Dainty Diva
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
I'm here blogging again cos fiona said i haven blogged for very long liao (though i updated last week... heh)
Shall continue with my boggle match cos this would serve as my only 'recorded' memory... never will have the chance to play boggle competitively anymore... saddened...
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Just some rules, in case you all are lost while reading...
The 15 halls will be divided into 2 groups; A (consisting of seven halls) and B (consisting of 8 halls) and the top 2 halls in each group will advance to the semi-finals... [my hall is in grp B]
A player is awarded set points as follows:-
1 set point for a win in 1 set
0.5 set point for a draw in 1 set
0 set point for a loss in 1 set
The player with the higher total raw score after the three games will be the winner for the set. (e.g. Hall A player 1’s raw scores are 20, 10, 90; Hall B player 1’s raw scores are 40,50,60 for games 1,2, and 3 respectively. Player 1 from Hall B will win and earn 1 set point. The hall with the largest number of set points will win a match
Days: Thursday (5 jan), Friday (6 jan)
Time: 6.30pm - Late
Venue: Hall 8 MPH
Day 1: Qualifying rounds 1 - 5
The 1st day of match... playing against halls 6, 12, 11, 14 and 13... rec sec collected master players' list for me and i had to fill in the names and matric numbers of my team (5 players and 2 reserves), as well as the players' list which i had to indicate the seating arrangement of my 5 main players.... and submit it to the rec sec of the convening hall, hall 7... while waiting for the match to start, we played a few games to warm up and rec sec went to pack dinner for those who haven had dinner...
Finally the time arrived for the players to enter the arena... my team and all hall threeians who were around gathered and did a whoosh (a hush-hush one cos dun wanna attract too much attention)... my 5 players (Myself, Joon Leng, Aileena, Bennie & Leroy) went into the arena with much confidence and played our best... i played against a freshie who's quite cute~ =p After we made introductions, his 1st question to me was whether i'm a teacher... haha.. he thinks i look like one... anyway, though he's a freshie, i must say he's quite strong in his 3s... 1st set was a close fight but i managed to win all 3 sets eventually... overall, we won 4-1 and it really boosted our team's morale...
Next match was up against Hall 12... we won beautifully with a score of 5-0!
Following that, we played against Hall 11... a rather pressurizing match as Hall 11 played quite well for Scrabble and most of their scrabble players are boggle players too... my scores and my opponent's were quite close but fortunately i managed to challenge some of her wrong words and she got 10 odd points deducted... after a good fight put up by my team, we managed to win 3.5 - 1.5 (draw in one of the boards)
Upcoming match was against Hall 14.... from the score board, we could see Hall 14 really got trashed... decided that my reserves should be able to win our opponents thus put my 2 reserves down for the match so that they could gain some experience... they were very against it cos they were afraid to bring down our thus-far unbeatten record... but well, they din let me down... we won 5-0! Great job!
Last match of the day was up against Hall 13 which was the strongest opponent of the day as they are scrabble champs (team made up of similar players) this year... my strongest player got trashed by one of their players during the scrabble friendly match... but nonetheless, we decided we should just ignore that fact and play our best... we based our seating arrangement on gut feel... i made my players choose where they want to sit instead of me arranging the lineup of players (my strongest player ended up playing with the guy who trashed him at scrabble.. haa)... after playing the 1st set with my opponent, i felt they were not a threat actually cos my score was like double of my opponent's... in the end, we won by a close shave; score of 3-2...
That marks the end of day 1 and thus far, my hall has won all the 5 matches, making us top in group B.... gave us a good chance of entering the semis the following day, provided we win the next 2 qualifying rounds...
Day 2: Qualifying rounds 6, 7; Semis and finals
Had a bad start cos my strongest player, Joon Leng, was not feeling well... really worried that he will under-perform... then my players went for dinner and it was about time to enter the arena when they came back... and some of my team mates haven prepared their pens and matric cards.. aiyo! So lost and unprepared for our 1st game of the day...
