WYKAAO Team B won the third place and Team A is the champion of Alumni Cup in the Charity Table Tennis Tournament organized by Lions Club at Markham Wesley Centre on Sunday July 13. There is a new addition to our team, Michael Chan ('94) second from the left, whom was recruited from one of our previous networking gatherings with new comers. He used to play in WYK school team.
Recap from our team captain Mike Yam ('74)
"Bill Ip and Michael Chan are the heroes in today’s win. Since our team advanced to the final much earlier than the other team, we waited for quite a long while before starting the final. Both Bill and myself have cooled down too much. This reflected in our first game in the doubles. We were down 0:8 within seconds in our first game without going into a rally, end up losing 2:11. I guess a lot of spectators were wondering how a team of this calibre advanced to the final??? In the second game, we got 2 points from our serve, then handed it straight back as we cannot handle the spinny serve from our opponent, Jeff. Tied 2:2, we served and got a chance to smash hard on their return, just to see Jeff smash back hard with his signature backhand. Everyone must have thought they earned this point. But Bill has other idea. He countered a powerful backhand and pushed it to the far corner. Not only he earned us the point, he also made these kind of shots repeatedly afterwards, bringing us back into the game. We end up winning this game and the 3rd to win our first point 1:0.
Michael lost to David Lau in the first single. I didn’t watch it but heard it was a close match. Then I took a point from Jeff and David took a point from Bill with a narrow margin. With big points tying 2:2 in matches, Michael faces Bing Lee from St Joseph. Bing is a smart player who uses his pips on the backhand side skillfully. He can do backhand smash or use it to counter your spin. Michael was not used to this and got behind 0:4 in the first game quickly. I thought he was going to lose the first game and was thinking in my mind as to how to help him get back. But then he settled down and chased one point at a time. Finally caught up and won 11:9. The second game became a breeze for him and he finally beat Bing 2:0 and completes our first ever win over St Joseph AC narrowly by a score 3:2. Thanks to Bill and Michael for their outstanding performance today."