Contributed by reader Lim Wei Xiang
RI (in yellow) beat Regent Secondary 6-2 in the final. (Photo 1 courtesy of Lim Wei Xiang)
Bedok South Secondary School, Sunday, November 22, 2009 – The newly-minted championship trophies of the inaugural inter-school handball tournament have found a new home in Bishan.
Raffles Institution (RI) captured both the boys’ and girls’ crowns in the 3-day (19th to 22nd November) tournament organized by the fledgling Handball Federation of Singapore.
The finals, watched by Guest-of-Honour, Mr Goh Kee Nguan, CEO, Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee and special guests, Olympian Mr C Kunalan and Mr Patrick Lee, Director of Sports and Venues, SYOGOC, saw RI beat Regent Secondary 6-2 in the boys’ final and Damai Secondary 7-2 in the girls’ final.
Although Damai Secondary’s lineup included players from the National Youth Team, the difference in physique between the players of the two teams was telling. The younger girls from Damai made little headway against the taller RJC defenders.
In the boys’ final, the score line belied a keenly contested affair. In fact, the teams had gone into the break with RI leading only by a slender 2-1 scoreline.
RI however took their chances better in the second half to end the game four goals up.
Saint Andrews Secondary School and Bedok South Secondary School secured third for the boys’ and girls’ competitions respectively.
The top scorers awards went to Vinoth from Saint Andrew’s Secondary School and RI girls’ captain Cheryl Ann Lee.
Cheryl scored 24 goals while Vinoth had 40.
Boys’ Results
Regent Secondary 9 Mayflower Secondary 0
Greedale Secondary 7 Saint Andrews Secondary 10
RI 7 Mayflower Secondary 0
Girls’ Results
RI 18 Mayflower 0
Bedok South 9 Mayflower 5
Bedok South 2 Damai 21
Millenia Institution 0 RI 11
The victorious RI boys celebrate their win. (Photo 2 courtesy of Wei Xiang)
A Damai player attempts to score. Damai went down 2-7 in the final to RI. (Photo 3 courtesy of Wei Xiang)
Cheryl Ann Lee receives the top scorer award for her 24 goals. (Photo 4 courtesy of Wei Xiang)
Vinoth from Saint Andrew’s Secondary School earned the top scorer title after scoring 40 points. (Photo 5 courtesy of Wei Xiang)
Damai Player #6 is Grace Ong 🙂
Cheryl Ann Lee plays netball for her school! Of course she can handle some balls in Handball. The ball is so much smaller as compared to a Netball. & She sure is one agile player too. I love to see her in action, playing with balls! Hahaha
@Oscar UH? “Or are you simply jealous because some of your teammates got selected into the team while you didn’t? If that’s the case, either you’re overage for the Youth Team or it’s because you’re not good enough. You didn’t outshine everyone in your team to attract the attention of the judges. Sorry about that, but maybe you can try out next year again.” What on earth are you talking about here? Just to make the facts clear I don’t even play handball and never ever said i played handball unless you read something in my post that i don’t.
@Venie In case you didn’t read my entire post, I shall quote part of it here: “Understandably, RI(JC) teams had an advantage in terms of age” Also I made sure to mention “as many as 5 or 6 National Youth players.” I never EVER said they played the national team. I also NEVER said that the handball players lacked sportsmanship so I don’t know why you talked about “remarkable sportmanship”. I also never said that “national teams can’t lose” I merely asked “Is our investment in handball really worth it?” By the way by so explicitly highlighting that Regent Secondary has had handball for a whole year is actually helping my point since RI(JC) doesn’t even have handball…
@Jeslyn Since you agree with Oscar and Venie I guess the same points apply.
@Vinoth I respect your opinion and understand that ideally everyone should get a chance to represent Singapore. But the fact remains that sports funding is not limitless in Singapore hence I merely state the question of whether the pros outweigh the cons. Besides it’s not as if I’m the one calling the shots so you’ll get your shot at the YOG and I wish you the best of luck and honestly I hope you prove me wrong and win something at the YOG.
