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The male squash semi-finals commenced at high noon on Saturday. There was a high level of confidence in the home crowd, illustrated by the noisy KE spectators (including President Terence and other JCRC members) who crammed the seats of the KE7 squash court. The home team faced the formidable Temasek squad, but Captain Raymond walked into the court with the avid KE fans cheering him on from the very first game. Temasek won the racquet spin, akin to ‘winning the toss’, and was the first to serve. However, Raymond was able to quickly raise the home-score to 9-0 and win the set by skilfully playing the ball. Set 2 proved be a more eventful game with multiple collisions and ‘let’s as Raymond battled with Temasek for control of the ball. Raymond scored an early lead till TH neutralized it to 2-2. But Ray was able to push to score with relative ease till he hit 6-2 and a minor volley broke out ending with an 8-2 win by KE. The 3rd set was entirely in Team KE’s favour as Ray was able to score a decisive 9-0 victory despite several collisions (resulting in a ‘let’) and the first “stroke” of the game.

A triumphant Raymond walked off the court to the cheers of the home crowd. Christopher moved in to take the skipper’s place on the court and start the second game. He was able to blunt Temasek’s first serve to deliver a score of 5-1 before a ‘let’ stopped his advance. Temasek managed to fight back to give a score of 5-2 , but another ‘let’ tilted the game back in Chris’s favor and it ended with a 9-2 win of set 1 by KE. The second set was another decisive win by the home side as Chris racked up the score to 7-0, at which point he was caught in a ‘rally’ (squash term for volley) which ended with a ’stroke’. Once more Chris was triumphant, winning the set 9-0. Set 3 was routine 3-0 till Temasek scored a point to make it 3-1. Thankfully, Chris was able to end the game 9-1 without extra suspense. Teammates hinted that his success was due to his high accuracy.

The third game was a clash of former KE captains with KE’s Vincent battling it out with ex-KE captain Malinda of Temasek. Vincent put up a tough fight with a ‘let’ occurring during the first set, but Malinda was able to secure a 9-0 win for Temasek. The 2nd Set proved even more eventful, when a stray ball missed this reporter’s head! But Malinda’s play of the ball proved decisive in winning the 2nd set 9-0. After several good attempts and strong team camaraderie, Vincent was able to blunt Malinda’s 3-0 advance and rack the score up to 3-2 for KE. But Malinda was again able to break through with a 9-2 victory for TH. Vincent was applauded off-court by the home crowd and was genuinely exhausted after giving it his 100%.

A nervous Denis walked into the fourth game with a very humble expectation of results. The scores see-sawed throughout this game with Temasek and Denis fighting 2-1,3-2,5-4 with Denis delivering an admirable shot, but despite the skipper’s “C’mon Denis fight!”, Temasek won the set 9-4. Set 2 proved to be reverse as Denis scored 0-4 before TH had the chance to fight back with 1-4. This was TH’s last point for the set as Dennis won the set 1-8 to a increasingly noisy home crowd. At this point the skipper put his money on Denis. Temasek surged forward to 4-0 before Dennis could stave them off. This set also possessed the loudest cheers of the semi-finals with the home crowd cheering “C’mon Denis Focus Focus!”. Dennis managed to turn the game around and win the set 5-9 for KE, much to the skipper’s delight, as this meant he won his bet of course. Denis proved his mettle once more in Set 4 where he outplayed TH to secure a 9-1 victory for KE amidst the “U the man , Dennis!” cheers. Despite being smaller in numbers, TH cheered their exhausted player on with “Fight on” and “Don’t give up”. But the home crowd was truly electric as Denis walked off the court.

Jeremy played the final game against the Temasek squash pro Navin. The first set was action-packed with many slides, collisions and debates as Navin fought hard for his 8-2 win for TH. The tense second set proved a ‘scoreboard see-saw’ with both scores running neck-to-neck. Jeremy won the set by a narrow 8-9. The third set was even more intense with an aggressive Temasek debating over the slightest of issues. This was obviously a very serious game which Temasek had no intension of losing. Navin pushed the score up from a 1-1 stalemate to an 9-1 victory for Temasek. In the 4th set was clear that Jeremy was trying his level best to outplay Navin, given that this game had the most slips and slides of the semi-finals. A 4-0 Temasek lead was upset by Jeremy, as the home team cheered him on to take 4 points, but despite this team-spirit Navin won the set and the game with a 8-4 victory for Temasek.

The home crowd, in a display of good sportsmanship, cheered both the home team and Temasek. They had good reason to celebrate, as the KE male squash team had qualified for the IHG Squash finals. All in all, the Male Squash team definitely proved their mettle and delivered an outstanding performance to their adoring fans in the home crowd.

- Aeshan

The home side’s fortunes changed in the 3rd Game with Irene taking on a KR service to deliver a 1-1 stalemate to the cheers of “Go Irene” by Denis and his squad. She broke the stalemate with a 4-1 lead. KR was able to score another point before Irene surged to 8-2, winning the set for the home-side. In the 2nd set Irene was able to quickly secure a 2-0 lead with a nice serve. KR managed to catch-up to 2-2 but was able to handle the ‘low-balls’ delivered by Irene’s racquet. Nonetheless the game proceeded with Irene and KR fighting neck-to-neck. The euphoric team cheered her on and downplayed her mistakes which led to a tense 8-7 match point. Denis cheered, “Deuce it!”, but KR won the set by a narrow margin. Set 3 was entirely in KE’s favor with Irene racking up the home score to 7-1 before KR intervened. A swift victory was denied due to the ball going out at the critical 8-2 match point. However this was only a minor delay as Irene was able to outplay the KR serve to save the game for the home-side.

Despite this extraordinary battle, KE lost the series to KR. The loss of 2 players was thought to be the main issue, but team morale remained strong throughout the series regardless of the result.

- Aeshan