Thank you for all the Old Boys and WYK Tennis Team who have turned up for the tennis match this afternoon, including the family members of Tony Chow, Jeffrey, Brian and Wilson. There was a big rain shower at around 2 pm in the Kowloon City and Mongkok area. Strangely when I arrived at WYK, the courts were all dried. Coach Ernest and some of his squad were already warming up. Louvre told me that he even practised on Sunday morning before the big match.

At around 3 pm we started our proceedings:- The first round of matches were between Ambrose and Dr Siu vs Chris and Barry (Court 1); Kane and Jack vs Calvin and Nicholas (Court 2); KK and Charles vs Jordan and Louvre; Alvin and Joseph vs Matthew and Horace. After the first round of matches, the score was 3-1 to the Old Boys. In the second round, the score was 2.5-1.5 in favour of the Old Boys and the third round was a similar story, the Old Boys edging 2.5 to 1.5. In round 4, WYK Tennis Team took the round with 2.5 to 1.5 points. For the final round, we played 6 matches and the score was a massive 5-1 to the Old Boys, so the final score the whole match was 14.5 pts to 7.5 pts to the Old Boys. All in all, we got through 22 matches in 3 hours of intensive competitive tennis.The detail breakdown of the score is provided at the end of this e-mail for those die-hard who are interested in the individual matches. Overall, the Old Boys were most impressed with the improvement of the WYK tennis team in this short time.

Since we last played the Fr Finneran Cup and in particular with Ernest and Edmond working hard on the physical and match condition of our players, they have improved enormously. For the WYK Tennis Team, Chris and Barry have become formidable pairing. Tony Chow, Jordan and Horace also impressed as fine young players. Matthew and Frankie are tough match-play pairing. Calvin, Nicholas, Louvre and Tommy all improved greatly and have wonderful attitude towards the game. Calvin, Nicholas and Louvre played their best and stayed till the end. Tommy was even practising his weakness at sunset and took in all the tips we gave him. Tommy served very few double-faults in his matches and showed good touches. The stamina and partnership of Chris and Barry improved tremendously throughout the 6 tough matches that they played. Boris and Brian also improved in the summer, although they did not show up in the matches. Ernest and Edmond did a good job building the team spirit of the young team with the senior players such as Matthew, Chris, Frankie and Barry all sharing the responsibilities. With the exception of Horace and maybe Louvre as well, very few of the WYK Team know the exact score during their matches. So your opponents will cheat you points and games quite easily in competition.

A few observations about the Old Boys. First of all, there is a huge age difference between the most senior William Lee and the youngest Tony Leung (probably 30 odd years). But we were happy to help out the current team. Secondly, most of the Old Boys take the competition very professionally - KK was playing even when injured in a football tackle, Kane took a lesson with Ernest before this match, Ambrose must be secretly playing with his friends on a regular basis to keep his game sharp and diving everywhere to get the ball back. Joseph played perfect tennis despite returning from a long trip. Last but not least, William just had an eye operation yesterday (thus missing the match today) and rang me up from the clinic not worrying about his eye operation but missing the match today. William even turned up to support us and send his young son Wilson on our team and he did us proud - winning one match and losing another one. One word of apology was to Dr Siu missing the group photo when we took it. We will make sure that Dr Siu gets in for the next one at the Finneran Cup. Dr Siu also practised very hard and played very well in the game. Another words of thanks to Roger. He has shown us a sample of the WYK tennis kit, which should be ready for the new season. Also thanks to Roger, Simon, Joseph and Charles for helping out with the photography.

The 2 coaches were also busy making notes during the matches, and we will have a match in our hands when we played the second Finneran Cup in a month's time (exact date to be worked out with Matthew and Chris). We all give a round of applause to Kane for being the most hard working and influential player in the Old Boys' Team. Not only he won all his 5 matches, but played with 4 different partners in doing so. The famous Kane and Joseph combination also won the only 8-0 game in the match, so they have waited for 30 years to take revenge for being dumped out of the CRC Open as No 2 seed. If you have not noticed, we have not had such a big crowd on WYK tennis courts for a long time. Did you notice that all the passer-bys at Wylie Rd stopped and watches our exciting matches when they walked past? We were also treated to a great exhibition match between Edmond and Ernest vs Ambrose and Charles on Court 1. The coaches were too strong for our premier pairing of the Old Boys and won 6-2. Finally, a big word of thank you to the 2 coaches Ernest and Edmond for putting through this young tennis team through the punishing training schedule. We are all proud of their first class attitude to improve their tennis game. WE ARE READY for the inter-school competition to start in October.


The individual match score is as follows (Old Boys' names first)

Ambrose and Dr Siu lost to Chris and Barry 3-5
Jack and Kane beat Calvin and Nicholas 6-2
KK and Charles beat Jordan and Louvre 7-1
Joseph and Alvin beat Horace and Matthew 6-2
Raymond and Ambrose beat Tony C and Frankie 6-2
Tony Leung and Roger lost to Tommy and Calvin 3-5
Charles and Kane beat Chris and Barry 7-1
Joseph and Jack drew with Matthew and Jordan 4-4
Wilson and Alvin beat Horace and Nicholas 6-2
Dr Siu and Tony Leung drew with Louvre and Jordan 4-4
Simon and Kane beat Tony C and Barry 6-2
Wilson and Tommy lost to Calvin and Nicholas 3-5
Tony Leung and Dr Siu drew with Louvre and Frankie 4-4
Ambrose and Charles lost to Ernest and Edmond 2-6
Simon and Alvin lost to Chris and Barry 2-6
Jack and Raymond beat Horace and Louvre 6-2
Tony L and Roger beat Calvin and Nicholas 6-2
Raymond and Alvin beat Horace and Jordan 5-3
Simon and Kane beat Chris and Barry 6-2
Joseph and Kane beat Frankie and Matthew 8-0
Simon and Joseph beat Chris and Barry 6-2
Roger and Tony L lost to Matthew and Frankie 2-6

Additional match Tommy and Jordan drew with Calvin and Nicholas 4-4 Ernest and Edmond leading Chris and Barry 3-1 when bad light stopped play

Cheers
Raymond