@Jason Well that is a valid point, I’m no expert on handball nor do I follow the national handball team regularly, so yes, they might stun me and prove to be a formidable team. As a Singaporean I hope they do prove me wrong and win something.
hahah we must let all these young budding sportsman have a chance to represent singapore plus at such a young age they have time to imrpove. And to the other people even though RIJC din face the whole national youth team what makes you think that they would lose? A source stated that the RJC team trained for a mere 4 sessions before joining the competition. IF this is true how would you account for the numerous numbers of trainings which the national youth team goes for without showing any results. Plus ERVIN SETHI and TOW WEN WEI these two exceptional players from the youth team did not take part could they have made a difference in their respective schools?
Yea everyone should seriously read and understand kaiyu’s comments before making their own, so at least they’ll be relevant to his and as objective thanks.
hey Kai Yu, if u still have any doubts of what have been said. Here is another fact, the RJ handball teams were impressive during the inter-school competition. yes its true that they did face the national handball youth players. However, did they face the whole of the national youth handball team? NO! and handball requires a great deal of team work. so what makes u so sure of your judgement on the national youth squad based on facing a few players of the team?
RJC lost to st andrews, a school which only had 1 youth team player..AND they were a younger bunch..nice much? i hope this is enough to convince you that your school wasnt perfect..if you’re still not convinced, the RJ team can come down anytime to play against the national team..we will be glad to show you why we deserve a shot in the YOG
Hi, I only have one thing to say 🙂 Guess what? I agree w Vnie & Oscar. HAHAHA. Bye.
I agree with what Oscar has said. The Singapore handball team just started off not long ago and they’re still learning. In addition, Regent Secondary only started handball team THIS YEAR. Their achievements so far (at the age of 16) are already considered significant. One year of training really can make alot of difference. If you’re implying that they’re not worthy of representing Spore, then you are ? Please. Dont make my toes laugh. Then are you trying to say that national teams can’t lose? There’s no such thing as winning every match for sure even if they’re national team players. They gain experience through every match that they play and it helps them improve to become better players. How could you determine their standard of playing based on this one match that they lost? What about the rest that they won? What about their efforts of making in into the finals ? HELLO, YOG does not only recruit players with superior playing skills but also players with remarkable sportmanship. Do you even understand? DUH
Hey, you’re not boastful i know. But the Singapore team handball team just started off not so long ago. They’re still learning. So what are you trying to say? National youth players can’t lose any match? They’re all perfect is that it? They’re still on the road to learning. Or are you simply jealous because some of your teammates got selected into the team while you didn’t? If that’s the case, either you’re overage for the Youth Team or it’s because you’re not good enough. You didn’t outshine everyone in your team to attract the attention of the judges. Sorry about that, but maybe you can try out next year again. But
The finals that you’re fightings with, Regent. 16 years old only. So what if there might be Singapore Youth players in the team? Does that mean that it’s a guaranteed that they’ll win? So Singapore soccer or whatever the sports is, must win every other countries on earth? That sort of thinking is so wrong man. Not everyone is born to be as perfect. They’re learning boy.
Not meaning to be boastful, but both RI(JC) teams had extremely few training sessions before the above mentioned competition and managed to emerge champions against teams which featured as many as 5 or 6 National Youth players. The question here must surely be is it worthwhile to have these ‘National Youth Players’ represent Singapore in the YOG the following year? I understand that it is important to have Singaporean representation, but would the funds for such a team not be better served in areas which had a better foundation locally? Would sending a team which would (presumably) be soundly beaten by other teams (since they are not even successful locally) not be slightly farcical?
Understandably, RI(JC) teams had an advantage in terms of age, however see-ing as both teams comprised largely of JC1s, the age difference should be a mere 1 year. Does this age difference really account for the disparity in skill level.
In my opinion National Youth Players should more or less be the ‘All-stars’ locally and be a cut above the rest. Is our investment in handball really worth it?