Games today:

Games tomorrow:

The spirit of our female players (volleyball(F)prelim vs KR)

Back from the “long weekend” of Chinese New Year, all guys and girls had experienced a rather joyful time. Now the IHG came back and every Rafflesian was ready to fight for the honor of our RH. For the honor we play, and for the reputation we enjoy. What was more important than the game should be our spirit shared with all the raffles guys: Never give up!

The first game of this new round was volleyball female’s prelim, RH vs KR, which attracted a number of Rafflesin. It started at 6pm, when all the female players gathered at the court of SRC ---- Lim Pooi Yin, Xu Sijia, Lau Wai Pheng, Ang Shu Shing, Melissa Ho Mei Lin, Tang Lin and Sila Gurung. It seemed that the KR volleyball team became our valued opponent, but in the following one hour, they would demonstrate what the Raffles spirit should be like by their marvelous performance during the match; and undoubtedly, they were our proud from the Raffles Hall, as well.

In the first round of the game, our players began their competition really hard. After a little falling behind at 0:3, they successfully saved one strong attack from the KR and got their first score in today’s match. Then the opportunity seemed to treat the KR team much better, although our heroines did whatever they could to pass, dink and spike toward their opponents. The court became alive as all the supporters shouted out to cheer for the Raffles team: “JIA YOU, Raffles!” Several minutes later, our players performed quite a brilliant pass to confuse the opponents, and they made a mistake while adjusting their positions. All the girls jumped and cheered for this wonderful score. After that, the female players played much better, since they tried not to make any misplay and ran faster to save the ball. Even though the first round was lost at 6:25, we could hold our chance to the second round.

Throughout the second round, our girls played even better than the previous one. The open was not bad, from 1:2 to 4:5 ---- the female players did not leave any chance to the opponent. As the match continued, I believe every Rafflesian watching the game was impressed by the excellent performance of our heroines. Although the KR team could hold more offensive lines than us, although some our attacking shots were set aside by a tall girl in the KR team, the Raffles spirit was really the backstone of our female players. The game preceded score by score, 5:9, 8:10, 11:14 ---- the opponent could not enlarge their advancement quite significantly. Then at 11:22, our girls made two attacking service directly to the back court of the KR team, and of course they scored twice! At last the game ended with 13:25, but these two scores gave every supporter a deep impression.

Never give up! And we are waiting for the next match…

Score: 6:25 13:25

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For the honor of Raffles! (Squash Prelims, M&F vs SH)

Although it was quite rainy on the first day of February of 2008, there were two really great and splendid matches performed by our brave and confident Rafflesians that heated up the entire NUS. They are the IHG squash Prelims, Male and Female, both of which were against Sheares Hall and held in the squash courts in SRC. At 7pm, the just beginning, the courts were very alive with glorious players and passionate supporters from all the six halls, among whom we could find our friends from Raffles in our Hall T-shirt of green, the color of the lovely nature and the spirit of sports. After the players’ warming-up session, with the non-stop cheering for Raffles Team from the audience, our brilliant heroes started their wonderful games, not only for their own performance but also for the honor of Raffles!
For the female’s prelim, Tan Rui was the first player of our team and actually had quite a hard game with her Sheares opponent. During the game, every collision between the ball and the wall attracted the supporters’ attention and we could feel the willingness for the success from each of her shoots. We had to admit that the SH player seemed a little more skillful than her, but she had given this match a really amazing start, which would be continued by her teammates.

The follower was Tan Yiling and she also tried all her best to compete with her challenger from SH. She made several quick scores with some smart defense and deserved the cheers especially for her. In the few more rounds, she made more troubles for the SH. Leanne, our third player of the match, again showed us what the spirit of Raffles was. Even though she looked quite tired in the second game, she still ran very fast in order to save one cunning serve, which also impressed our supporter and even the friends for Sheares Hall.

Then our fourth Raffles Heroine walked onto the stage ---- Tan Eileen. With the help of each strong shook and clever defense, she took out all her energy and courage to complete all her three games. With the long-time ovation from RH supporters, she defeated her opponent in her first game, and the very first winning of female’s match. Then in the second game she played even better, although unluckily it ended with last score grabbed by SH. But the game was going on and the performance was really high; Eileen did not give up, but concentrated on each score and converted the last game into her showing stage. When her caught her 10th point and finally won her set, all the Rafflesians jumped and shouted out for the coming victory. After that, the fifth player, Stella See Soon Fang, gave a wonderful ending to the female’s Prelim. Anyway, it was not important whoever took over the match, but the most meaningful part was the spirit of sports, which had been well illustrated by our brave girls.

