This write-up is effectively the joint effort of Marcus Phua and especially Jason Ho, both proving that their pens are as mighty as their .... uh, squash rackets.

Consider this Episode 2 of the 2012 NSL season.

1st Tie: Marcus Phua vs. Vivian Rhamanan

An earlier play-off between the two teams' respective No.1's, Marcus Phua and Vivian Rhamanan, saw the UCSCsian come out tops, winning 3-1. Marcus appears to have fully recovered from an operation on a growth on his leg (last week, we had feared it was an op on the leg itself). Marcus wrote :

"It was a good match with lots of energy-sapping rallies. There were ridiculous retrievals at times. Vivian was the more adventurous on the day so he had a fair share of winners and mistakes. It was really close throughout and I just managed to edge through 11-8, 10-12, 11-8, 11-8."

Well done, Marcus .... But we're even happier that you have recovered from your op and are well.

Jason Ho next wrote:

2nd Tie: Phil Mockridge vs. Tim Leong (No. 3's)

Phil lost 0-3. Timothy's style is more start-stop, different from the steady rhythmic games in which Phil excels.Tim was able to increase the pace during the first two sets and while they both played well, Tim edged home in both. Tim was able to accelerate very quickly to retrieve shots, so the frenetic pace suited him better. Before the 3rd set, Uncle Bobby told Phil to slow down the game and the tempo of the rallies. As a result, Phil was able to force deuce but was still edged out 10-12 in the final set.

3rd Tie: Jason Ho vs. Anders Yeo (No. 2's)

I lost 0-3, Anders is tall and middle-aged (apparently Danish). But he plays like Samuel Kang. Nothign fancy, very fit and consistent and reads the game extremely well which helps in his strong retrievals. While I managed to control some of the rallies. I couldn't put away many of these. Plus I made quite a few errors throughout the match. First two games were rather closely contested (I got about 8 or 9 points in both), but I was still recovering from illness and was tired by the 3rd set and Anders justifiably won it easily.

4th (and final) Tie: Pang Ka Wai vs. Bill Hatch (No. 4's)

Ka Wai won 3-0. Being the fast player he is, Ka Wai picked up almost every shot which Bill played and made things very difficult for him (Bill). Ka Wai also caught Bill with a few trickle boasts. Although scores were quite close in the first two sets, Bill appeared to be panting quite heavily, while Ka Wai seemed to cope with the hard running, easily. Towards the end of the 3rd set, Bill slipped and pulled his hamstring badly in stretching for a retrieval, so he couldn't quite carry on much longer and offered a handshake to Ka Wai. But the game and very sporting SCC player played the last two points anyway. Truly a sportsman. Bravo, Bill!

With that final tie, it was UCSC - 6 sets, SCC1 - 7 sets. And for the second week in a row, the UCSC 'A'nnihilators were edged out in a countback against their premier league rival.

Still, it was an excellent performance against the formidable SCC armada and the season is merely 2 weeks young, with everything still to play for.

UCSC Lives & Breathes Squash!