pleased with the results although Amos did not play as he was resting under his mother's orders. We have to thank the players who turned up for the games.

After the game,we went to Ten Ten for chicken rice. 

I was talking to TouK Krei re the arrangements for meals when we are at Tassie. Kay indicated that the budget was quite tight and it seems we cannot even order take away pizza :) .

I suggested that her husband should bring his fishing rod to Tassie so that he can catch our dinner. He is quite an accomplished fisherman. I suppose if the team depended on me to bring fish to the table, my wife will say they will probably go hungry.

The night will be sent packing for the trip. Bye till we are at Tassie.