Story and pictures contributed by reader Marvin Lowe.
Toa Payoh Sports Hall, Friday, May 16, 2008 – In probably the most exciting netball final in recent years, Raffles Junior College pipped Anglo-Chinese JC to the title by a single point, scoring in the very last second of play to win 51-50. It was a heartbreaking moment for ACJC at the final whistle and RJC celebrated like there was no tomorrow.
ACJC had started the game much in control, having the lead almost throughout the entire game. They sped off to a 5-1 lead right at the start of the first quarter, only to have RJC fight back to level the score at 11-11 by the end of the first quarter. That was how it was for most parts of the game, with ACJC attempting to stretch the lead and RJC fighting back to keep the leaders within striking distance.
By the end of the 2nd quarter, ACJC had already built a comfortable eight-point lead. This lead was not to last for long as RJC patiently worked hard to chip this advantage away. Both teams entered the final quarter knowing that they could not afford anymore turnovers. With the lead whittled down to just three points, RJC were now within striking distance of the trophy. With four minutes to go, ACJC’s Yini committed a fatal error when a pass was mis-handled. RJC then chipped the lead down even more as they successfully converted on their two possessions.
All set for a nail-biting finish, ACJC turned the ball over once more. This time, RJC delivered their finishing blow and edged ahead for the first time in the game. With RJC leading with one point and less than a minute on the clock, both teams exchanged points right until the last 10 seconds. With the clock winding down to zero, ACJC’s GS nailed the game-tying bucket amidst the electric atmosphere. The score was now 50-50 and sudden-death extra time was in play. Just when it seemed like the ACJC WD had made a timely interception, the umpire ruled in RJC’s favour instead. The ball was passed to RJC’s Silei (GS) who calmly sunk the final basket to seal ACJC’s fate. The final whistle was blown immediately after the basket was made, sending RJC into ecstasy, ACJC into despair.
The ACJC team collapsed in devastation while the RJC team rejoiced at their near-escape and shocking victory. Tears flowed freely on both sides. In a post match interview, an inconsolable ACJC captain, Celeste Lee said, “We just didn’t treasure our possessions enough. Both teams fought really hard till the end. I am still very proud of my team and for the effort they have given.”
On the other hand, RJC’s Captain, Carmen Goh, was simply over the moon at their victory. Beaming with joy, she said, “We were down by eight (points) at one time but we fought hard to pull back, winning this game in the end. We have met some of them in the B Division tournament before so we knew their style of play. We trained before the game to counter their strategies and our plan was to take control of the mid court area. Credit to ACJC. They played well and gave us a good fight.” Carmen had previously met Celeste and her CHIJ (Toa Payoh) team-mates in the B division tournament and lost the title to them then. This victory was in some sense, sweet revenge for the Rafflesians.
Ed’s note: If you recognise yourself or your teammates in any of the photos, feel free to leave the names behind in the comments section and we will update the captions accordingly.
Pls for heaven sake, ACJC is definitely much better than RJC. ACJC netballers are mostly from IJTPSS and that school have marvellous netballer. They even have the same coach.
Wow, its interesting that there’s alot of coverage going on for netball.
well, although acjc lost, im sure they tried their best. and for rjc, great fight. indeed playing the catching up game was not easy.:]
but sometimes when the score’s so tight, its difficult to say who deserves the championship when it was determined by the last goal.
perhaps i do feel that yeah its painful to lose by a point, so i hope that you guys can give them awhile to get back on their feet. so yeah!
anws, this was a great coverage!
well, ill always remember what my coach said that life is always unfair,
so well, things dont always go our way, but just treasure what comes by cause you;ll never know what’s coming next yeah?
well, its always difficult to make a call (the umpires).
and sometimes we have to accept whether we like the call or not.
it may be to your advantage or not, but sadly that’s life hey? :]
anws. hopefully there is a video to watch this finals?
thanks
Just a correction on the last shot: penalty shots at the end of each quarter/at the end of the game are not affected by the whistle (ie. penalty shots made after the whistle still count) — I believe it blew just before the shot..
i dun side any team here. i agree with jane. even when we want to question the calls made by the umpires, we must understand that if one or even both umpires are biased, both teams will get the fair share of ‘biased calls’ because they switch sides after each quarter. In tight games like this, there are definitely many offences to call for and i believe the umpires have done their best in picking out all the offences they can spot. Obviously either team won’t resort to playing a dirty game in order to win the title. Any offence would definitely be unintentional. As far as i know, both teams play a clean game, they have sportsmanship!
