By Enoh

Kallang Squash Centre, Tuesday, April 24, 2012 — Favourites Raffles Girls’ School survived a scare to beat perennial rival Singapore Chinese Girls’ School 3-2 and claim the National B Division Girls’ Squash Championship title.

RGS were helmed by two former top junior players, Denise Lim and Michelle Tay, and ably supported by a couple of current national junior players, Chong Yin Jean and Clara Tan and had beaten SCGS 4-1 in an earlier group match. On the other hand, SCGS has only one national trainee, Wong Hui Ling, in their ranks.

Rather quickly it was 2-0 in RGS’ favour as the final progressed according to expectations with Yin Jean and Denise Lim winning their matches against Chew Wei Ling and Samantha Phey respectively.

The third tie was between Clara Tan (RGS) and Lee Rui Chen (SGCS). At 2-0 up and holding match-point at 10-6 in the third set, Clara was cruising to victory when suddenly Rui Chen started to play superbly in winning the next six points to clinch a vital life-line for her team.

Probably still stunned by the sudden reversal of fortune, Clara lost the next two sets and Rui Chen handed SCGS a glimpse of hope for their faltering title aspiration.

At that stage, the level of cheering went up by a decibel as both set of supporters sought to spur their respective teams to greater heights.

As the heat in the gallery rose, Heidi Tan of RGS and Janie Siow of SCGS, were warming up in the court for the fourth tie of the final. Being the more experienced of the two, hopes were high in the RGS camp that Heidi could deliver the winning point.

However, Janie, known more for her agility and never-say-die attitude than for her stroke-making ability, had other ideas. Chasing down every ball and finishing the rallies with aplomb whenever the opportunities arose, Janie scored an unexpectedly easy 3-0 victory over an out-of-sorts Heidi.

With the score at 2-2, the fifth tie was to be championship match and SCGS sensed an upset was on the card. Unfortunately for the SCGS supporters, Michelle Tay (RGS), the recently crowned national Under-15 winner, proved a tad too strong for Wong Hui Ling (SCGS) as she comfortably defeated her gallant opponent 3-0, to ensure that the trophy stayed with RGS for at least another year.