Story contributed by reader Edward.

Kallang Squash Centre, Tuesday, April 21, 2009 – Raffles Institution were unable to defend their B Division squash title as they went down 2-3 to arch nemesis Anglo Chinese School (Independent) in the National B Division Squash Championship final.

Another close encounter was expected between the two perennial foes after a narrow 3-2 victory for ACS(I) during an earlier group match. Once the line-up was revealed and confirmed for the final, it was expected that the championship would be decided by two matches – the first and third ties.

RI’s Cheong Kah Wah, a former top-3 Asian junior player from Malaysia, was expected to steamroll over all opposition. ACS(I) was represented by a team of current national junior players and was the overwhelming favourite to win the fourth and fifth ties in the final.

The final started with loud cheering from both school’s supporters when Ong Jun Wei of RI and Benjamin Sim of ACS(I) entered the enclosed court. Between these two players, Jun Wei is known to have a more basic game while Benjamin is a “flair player”, who is not afraid to go for winners.

After a fairly even start, Benjamin started to get impatient with the long rallies that appeared to be tiring him out more than his opponent. Jun Wei, on the other hand, was dishing out a steady and error-free game plan and the Rafflesian eventually won his match to give his school a crucial 1-0 lead.

RI was then represented by their Malaysian ace, Cheong Kah Wah, who defeated Darren Kwee of ACS(I) in the second tie without much difficulty. At 2-0 down, huge pressure was on the ACS(I)’s 3rd player, Pang Ka Hoe, to salvage the championship for his school. For RI, winning this tie was just as essential as they knew the odds were against them in the fourth and fifth ties.

Ka Hoe’s opponent was Timothy Leong, a year 1 student in RI just like himself. As club team mates and good friends, the duo are familiar with each other’s game and have been beating boys much older than themselves. For the honour of their schools, both boys put aside sentiments of friendship and gave what they had.

Timothy had the upper hand for being able to settle in before Ka Hoe did. Following several long rallies, anxiety and lethargy seemed to have taken over Ka Hoe, as Timothy nicked the first set rather comfortably. After a pep talk by his coach in between sets, a rejuvenated and focused Ka Hoe returned to the court.

Unleashing a more aggressive game, Ka Hoe stole the show in the second and third sets. A strong start by Timothy in the fourth set had the audience anticipating a possible tiebreaker. However, Ka Hoe recovered superbly to snatch a come-from-behind victory that dashed RI’s hope of defending their title.

ACS(I)’s Bryan Seow and William Oon then expectedly registered comfortable victories over their respective RI oppositions, Dominique Lo and Chong Kai Wei, to recover the B Division boys trophy for ACS(I).