In a game, there’s bound to be a winner and a loser. I believe, if given a choice, RJC won’t mind letting ACJC sharing the title with them. In anyway, ACJC is not a sole loser la…So people chill! ACJC put up a great show and RJC is just luckier to be able to put in that last shot. Further ACJC still has Nat Long next year…RJC don’t have anymore Silei or siew kim to help them.Im looking forward to the Adiv season next year! watching out for more great fights! pls feature more next year!
Yvonne how do we know they are not students of ACJC coming here to stir up trouble? How do you know? I was there and I, being a seasoned netball player, did not think any of the umpires were biased. Questionable calls yes, but questionable calls are made in every game because when there is contact within a sport, there will be questionable calls made. Please do not question the integrity of umpires in such a way unless you have been one before.
Yep Marvin about your query, j is right. The clock stops 1 minute before the end of the match and RJC managed to make that final basket count.
i don’t think that all the remarks about the biased umpire was referring to the female one, but the male one. and there was no extra time. the clock usually stops one min b4. the match is alr over, so both schools shd train harder 4 nxt yr. looking forward is all we can do dnt we all agree. but it was really a controversial match which was really really entertaining to watch. go players.
Hi Jaime,
I don’t really understand the rules of the game per se but I do have some burning questions,. Time had technically expired on the scoreboard slightly before ACJC made the game tying shot at 50-50. So they were running on extra time right? Are there guidelines for umpires for such situations where the game is so close and when would be the appropriate time to blow the whistle? They could have sent the game into extra time or was RJC entitled to the final attack on the basket?
In case you didnt notice most of the people commenting and fighting for acjc arent even from acjc. Get your facts right.
Hi, i’m an ex netballer and i don’t understand the stuff that these ACJC people are saying. Pearli and acsian obviously do not know the game because the umpires’ calls were spot on throughout the game. One of the umpires is also my personal friend and I can vouch that she is a great person with lots of integrity.
If you ACJC people are still sore about the defeat, then train harder and try to win it next year. No point coming to this website and telling everyone the umpires were biased when they obviously weren’t and it was RJC’s gritty determination that won it for them, not the umpire. So ACJC people, have some decency and give RJC some credit that they deserve.
Coming from a neutral point (I’m nobody’s supporter), i don’t think the umpires are biased against any teams. True, some of the calls could have been better but both sides had their fair share of them.
Nevertheless, I’m sure the umpires gave their best. It’s never easy to umpire, especially such close matches. Umpires are usually the ones that bore the most cruel remarks and criticism, be it from players, officials, media, supporters, or even the lone uncle who happen to wonder into TPSH!
So kudos to them for having the courage to face such challenges!
Photo 17: I don’t think that the ACJC Gk really ‘made use of the goalpost’ to make jump block on rj shooter. How is that possible anyway? I guess you took the picture just as her leg was there or it hit the pole.
AND AC SHOULDN’T HAVE LOST, SERIOUSLY. I THINK THEY DESERVED IT BETTER. UNLUCKY I GUESS. BETTER LUCK NEXT YEAR. THEY BETTER WIN IT NEXT YEAR.
interesting captions – Mich “does a little jig” indeed!
(RJ WA Suhailah not Suhaila)
I agree all the teams this year got their fair share of the uneven umpiring, but some of the comments are a little harsh, heh.. they’re the ones who will get blamed by someone, whatever the outcome..
hello im sorry but yini did not make a ‘fatal pass’ so you might want to correct that. it was another player.