The MAB Awards are back!

Every year, the Merit Awards Board seeks to show our hall’s acknowledgement as well as recognition to those Keviians who have worked hard and whose service has made a great impact in King Edward VII Hall.

Now it’s that time for you to nominate and vote for who YOU think deserves this recognition. Find out how…

****VOTE RESPONSIBLY***

Pubz Comm Reporter: N Puneeth

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This year’s Touch Rugby for guys was held at the SRC fields on the 16th of February, a Saturday of the month. The event kicked off at about 3 PM.

Our starting line consisted of Horace Owino /H, Jialun (Vice Cap.), Wei Liang(Cap), Dominic, Kevin and Paul.

First Match: KE vs EH. 0-5

We kicked off the proceedings for the day with the first match against a very strong Eusoff team. We were completely outplayed in this match which we lost by a margin of 5 tries to nil.

Second Match: KE vs KR, 2-4

In the second match we had a better outing and we managed to score two tries courtesy of our star player H and Paul, but we conceded some easy tries, and in the end went down by a margin of 2-4.

Third Match: KE vs TH, 0-4

We were up against a very strong and competent Temasek Hall. Again, we were outplayed by a much better team and we let them score four tries. As was the case for the majority of the evening we ended up losing this match as well.

Fourth Match: KE vs SH, 1-2

We had a very good match against Sheares Hall, the defending champions. We put in a tough fight and the writer’s opinion is that we should have gotten way more out of this match.

Fifth Match: KE vs RH; 1-2

Once again a tough opponent for us to play against. We were up against the eventual champions of the IHG Touch Rugby, Raffles Hall. We managed to score a try thanks to Paul but we again let in some easy tries in the second half, and we ended up losing the match by a margin of 1-2.

On the whole, we really ended up having no points to show, but the most important thing is that our boys had fun playing.

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Pubz Comm Reporter: Yu Kit Chan 

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It was a relatively quiet evening at the volleyball courts as both teams took their time warming up for the Volleyball IHG game. The sparse number of supporters and relatively relaxed atmosphere gave no indication of the exciting game that was to come.

For Volleyball, it was different from Badminton and Squash in that both sides had the opportunity to score points, regardless of the team which had the serve. It was also interesting to note that players were allowed to run out of the court to save a ball – something that probably is not very good news for teams with overly-enthusiastic supporters who tend to crowd around the courts.

The match started. The pace of the game felt somewhat cautious, with carefully timed passes and sets which were then followed by spikes. A few valiant attempts by KE players to spike the ball were thwarted by the quick reflexes of the opposing team. However, Sheares seemed to have a tendency of hitting the ball out whenever they spiked it. Following another ball which Sheares hit out, a brilliant spike by our team shot into the corner of the opposite court, out of reach of the Sheares defenders.

As the game heated up, our players had to dive twice to try to save the ball and the opposing team used double blocks to pre-empt spikes from KE. A serve by Sheares that barely grazed the sidelines of the court marked the end of the first set, 14-25 in Sheares’s favour.

The second set had a quicker pace and one could tell that the players were really going all out for each and every point. KE adopted the tactic of using double blocks and successfully managed to block a few attempted spikes by Sheares. This time, Sheares seemed to have reigned in the distance of their spikes better as they made less unforced errors while executing offensive spikes. There were several long and exciting rallies through the second set. Our boys fought hard but had to concede defeat eventually, with the score of 17-25. Nevertheless, we are still proud of our volleyball team for their tremendous efforts and applaud them for a game well played.

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Pubz Comm Reporter: Jason Lun Leung

An inspiring report, for an inspiring sport… 

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KE road relay guys had been training hard for this day. Our team was heavily reliant on seniors who had already experienced it all in the previous years. Ma Rong, Kumaran and Terence had already been part of the much celebrated KE team which had ranked third last year, and, luckily for us, were willing to give it their all for the hall again for this IHG. Kelvin, Yong Jun and Yannick had stepped up to make up the rest of the team. The KE guys assembled at the car park at around five, and went through the preparations for the actual race together. After careful consideration, the team lined up as follows: Kelvin, Ma Rong, Kumaran, Yong Jun, Terence and Yannick. 

