Entering the evening's match-up with Police (PSA) in a lofty position at the top of the A-grade table with 21 points and PSA at 6th with just 9 points, the 'A'nnihilators were still wary of the law-enforcers because of the recent additions to their squad in the form of two of Indonesia's national players. Surprisingly, the two were registered as A2s at #3 and #4 and below PSA's James Hill. While James is a good player and a decent A2, the two Indonesians were clearly better and one suspects, should both be A1s with the #4 having beaten Marcus at Kallang by 3-1 in a recent friendly match.

Starting the evening's excitement were the respective #3s, Phil Mockridge vs. PSA's Soni Ramdhani. UCSC's fears were not unfounded when the 1st set was quickly wrapped up 11-3 by the bandana-ed Soni, playing elegant placement squash supported by gliding movement on court. But Phil's now renowned fighting qualities came to the fore and he made things a little more uncomfortable by stretching Soni before the young Indonesian took the 2nd set by a tight 11-9 scoreline. It looked all over as the still fresh-looking Soni went on court for Set #3 against a huffing and puffing Phil. Not yet, Soni! Phil summoned all of his legendary never-say-die spirit to doggedly pick up Soni's teasing placements from all four corners of the court, and then some. Phil took the set 11-9 and set off alarm bells in the Police camp (literally). Everyone was expecting the evening's 4 encounters to be likely decided on a countback and Phil just struck one for UCSC. Phil's fatigue became increasingly evident in Set #4 but the Indonesian must have grudgingly and silently applauded the manner in which Phil fought the good fight even while going down 8-11 in the final set to concede the tie 1-3 to a deserving winner in Soni.

Tie #2 featured both camps' No 4s. In the Police corner was Johny Marthen while 'B'omber, Jonathan Cheu, was recalled to support the 'A'nnihilators once again. Johny is actually ranked above Soni in the Indonesian national team but through an administrative misunderstanding, was registered below Soni. It was not surprising hence, that we expected a rout by the Indonesian. In the knock-up before the match began, Johny's shots thundered like the raining bullets heard from the Police firing range nearby.... veritable quicksilvers sent down the sides of the walls. The match began and Jon Cheu showed signs of nerves as he made a few unforced errors. But without catching attention at first, Jon innocuously kept pace with Johny's sizzlers by unleashing lightning bolts of his own and shock of shocks, the 'B'omber edged home with the 1st set by 12-10! The Indonesian Johny began to show the slightest signs of anxiety as he kept blaming his racket on a few occasions for not doing its work. The PSA camp was understandably nervous because of the countback scenario. Enter Set #2...... If the 1st set was a shock, then Set #2 sent chills down Police spines as Jon Cheu raced away to an 8-1 lead with the racket in the Indonesian's right hand getting the lion's share of the blame. At that point, it was UCSC's turn to experience the chill as suddenly, all that chiding must have worked because the racket obeyed its master's command to pull back to 8-8 before streaking ahead to lead 10-8 and game-point. But the 'B'omber had a couple of explosives left and used them to good effect as he clawed back to 10-10, forced deuce and again snuck home 12-10  to lead 2-0 in sets much to the chagrin of the Police camp. UCSC spirits were soaring! But..... these came a-crashing as Jon Cheu had expanded just about everything to very quickly surrender Sets #3 and #4 to Johny who switched strategies and opted out of trading thundering shots for drop-shots and placements which stretched Jon Cheu to exhaustion. In the rubber, Jon tried to give his all and kept pace for the first few points but had to eventually succumbed to the superiority of the Indonesian who fortunately had underestimated his B-grade opponent earlier in the tie. 3-2 to Johny and 2-0 in ties to PSA.

With all due respect to a game James Hill in the Police corner, Tie #3 which featured both teams' (official) No. 2s, was a formality. UCSC's Darren Subramaniam was just streets ahead of Hill, which Darren climbed effortlessly apart from a minor scare in the 3rd set which went to deuce, all credit to a sporting James. Otherwise, it was pretty much another day at the office for the mercurial Darren.

So it was down to the respective No. 1s to decide the outcome. Singapore national champion, Marcus Phua, squared up against good friend, fellow UCSC-sian (but representing PSA) and national team-mate, Samuel Kang. Head to head encounters to-date perhaps just marginally favour the lanky Marcus and every new match is never a conclusion of any of these two players' superiority over the other. In yet another amazing exhibition of brilliant squash from both sportsmen, long rallies were peppered with raking drives, the most delicate of drop-shots and breath-taking retrievals. It was the Police PTI (physical training instructor) who drew first blood when he took the first set by 11-6. Marcus turned the tables when they returned for the second as the talented national champ did most of the shot-making to stretch the super-fit Samuel and send him over every centimetre of the court surface. The strategy paid dividends and Marcus took Set #2 by 11-8 but not before Samuel's determined retrievals similarly extracted tremendous effort from Marcus. It does little justice that the report will need to end shortly because over the next 2 sets, words cannot fully describe spectators' appreciation for the quality of shot-making and retrievals made under tremendous pressure, by both Singapore national players. In the end, the superior fitness of Samuel Kang won for him the tie over the superior shot-making from Marcus by a 3-1 scoreline and a similar overall 3-1 victory for the Police camp. We cannot wait for the next exciting encounter between these two young gladiators.

Congratulations to PSA for a very successful "Operasi Penyergapan" (Bahasa Indonesian for "Operation Ambush"). UCSC did walk right into it with eyes wide open and we wish our Police opponents and friends, all the best in their remaining A-grade matches as the UCSC 'A'nnihilators look to recover from their first team defeat in the 2010 season when they play Cricket Club's 3rd team, the Padang Squashers (PS) at SLF on May 4th. UCSC has a Bye next week.

UCSC Lives & Breathes Squash!