Now let’s move to the male’s Prelim, which presented us as much joyful and inspiring sentiment as the female’s game. The first guy who stepped down on the court was Zhu Yaodong, and he completed all his three games. In the first one, he gained really an immense advantage over his opponent ---- began the game with a 3 vs 0 and finished it even at 9 vs 2! But the success was never that easy to enjoy. In the second game, he had to spend more his energy to struggle with that opponent. After a little loss of 0 vs 2 in the beginning, both players carried out whatever they had practiced in the vacation and grabbed the serves time and again. Then the third game was very similar, since they began perfect competition and served alternatively even at 1 vs 1 round. All in a word, a breathtaking game!

The next chance to challenge SH was taken by Chen Zhanjiang, who won the first game, as well. In that first game, he continuously got 6 scores from 1-1 until 7-1, which I guess deserved to be a surprise to the Raffles guys. Maybe the second game was not the lucky time for him, but this did not affect him any more and he never forgot the spirit of Raffles. Facing the stronger shook from the SH player in the third game, Zhanjiang tried to save each ball and took every possibility to gain score. After this game, I’m he could proudly declare: I’ve done my best for the Raffles!

After watching these two games, Yee Jiun Jeh, the third player of Male’s Prelim began his part. What a pity! He did not pick away any point from the opponent, although he never stopped running inside the court to shoot and save. Practice makes perfect ---- next time he would play much better if he kept on his interest on the squash sport.

During the last two games, John Chok and the squash MM, Thiang Guo Chuan continued to struggle for the honor of Raffles. The fourth set performed by John was another one we could sense the great Raffles spirit ---- Never give up! Even though a little falling behind at 0-4 in the beginning, he went on to compete with his opponent and score one after the other. The same was for the second game, and his confidence and perseverance finally impressed every Rafflesian. At the end, in the fifth set of the Male’s prelim (also the last one set of these two matches), Guo Chuan showed the power of Raffles: he caught the SH player with a beginning of 7:0! Without any suspense, he finished his game at 9:1. Then Sheares hall conceded a walkover, as the end of the matches.

The game was over, but the honor of Raffles will long live.


Score: Female: RH vs SH 1-4
Tan Rui: 1-9, 1-9
Tan Yiling: 3-9, 5-9
Lee Liyan： 0-9, 1-9
Tan Eileen： 9-6, 8-10, 10-8
Stella See Soon Fang：0-9, 0-9

Male: RH vs SH 1-4
Zhu Yaodong: 9-2, 6-9, 5-9
Chen Zhanjiang: 9-3, 1-9, 4-9
Yee Jiun Jeh: 0-9, 0-9.
John Chok: 6-9, 3-9
Thiang Guo Chuan 9-1
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Sepak Takraw (M) : RH VS SH and RH VS EH

Before the game started, I heard from the Sepak Takraw MM that the two matches were going to be tough. Our opponents were Sheares Hall and Eusoff Hall. Sheares Hall got no.2 last year in Takraw, and Eusoff Hall has a lot of varsity players on their team. That said, our Sepak Takraw Teams still harbor hopes of entering the semi-finals, and will definitely not give up early, despite facing such daunting opponents.

Before anything else, let me explain how the game is played. In one game, there are three matches. Therefore each hall needs to send in three teams with three different players in each team. Each team has to play two sets in a game, and if both of them win one set, then there will be a third set to determine who will win the match. For the first set and second sets, the game is won when one team gets 21 points, but for the third set, only 15 points are required to clinch the game.


RH VS SH
The match was supposed to start at 10am, but due to a long game between EH and SH, our match started at 12pm.


In the 1st match, our players were Tan Eugene (05), Freddy (21) and Wei Xiang (11).

For the 1st set, we were leading 3-0 at the beginning due to Eugene’s head ball kills. Then SH fought back until they came to a draw of 13-13. Before that, Eugene and Wei Xiang’s head ball kills won us a lot of points; especially when one of them hit on line. Perfect ball! But after that, SH started to overtake RH and won the game at 21-17. It was a very close and competitive game. RH had a high chance of beating them in next set.

