Last Thursday evening, the UCSC 'B'ombers extended their lead at the top of the B-grade table with a comprehensive defeat of second-in-the-table, SAFRA.

Defending our turf on homeground at SLF, the 'B'ombers repelled the SAFRA 'sorties' and inflicted significant damage on the reservists' title hopes.

KWAH Chee Hian led the UCSC defense when he took on South Korean, Jeffrey YUK, one of the friendliest & most sporting of adversaries around. Jeff YUK is known to be a determined player who wears down opponents with his persistence and true to this reputation, he proceeded to sweep home the first set against Chee Hian. But our soon-to-be law-undergraduate.soon put things in 'order' and did 'justice' to his selection by promptly returning the favour three-fold to romp home a 3-1 winner over a fast-fading Jeff. "Kamsahamnida" however to our wonderful friend for a friendly, if competitive, encounter. 1-0 to UCSC.

In the adjacent court, Christmas came early for UCSC's junior 'wing-man', Jason, as he enjoyed a Ho-Ho-Ho match against his former senior in school, CHEN Zhi Wei. It was Ho in the 1st, Ho in the 2nd and Ho in the 3rd although the spirited Zhi Wei put up stiff resistance in patches but generally had little reply to the in-form Jason's mesmerising racket-work and fleet-footedness. Jason had earlier in the week, notched up possibly the league's first 11-0 mauling in the Men's A grade, ever. 2-0 to UCSC.

Then the aging 'spit-fire' WWII relic, Michael TAN spoiled the UCSC party by failing to re-live past glories when he went down 1-3 to Samuel WONG, the former C-grade Individual runner-up. The match started well enough with the first set going to deuce before Samuel snatched the last 2 consecutive points to take set #1 by 12-10. Then displaying his trademark high-risk shots, interspersed with sudden boasts and unorthodox wristwork, it looked as though Michael could turn back the clock just one more time when he took set #2, 11-9. Bothered by Michael's front-court delay-shots and lobs which, in Samuel's own words after the match, "Didn't allow me (Samuel) to get into my rhythm", the 3rd set scoreline was also tight but favoured the SAFRA's player 11-9 when Michael made characteristic mistakes which accompany the high-risk game he plays. Set #4 was also the last as the old war-time relic choked and caved in 4-11 to allow the reservist team a glimmer of hope for a countback win.

Tie #4 then proceeded between old-time opponents, yet friends, UCSC's captain Leong Chye and SAFRA's own 'spiderman', Zahiri (so-called because of his long limbs, long reach & long lungs..... we go no further, in the name of decent sports journalism). History favoured Zahiri as the duo's past 3 meetings have ended in similar score-lines and results, Zahiri winning 3-2 in all three bruising encounters. Was it to be 'deja vu'? It looked that way when Zahiri took set #1 only for Leong Chye to claim set #2, although with that 1 single set, Leong Chye had effectively ensured UCSC already won, on count-back. At that point, all eyes rolled up and everyone familiar with these two's history, sighed, "Here we go again!". So it was with nonchalance that everyone sat back to watch what they thought, would be another 3 sets of squash attrition. Nothing changed even when Leong Chye took set #3 to lead 2-1 with both players engaging in long rallies and retrieved determinedly.... Talk about aerial 'dog-fights' between war-planes! Ahhhhhh, but at this stage the fire was still burning bright in the UCSC captain's eyes behind those fearsome goggles (just his regular glasses, actually) while oddly, the legendary fitness of the SAFRA player began to look suspect as he increasingly placed his hands on his knees after some rallies and was barely able to march smartly out of the court after set #3. It was soon evident that something has changed..... The 'B'omber was beginning to pepper the court with accurate missiles while the SAFRA player was offering scant resistance and almost resigned to defeat as Leong Chye reeled away point after point for a well-deserved victory over a long-time nemesis, albeit a friendly one.

With that, the UCSC 'B'ombers returned to their hangars, happy in the knowledge that their lead at the top of the table has now been extended from 2 points to 5 at 15 points while the joint second-placed teams, NP and SAFRA have 10 points each.

This Thursday evening, the 'B'ombers fly out to SLF once again, this time to repel the invaders from the Police Academy whom we defeated by 3-1 in the first half.    Supporters welcome.

UCSC Lives & Breathes Squash!