I was watching the event from at the Central Library slope. After receiving news that the first runners had been flagged off, the anxious wait for their appearance at the bottom of the slope began. Some time passed and the first runner, from Temasek hall, appeared closely followed by the yellow of Eusoff. Then, a nervous few seconds elapsed before the next runner came into view round the bend. The red jersey of Kelvin was an extremely uplifting sight. We were all relieved and happy to see that we were still in the race and only trailing the top two by a small distance. On seeing Kelvin, the red supporters started shouting words of encouragement.

Cheering the runners is one of the ways of acknowledging how hard this particular event is on the body and mind, and, in this respect, cross campus race is slightly different from other IHG sports: you cheer every runner passing by to support him/ her through this exhausting process even if he/ she is from another hall. The sight of somebody toiling his way upslope brings about respect even if that person is from another hall. It was nice to see people lined up along the sides of the road egging every runner on, irrespective of his hall. 

It takes around 4 minutes to actually run to the start of the slope. By the time one reaches this point, one is already starting to tire, but still needs to will oneself up this punishing slope. People who have never tried this route can find it hard to visualize how hard running it in such insane timings is, but one should try to picture the lactic acid in the legs, the gasping breaths and the mental struggle required to complete this in 8 minutes or less. Road relay really is one hell of a race to run, and it truly requires all of your focus to push yourself all the way to the finish.

Thus, this year’s race was full of emotions for the KE supporters. The determined look on Kelvin’s face as he chased the two from TH and EH and the calm, assured striding of the veterans Ma Rong and Kumaran inspired respect and excitement in the KE people. As Kumaran finished his lap, we were still well placed in third position. However, Yong Jun faced strong race opponents and, despite his best efforts, KE was fifth by the end of the fourth round.

With Terence and Yannick left to catch up, the rest of the race was going to be a nerve- wracking experience. They were our best two, but some doubts still lingered over whether they could catch up with the rest. As Terence controlled his race and calmly gained ground on the fourth team, he overtook the Raffles guy and pulled KE one rank higher just before releasing Yannick as our last runner.

The last lap was quite demoralizing as far as the supporters on the Central Library slope were concerned. We saw three of the other halls pass by before Yannick appeared round the bend. He pushed himself to the limit and managed to win us the third position by clocking in at 7’ 39 (he beat his personal best by 20+ seconds), to the extreme joy of the KE supporters who had assembled at the car park.

The KE guys had, against all odds, repeated last year’s heroics and ranked third overall. Yes, we had been quite lucky. But the point remains that they trained hard enough and were there to seize whatever luck threw their way. This result would not have been possible without the excellent training sessions conducted in the months before the actual race day.

After giving their all to win this rank, the guys were understandably overjoyed, and celebrations were ecstatic. We had bettered the timings set before the race by several seconds. With sheer perseverance, we had managed to hold our ground against the other hall teams packed with IVP players. This was a truly memorable event, and, as such, I would like to congratulate the KE guys’ road relay team.   

Thanks to Kelvin, who proved a fantastic captain, motivating everybody through all the tough trainings and successfully building a nice team of runners.

Thanks also to the seniors who did not need to run, but offered their help, trained intensively and gave wise advice. I hope their passion and love for this event has inspired several others to take their lead and try their best to contribute to KE.

            Long live KE VII road relay team!!!

To finish off this report, just two quotes which I heard from people who competed in this sport where motivation plays such a strong part:

“All the way!”

“Every second counts.”

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IHG has officially ended yesterday. The few last articles will be posted soon. Some of our reporters have been busy juggling with CAs and CCAs. Thank you for your patience. Our blog will now change focus: There are a few upcoming events… Amplitude, Rockfest… The blog will stay updated regularly but less frequently so do check every 2-3 days for new things and if you don’t find any yet, you can try to relive past IHG memories by browsing through the previous posts, watching the videos or maybe you might just check out our Games page!

LATEST NEWS!!

DansDemonz (our KE7 dance group) has passed the Dance Uncensored selection process with flying colours.  All 4 of our DANCES have been selected to perform for DANCE UNCENSORED on the 21st of March.

Here are some pictures of DansDemonz at the recently-held ECP at Bugis Junction:

You can find other photos of the External Cultural Performance at http://kephoto.multiply.com/photos/album/49

Photo Credits: KE Photo Comm