By Enoh

Thursday, April 12, 2012 — Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) will be meeting the emerging force in school squash, Fairfield Methodist School, in the final of the National B Division Boys’ Squash Championship on April 26th, 2012.

The current ACS(I) B Division team is likely to be too strong for Fairfield this year but in the next three to four years, Fairfield is expected to dominate the sport.

ACS(I)’s big three — Pang Ka Hoe, Benedict Chan and Nishan — are probably too experienced for most of the Fairfield players. Ka Hoe is the national Under-19 champion and Singapore representative for the Asian Senior tournament next month in Kuwait while Benedict Chan is national U17 champion and represented Singapore in last year’s Asian Junior tournament in Jordan. Nishan is a top junior player from Kuala Lumpur who finished in the top four in last year’s Hong Kong Junior Open in the U15 category.

Although Fairfield have good strength in depth, their best player, Benedict Long, who finished third in the national U17s, is not likely to beat any one of ACS(I)’s top three players.

Looking at the current scene, both Fairfield and Raffles Institution with their good core of Secondary 1 and 2 players, are expected to feature prominently in the future C and B Division finals.

This year’s final will provide a great experience for Fairfield’s Secondary 3 players for next year’s B Division championship. Brandon Tan, Khoo Wen En and Goh Jia Wen will anchor a very solid Fairfield team and they are likely to be joined by Kojiro Tan, the national U15 champion, from its current C Division squad. Fairfield should be the hot favourite for the title in 2013.

Likewise, RI with its excellent Secondary 1 players, led by Kevin Tong, the national U13 champion, and Tan I Joe, the national U13 runner-up, should dominate next year’s C Division event.

In contrast, ACS(I) appear to be a fading force, having failed to reach a C Division final since 2010. ACS(I) were unable to entice the country’s best junior players to join the school in the last two years
although it has been dominating the sports for the last decade.

Also, outside of the Direct School Admission (DSA) students, its squash program has not been able to produce any player of note, since the emergence of Benedict Chan and Jeremy Goh three years ago.

Unsurprisingly, aside from Nishan, an academic scholar from Malaysia who joined the school this year, ACS(I) will struggle to fill the void left by Pang Ka Hoe and Benedict Chan when they graduate at the end of this year. Both of them are IB students and will likely feature in the ACS(I) A Division team where they will join forces with current Year 5 students, Darren Subramaniam, a former top junior player from Malaysia, and Pang Ka Wai, a top national junior player and Ka Hoe’s brother, in 2013.

In a nutshell, for this year, it is almost a given that ACS(I) will continued to carve its name on the B Division trophy,
while Fairfield and RI will fight for similar rights in the C Division.

Fairfield have arguably the best C Division player in Kojiro Tan but RI appear to have better strength in depth with Rayden, Kevin Tong and Tan I Joe. To make the tie even more intriguing tie, Fairfield are the defending champions, having won it for the first time in its brief squash history in 2011. RI have a rich squash tradition but have not worn the C Division crown for at least 10 years.

Hence, expect this C Division final between RI and Fairfield to be a keenly-fought affair. A huge emotional outpouring can be expected at the end of it. The outcome will depend on the boys’ desire, physical condition and most importantly, the luck of the draw based on the coaches’ strategy.