Best Belgian trip yet!!
I was looking at this while checking out something else on Dr Liew's hilarious blog.
And I've been reading too many blogs for the one-and-a-half-hours that I've been here. No time to waste!!
Belgium was well fun. I finally won a game! Of the 3 mens doubles I've played in (Belgium), this time my partner was arguably the most unproficient in badminton. But boy, did he impress! Ho Fung normally doesn't use his strength very well, and usually ends up underhitting shots and clears. That's why he always chooses to drop the shuttle, and can't really smash. But not this time, dude. Many a time he was the one who salvaged the service when I mishit, or he set up the shots for me by playing some really difficult net shots. He would do a crosscourt drop and also the crosscourt net play which we all know about. And they normally crossed the net. That was in the first game, I think, when we had it tough and won 15-13, only to lose 8-15 in the second. However, we started off the rubber set with a really long rally (which we took), and then held on to our focus to grind out a 15-10 victory. But then our opponents were quite crap, a father and a son. We should never have dropped the second set.
On the singles front, I lost, as per normal. This opponent of mine won his next 2 matches too. But I am unhappy with my service. I think it wasn't deep enough when I started the game and I somehow didn't realise it. He smashed his way through my weak backhand. In the second I had something to salvage, but I wasn't moving him around the court. 15-2, 15-6. Aiks.
I should have played with Evelyn in the mixed, instead of letting Terence make a fool of himself and then trying to excuse his obvious lack of skill by saying things like he hasn't played mixed before, didn't jump properly on the shot, just a step too slow, and all that crap. Oh, and the shuttle was too fast. It still looks like the ones we use for practice! Eve isn't a poor player and it was such a waste to see them go out the way they did. Their opponent didn't even smash! And he thought that guy wasn't too great just because he was a little on the large side. Even if I played in his place I might not have won (but at least I'd have forced him to start smashing)!
On Sunday Ho Fung and I played our next doubles game, against the Birmingham people (friends of the coach's). Unfortunately, we didn't know how to strategise properly and did not attack the weaker player, going down 15-2, 15-7. We could have maybe taken a game. Then in our spare time we played loads of badminton, and Ho Fung continued his impressive new-found strength of shots. I played good ol' Jackie, and this time gave a good account of myself. Although I lost all 3 sets, I made life difficult for him, and nearly took a game. 15-7, 15-13, 15-8. Then I played Roger at singles and won 15-7, 10-15, 15-4. It was damn energy-sapping already, having scrambled all over court playing Jackie. After that were another few doubles games with Ho Fung. I say, he's even better than Terence now. Way to go, bud!
We reached a snowing Leicester at around 5 am, and I had to get up for a group discussion at 9.30am! I didn't sleep at all for the 2 hours, but the 3 lectures after lunch were too much for me. I fell asleep in stretches in all (especially Embedded Systems, whose lecturer is a friend of mine...Malaysian!). Came back and slunk on the bed for another 2.5 hours, and ended up having dinner after 9pm.
And I've been reading too many blogs for the one-and-a-half-hours that I've been here. No time to waste!!
Belgium was well fun. I finally won a game! Of the 3 mens doubles I've played in (Belgium), this time my partner was arguably the most unproficient in badminton. But boy, did he impress! Ho Fung normally doesn't use his strength very well, and usually ends up underhitting shots and clears. That's why he always chooses to drop the shuttle, and can't really smash. But not this time, dude. Many a time he was the one who salvaged the service when I mishit, or he set up the shots for me by playing some really difficult net shots. He would do a crosscourt drop and also the crosscourt net play which we all know about. And they normally crossed the net. That was in the first game, I think, when we had it tough and won 15-13, only to lose 8-15 in the second. However, we started off the rubber set with a really long rally (which we took), and then held on to our focus to grind out a 15-10 victory. But then our opponents were quite crap, a father and a son. We should never have dropped the second set.
On the singles front, I lost, as per normal. This opponent of mine won his next 2 matches too. But I am unhappy with my service. I think it wasn't deep enough when I started the game and I somehow didn't realise it. He smashed his way through my weak backhand. In the second I had something to salvage, but I wasn't moving him around the court. 15-2, 15-6. Aiks.
I should have played with Evelyn in the mixed, instead of letting Terence make a fool of himself and then trying to excuse his obvious lack of skill by saying things like he hasn't played mixed before, didn't jump properly on the shot, just a step too slow, and all that crap. Oh, and the shuttle was too fast. It still looks like the ones we use for practice! Eve isn't a poor player and it was such a waste to see them go out the way they did. Their opponent didn't even smash! And he thought that guy wasn't too great just because he was a little on the large side. Even if I played in his place I might not have won (but at least I'd have forced him to start smashing)!
On Sunday Ho Fung and I played our next doubles game, against the Birmingham people (friends of the coach's). Unfortunately, we didn't know how to strategise properly and did not attack the weaker player, going down 15-2, 15-7. We could have maybe taken a game. Then in our spare time we played loads of badminton, and Ho Fung continued his impressive new-found strength of shots. I played good ol' Jackie, and this time gave a good account of myself. Although I lost all 3 sets, I made life difficult for him, and nearly took a game. 15-7, 15-13, 15-8. Then I played Roger at singles and won 15-7, 10-15, 15-4. It was damn energy-sapping already, having scrambled all over court playing Jackie. After that were another few doubles games with Ho Fung. I say, he's even better than Terence now. Way to go, bud!
We reached a snowing Leicester at around 5 am, and I had to get up for a group discussion at 9.30am! I didn't sleep at all for the 2 hours, but the 3 lectures after lunch were too much for me. I fell asleep in stretches in all (especially Embedded Systems, whose lecturer is a friend of mine...Malaysian!). Came back and slunk on the bed for another 2.5 hours, and ended up having dinner after 9pm.
posted by cheez~ at
1:38 am
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