Story and pictures contributed by reader Marvin Lowe
Hougang Sports Hall, Wednesday, May 14, 2008 – Anglo-Chinese Junior College won the battle of the powerhouses when they demolished Hwa Chong Institution 82-51 in an A Division Netball Championship semi-final on Wednesday. ACJC, who have been in scintillating form throughout the group stages, continued with their fine form and will now face Raffles Junior College in the final.
The game plan for ACJC was simple – play hard to win every ball possible and allow their shooters to convert the chances into points. The first quarter was the closest with ACJC taking a slender advantage. However, with every passing quarter, the lead grew larger and larger, probably affecting HCI’s team morale as they chased the lead. Even when they had established a double-digit margin, ACJC never once let their guard down. Every mistake ACJC made was punishable by an earful from their coach, who urged her team to keep on piling up the points.
At the end of the game, ACJC’s captain, Celest Lee, expressed delight in her team’s perfomance and the way they fought throughout the game. Brimming with confidence, she said, “We came into this game expecting to win but we just did not expect the margin to be so wide. Every player fought hard and worked to get the balls to our shooters who made all their shots.” When asked about facing Raffles JC in the final, she said,” Although RJC beat us by seven points last year in the semis, we are looking forward to play our best in the finals this Friday. We are a different team this year.”
ACJC played RJC in the final at Toa Payoh Sports Hall on 16th May. They managed to pull ahead but ultimately lost out to RJC when the latter pulled ahead in the 4th quarter to win 51-50.
Ed's note: If you recognise yourself or your team mates in any of the photos, feel free to leave the names behind in the comments section and we will update the captions accordingly. Thanks!
not from ACJC but i do not agree that they deserved to lose. They are the real winners who have proven that they are the best, they just lost out to time.
RACHEL THONG ROCKS:D
Hey Marvin/Uncle Les, the last paragraph of the article “ACJC played RJC in the final at Toa Payoh Sports Hall on 16th May. They managed to pull ahead but ultimately lost out to RJC when the latter pulled ahead in the 4th quarter to win 51-50” notice that the Toa Payoh sports hall still not changed to Hougang Sports Hall.
I think gloating over people’s loss just speaks volumes of your level of maturity. So much for what growing up? Enough said. period.
acsian, lol i no have little doubt why i dislike acjc. quick to jump to conclusions, and never really having the intellectual capabitlity to make good assumptions anyway.
i am an alumni of hwachong netball and this is the first year in 20+ years we didn’t make the final. but i was still there to watch and i just commented on what happened at the final. from what i see, i think acjc were technically superior but they just lacked mentally, the kind of mental strength and fighting spirit that rjc girls displayed. that was the winning factor.
so don’t be sad that acjc lost and grow up (:
Photo 15, HCI’s GA – Sharon
come on lah by posing such comments portrays how childish and immature you people are. sometimes its just pure luck that determines the game. get a life, yeah?
and if you two are from RJ, which is a good sch, you all have really just spoilt ur ‘prestigious’ sch image. i really have nth to say for your irresponsible comments. let others judge it and judge ur sch.
although I really don’t like acjc, and am super glad they lost, I think everyone could see that the male umpire was so biased.
I must say the AC-RJ match was like watching a movie, haha. Amazing, the end :O
was there to watch rjc vs acjc, and rjc’s fighting spirit was really evident when they battled against the technically superior acjc team. as acjc surged ahead in the third quarter with an 8 goal lead, but rjc slowly whittled that lead away down to nothing before they finally gained the lead for the only time in the match with a buzzer beating shot, winning the championship.
acjc’s failure to win the title despite being the superior team on paper shows their fallibility to mental stress and highlights rjc’s ability to fight back from a big disadvantage and their title as underdogs.
kudos to rjc!
hey, here are the full names. celeste lee, tay jia zhi, koh weiru, chua yini, rachel thong, deborah rowe, natalie long. nice feature and nice pictures by the way.
Yini ure so cute!
HCI’s C calls for a play as she gets ready to pass while HCI’s GS guards her. (Photo 18 © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports) [It should be ACJC’s C, not HCI’s C]
Photo1: ACJC’s WD (Weiru)
Photo3: ACJC’s C (Yini)
Photo4: ACJC’s GS (Nat)
Photo6: ACJC’s GA (Deborah)
Photo8: ACJC’s WA (Rachel)
Photo15: ACJC’s GD (Jiazhi)
oops…hahaha. my fault! mixed up all the sports hall. It’s Hougang Sports Hall.
Hey Marvin, this place doesn’t look like Toa Payoh Sports Hall. 😉