Guys’ Handball: Limit breakers for the Elimination round? Not without a fight.

Pubz Comm Reporter: Jonathan Chan 

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KE 12-33 RH

It was a blazing hot evening when KE’s Guys’ Handball Team began their IHG ’08 campaign. Defending champions Raffles Hall faced us, the team supposedly the last in the league, albeit one which had been undergoing intensive training throughout the December break. With Eric, our Hand ball captain, repeatedly exhorting that this was the year for a breakthrough in our playing, everyone, seniors and juniors alike, could not help but hope that this was a match to be remembered, even if we might have been up against a clearly superior Raffles team. Certainly, the team was infused with the hope of being a “Limit Breaker”, as the KEVII Handball Team has named itself.

KE lined up with Eric and Wuhong on the wings, Marcus and Jun Kok in the centre, Damien and Aik Leong in the second man position, and Jonathan in the goal. At the whistle blow, KE’s team went into offence, passing the ball slowly to each other, gaining the momentum as they neared the RH defence line. Then with a feint to one side and an explosion of speed, green met red in a flurry of hands and feet as the KE players started firing passes to one another building up for the attack, before unfortunately a RH player scrambled the ball away to regain possession of it. 

The defending champions now showed us why they were crowned as such.  With ominous precision they passed the ball, gathering speed.  A RH player burst through the KE defence, but happily for us he lost control of the ball which bounced past the goal to the KE keeper’s relief.

Both teams had a pretty nervy start to the game, but RH broke the stalemate first, breaking through KE’s defence twice to score at point blank range. Our team’s situation was not helped by the fact that, having lost the coin toss to choose sides, the entire KE team was attacking into the sun which was low in the sky and directly in the eyes of all 7 players.

Yet, this did not deter Eric who valiantly led the team forward again. Our captain leapt high and far into the keeper’s circle despite the best efforts of the opposing winger, and suddenly the ball was in the back of RH’s net, past the arms of their keeper. The KE’s band of supporters cheered their lungs out as if the match were an IHG final rather than the very first match of the season, the players exchanging breathless words of congratulations as they reset to defend against RH.

RH came out of the blocks fighting as they proceeded to charge against the left wing of our defence (the writer thinks the reason might be that this was where the sun was shining from and where we were most blinded), attempting to score with powerful shots which looked well nigh capable of dismembering any KE player who intervened. But intervene they did. Not a few times did Damien, Eric and Jun Kok put the RH players off their stride, forcing them to drop the ball or pass back to reset the attack. Twice Jonathan rushed off his line forcing the attackers to shoot wide. But the ferocity of the attacks was such that shots still went in. Credit to the RH players who scored from both short range and long range, despite the attempts of the KE team to deny them.

Of course, KE did not just take it lying down. Bottom of the league we may have been but still, the players threw themselves at the RH goal again and again, despite being not as smooth or technically proficient as the opposing team. Balls were missed, shots were saved and goals were scored. Substitutions came onto the field with all cylinders firing as the fatigue set in. Then it was half time and the score was lying at about 20+ to7 (such was the excitement of the game that this is a disputed score line, hence the word “about”)

The word with which Eric then challenged the team was “CONFIDENCE”.  He wanted  to lessen nervous, uncertain attacks, and also demanded that we score at least 10 against our opponents. With a fresh set of players, the KEVII team set off on the second half determined not to let themselves down. Pak Kin soared into the RH goal area and let loose a blistering shot which their keeper could not stop. Yin Rui scored a beautiful goal at the end of a slick set of passing, and Wu Hong made his customary run into the area before unleashing a fierce shot for a great goal. Marcus’ and Josh’s powerful shots also reaped benefits as the game progressed.

At the other end of the court, the team defended well. Loo Bing, our senior keeper, memorably plucked a ball out of mid air by catching it between his knees (and thankfully for him, not higher up). The keeper with the best positioning in the team, he saved more than a few glove-scorching shots, turning the shots wide from the goal with a confidence of experience. With Aik Leong yelling at the team to pull together at the top of his lungs and cheers coming from the supporters, KE fought tooth and nail. With all hands up, the KE team presented a forest of arms which denied at least two long range shots.

Shots continued coming in from both sides, but with team manager Hendrik upping the ante asking for more goals, the team readily obliged. At the final whistle, the score was 33-12, which according to Eric, was “the best score we have ever had against RH”.

In the debrief, Eric and Hendrik congratulated the team on a game which, while not perfect, was a good start to the campaign, against a opponent of vastly greater standards. With the crucial game against Eusoff Hall, supposedly a team nearer our standards, on Friday, today was definitely a good warm up. According to the seniors, the team just have to tighten up their playing and we would have a fighting chance on Friday.

Only time will tell whether the Limit Breakers are en route to the elimination round, but till then, they promise to put up a good showing.

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KE Handball Girls go down to KR

Pubz Comm Reporter: Anand Vasudevan

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The first prelim match for the handball girls was against tough opponents, the blue KR warriors, and despite a strong effort, we lost 3-10.

The first half began with Kent Ridge taking the offensive quickly with a brace of shots and suddenly we found ourselves to be at 0-3. It took some time for the girls to catch up with the fast pace of the game played by Kent Ridge players but slowly we got back into the game with a few shots at the goal. Brenda opened the scoring for KE with a well directed shot and we pulled one back to bring the score 1-3.

Kent Ridge girls kept up the pace throughout the game, which caused Kimberly to concede a penalty (she was also given a time-out of 2 minutes). Luckily, our goalkeeper, Jia Hui pulled off a great save to deny our opponents the happiness of scoring again. We built a rhythm with a string of passes but we could not put the finishing touch with our shots being blocked by the defense and goalkeeper. Kent Ridge played aggressively, capitalizing on quick counterattacks to score at regular intervals and the first half ended 1-7.

The half-time talk concentrated on our mistakes, with suggested solutions to try to claw our way back into the game. The second half began on a positive note as we took to offense, firing a few rapid shots, thus forcing Kent Ridge’s goalkeeper to make good saves. One of Kimberly’s shot hit the top right post but unfortunately bounced up. In defense, we were much improved in holding Kent Ridge down with good saves from our goalkeeper. However, our opponents proved quite strong and we let slip in two more goals to bring the score to 1-9. As one of our supporters mentioned “KR is playing very fast and very aggressive”, stifling our players with clamps (a handball term to denote preventing the opponent from shooting with their arms enclosing the opponent). This caused our players to take shots farther away from the goal post than they would have preferred, reducing the chances of scoring.

But, our girls fought on and were able to score two more goals, one from Brenda and the other from Fang Chee, raising our morale and spirits. The game was approaching its end and the Kent Ridge team managed to score another goal, bringing the final score to read 3-10.

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Despite the result, there were some positives in the match and hopefully the girls can regroup for their second match against Eusoff, for a chance to qualify for the semi-finals.