It was a day like no other for the KEVII handball team. First of all, we were shocked to learn that the venue for our match would be Temasek Polytechnic, which was all the way in the East! Then on the eve of the match, we found out that we were supposed to provide a goal-post as well! The result was 14 girls squeezed into the back of a rented truck with a dismantled goal-post as we started our journey. After a bumpy 45 minutes ride especially whenever the truck went over a bump in which there would be exclamations of “Argh!” and “My poor back!”, as well as plenty of amused looks from drivers, we arrived at our destination.

The first thing we saw upon our arrival at the handball courts was a sea of green-coloured jerseys, which marked our opponents for the day: Raffles Hall. Although we were a little shaken due to the bumpy ride which stirred up feelings of nausea in a few players, and suffered from various injuries picked up in other games, we were determined to do our best. After a pep talk from our coach, Pei Fern(an ex-KEVIIan), we were ready to play.

Raffles played a “safe” game in which they stood quite a distance away from KEVII players when attacking, and took their time to pass the ball around while waiting for an opportunity to shoot. They relied heavily on one shooter as she unleashed a few formidable shots on goal. On our part, we were dealt a blow when we found out that a few defensive moves we learnt in practice were actually illegal! We conceded possession of the ball to Raffles numerous times at the 9-metre line as a result. To summarise the first half, the KEVII team took too long to warm-up, with few attempts at goal. The whistle blew for half-time with the score 4-0 to Raffles.

The 2nd half saw our play improve as our confidence grew with each pass. We had our fair amount of shots on target. Our shooting trio of Brenda, Kim and Jia Hui did their best to put the ball past the goalkeeper, but to no avail. I must say our stamina did not let us down considering we only had 3 substitutes compared to Raffles which could afford to substitute players as they pleased. With a few good saves from our keeper Emily, the game ended with the score 7-0.

Admittedly, we were disappointed with the outcome of the match. But as they say, what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. Here’s to a first-rate performance against our next opponents, Eusoff!

Guys’ Handball

The guys’ match was scheduled to begin after the girls’. It was encouraging to see the large number of guys that turned up to play on that day. Think numbers so large that we had enough players to form a first, second, and even a third team! There was never a dull moment from the start of the match. Almost immediately after it began, one of our players hit the ball out of the opponent’s reach which resulted in him being rather harshly punished with a yellow-card and a 2-minute ban. But KEVII hit back soon after with an outstanding first goal from H! However, we conceded a series of penalties which left our otherwise outstanding goalkeeper Yuan Yan vulnerable against Eusoff’s top scorers. Nerves seemed to trouble our players and our passes were not up to our usual standard. Our team also had some problems in defense as Eusoff stomped on to a halftime lead of 15-5.

A pep talk and some discussion during the break seemed to have done our team good as we played well in the 2nd half. The tenacity of our players resulted in a better show. We appeared to have settled in as we controlled the ball well and even managed to intercept a few of Eusoff’s passes. The team captain Wu Hong spun around and successfully netted a few shots from the 6-metre line before falling on the ground. As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain”. H, our main scorer for the evening, really troubled the Eusoff defense with his powerful shots which forced Eusoff to guard him tightly. This fast-paced match ended with a final score of KEVII - 9, Eusoff - 20.

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All in all, our players put up an commendable performance on court. With the increase in the number of players by ten-fold compared to last year, and the numerous training sessions to build on our foundation, KEVII handball team can only get stronger. We will definitely be a force to reckon with in the near future!

- Hui Ann