Up against Hall 2... a rather strong opponent... managed to win 3-2... phew.... we are definitely in the semis!
Nonetheless, we played our best against Hall 1 and won with a score of 4-1... made it into the semis, together with Hall 2 from our group as well as Hall 10 and 15 from group A. I was really happy cos my rec sec and a. rec sec were down to support us...also because my best friend, Xiaomin, (captain of Hall 10) also made it into the semis!! She bunked in with me for the week of the match and we practiced boggle together (day and night, night and day) despite the fact that we might be opponents during the game...
However, there's this STUPID idiot, think he-knows-it-all guy, who doubted us, doubted my integrity and doubted my players' skills... he is not a player, not the manager nor the captain of the team.. he's only an ex-player and i don't understand why he has to take things into his hands... not showing respect to Xiaomin at all! After all, she's the captain and yet has no say in the lineup of players... this stupid guy planned all the lineup.... this is disgusting! He is super confident that his hall can beat mine... i think he based his judgement on our friendly match.. but it is totally inaccurate as most of my freshies played during the friendly, but during the actual competition, i had different players... and he refused to let Xiaomin play against me so he only informed Xiaomin of her seating position a minute before the game.. think he was afraid that Xiaomin and i had already made pre-arrangements as to where we want to sit... In the end, Xiaomin played against my strongest player and i played against their freshie... i think that guy is crap... he sucks big time and is a sore loser... he gave me the feeling that he feels Xiaomin and I had made pre-arrangements as to where our players would be sitting and all; and that Xiaomin purposely wanna let me win as this is my final year...
No doubt we wont let a stupid medal affect our friendship of 11 years, we will be happy for each other, no matter whose hall win... but as captains of our teams, i guess we both know that we should not let our teams down... we will still play against each other fair and square... do u think i want to win that much, to the extent of using underhand methods? We don't even know who we would be playing against during the semis until the day itself.. i don't even know if my team can go into semis until the day itself... why would i bother to make all these pre-arrangements?! You damn idiot... at 1st i din feel anything much when xiaomin was complaining to me... but the more i think about it after i settled my excitement, the more agiated i feel... he is a disgusting pig... i feel so angry cos i feel that we won fair and square... my players and i put in so much effort to memorise our 3s and learn our hooks... i'm not saying Xiaomin's team didnt put in their best effort... Xiaomin did too... she trained so hard... i am angry that stupid guy didnt appreciate Xiaomin's efforts to improve herself...
I think i am so angry that i am losing sense... a bit off track and don't quite understand my language anymore... just catch the main point - that disgusting guy is super idiotic and he does not deserve any respect... even my players dislike him after seeing him at the friendly match... yucks!
Anyway, we won 4-1 against Hall 10 in the semis which means we were able to play in the finals... while awaiting results from the other group, we tried to calm ourselves down and prepare for the final match... we didnt stres ourselves too much.. tried to calm each other by saying 'even if we dont win, we will still get a medal.. only difference is the colour - gold or silver)... but it was really a bonus cos we aimed to play at least into semis which was last year's standard... results was out from the group.. Hall 2 won the match against Hall 15 which means we will play against Hall 2 in the finals...
The finals was definitely the most stressful cos i played against this guy whom i lost to last year... shitty... and as true as it was, i lost my set by a mere 7 points!! Argh!! Another player also finished his game and he lost as well... i was panicking cos all the 3 remaining players will have to win in order for us to clinch gold... then 2 other players came back and they won their sets so the last player would determine the win/lose.... by this time, all the supporters and team mates have gathered outside the arena, awaiting the results... i almost had a heart attack manz... while i was talking to my team mates, we heard a loud 'YES!' from our rec sec and at that point in time, i almost went insane... was elated, delighted like crazy... high-fived all my players and hugged the last player who determined our victory!! Just so happy that we won and we celebrated by having supper and i treated my players to drinks as promised... haha... this is my pride and also honour for playing for hall 3! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~