For the 2nd set, SH players started the game with a very good performance. Our players tried their best to fight back, and never give up. Unfortunately, we lost the game with 10-21.



For the 2nd match, our players are Sri Ram (8), Edwin (9) and Vincent (12).

For the 1st set, our players started the game with a bad score, losing 1-7. But after a lot of head ball kills from Sri Ram, we managed to overtake SH and reach 14-13. After that, we were still leading until 19-16, where SH started to perform better and drew with us, 20-20. Around this time, both the RH and SH supporters cheered loudly, and paying attention to the last ball that determined the winner of this set, which determines also the whole match and perhaps the whole game. Unluckily, our hall lost by just one mark to SH, that is 20-22. But the spirit of Raffles Hall is something that we should be proud of! Fight until the end! And never give up!



For the 3rd match, our players are Bang (10), Yu Jun (77) and Xiao Ning (34).

This was not an important match, because SH already beat us for two matches, and already won the game. But if we won them, we still got chance to fight with EH and get the chance to enter semi finals.

For the 1st set, SH players did very well and ended the game with 8-21.

For the 2nd set, after the first set, our players knew the strategy to beat them. They performed very well and worked very hard. Finally we won the set with 21-19. Another close game among RH and SH, and their spirit of never giving up is impressive. By the way, our player, Yu Jun’s mouth was hit by the takraw ball, and bled for a while. But due to his sportsmanship, he continued to play, and won the match for RH. Go, Yu Jun!

For the 3rd set, we started the game very well and lead at 6-4. After that, SH drew with us at 7-7. SH continued to perform well and ended the game at 15-10.





RH VS EH
After the first match with SH, we only had thirty minutes to rest. Another big match was waiting for us. Due to improper timing, some of our audience left for lunch, and never came back. Maybe they did not know that there was one more match to go.



1st match

Our players were Edwin (9), Sri Ram (8) and Vincent (12).

Before the game started, the Takraw players told me that most of the EH players are varsity players. But we still had a chance to beat them, because our players have more experience. The game started and our players did a very good job, leading all the way until 15-15. Then, the score increased slowly and reach 20-20. Oh Deuce! (Wonder why the previous match never had a Deuce.) This was a very crucial time, as there was a possibility of beating them. The score increased again slowly from 22-21, 23-23, 24-23 and finally 25-23! Yeah! Our players beat them and won the first set. It is something we should be proud of! All the Takraw players jumped and celebrated the victory. What a good start for RH!

2nd set
EH players started to perform consistently and beat us with 21-12. Some of our Takraw players said maybe they haven’t had their lunch yet, so a bit exhausted.

3rd set
After a short rest, our players gave them a close fight. At the beginning, we were leading the game by 4-3. But then the EH players overtook us and got a score of 13-10. In the end, they beat us with 15-10. An interesting shot happened when Sri Ram and EH player had a head-to-head fight in front of net. Our referee not paying full attention and gave wrong hand signs that confused the audience.



2nd match

Our players were Bang (10), Yu Jun (77) and Xiao Ning (34).

1st set,
Our players did very well, but were still beaten by EH players with 21-11.

2nd set
After the first match, our players started to develop a strategy to fight them. Perhaps it was the lunch. From a bad beginning of 4-11, our players fought hard and reached the score of 16-16. It was tough but with the cheers from supporters, we were getting closer and closer. After that, our players tried to get more points but EH players did a better job and ended the game with 21-17. What a close one!



3rd match

Our players were Freddy (21), Tan Eugene (15) and Wei Xiang (11), and Yong Sheng substituted Freddy in the middle of the game.

The main objective of this match was to train our juniors to prepare for next year IHG.

1st set
The EH players beat us with 21-9.

2nd set
Our players played harder and got a better score of 14-21.





Sheares Hall brought their Orientation Group to cheer for their team, bottles and pails were used to make noise. Kent Ridge also brought a drum and other musical instruments to cheer for their hall. Their cheers made MPSH6 become like a cheerleading competition. If you came, then you will know why people will pay high price to watch EPL live. Please do come down for IHG, so that you may feel the atmosphere of a live game!

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