Contributed by reader Edward

Kallang Squash Centre, Thursday, April 16, 2009 – The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) beat Fairfield Methodist Secondary 3-2 to retain their C Division Squash Championship title.

Having beaten Fairfield, in an earlier group game easily by a 5-0 margin, ACS (I) were the obvious favourites to win in the final again.

However, the Fairfield boys, under no pressure, rose to the occasion and gave the ACS (I) team a tough time. The final started according to expectations when Fernando Lim of ACS (I) easily beat Benedict Peh of Fairfield 3-0 after a nervy first set.

In the second tie, Fairfield’s hopes was raised when their top player, Marcus Lee, was drawn to play ACS(I) year 1 player, Benedict Chan. After losing the first two sets rather tamely, a recharged Benedict came out fighting harder in the third set, attacking more aggressively with his soft drops and boasts to win the third set. However, against
a more experienced and physically bigger opponent, a fatigued Benedict Chan lost the fourth set and the tie 3-1.

The third tie matched two familiar foes – Warren Seow of ACS (I) and Luk Siu Hoi of Fairfield. Many expect this tie to be a tight affair given their past meetings. But a highly-motivated Siu Hoi played a very good game as he defeated an out-of-sorts Warren 3-0 to give underdogs Fairfield a surprising 2-1 lead.

At this stage, Fairfield’s morale and hope were high as the pressure was now on ACS (I), the pre-game favourites.

The fourth tie saw Fairfield’s 2nd-ranked player, Clythe Lim, matched-up against ACS (I) captain and top-ranked player, Pang Ka Wai, a current national junior player. Expectedly, Ka Wai proved too strong for Clythe as the former stamped his superiority from the start to finish in three sets.

With the final standing at 2-2, the cheering from both schools started to get louder as they sought to encourage Jeremy Goh of ACS (I) and Benedict Long of Fairfield.

Jeremy has recently beaten Benedict in the national U13 final, hence ACS (I) hopes were high that he could repeat the feat. Jeremy Goh proved to be Benedict’s nemesis, as he played extremely well to clinch the fifth tie for ACS (I) in three straight sets.

The 3-2 victory meant a successful defence of the C Division title for ACS (I). Next Tuesday, April 21st, the ACS (I) B Division squash team will seek to avenge their loss to arch-rivals Raffles Institution in a repeat match up of last year’s final.

This will be an exciting match as both teams are evenly-matched and have numerous current and ex-national junior players in their ranks.