11 good men :)

(Standing): George Edward, Olaf Bluemke, Tony Haliwell, Mike Barton, Narendran, Kanan Packrisamy, Gordon de Souza, Luno Lim (Squatting): Tjalling Gerus, Ganesha Periasamy, Silvester Selvan (Not in picture): Chow Shee Seng (he's usually late, even for photo taking, probably shy), Aneel Kumarr (one too many "r" not a spelling mistake, explains his absence too), David Joseph (forgot to dye his hair so decided to sit out the photo shoot), Richard Ng (injured, could not limp to the photo taking on time, the rest of us could not hold our breath sucking in that tummy long enough, so we took the shot), Balbir Singh (He knew the opponents were not going to come so he skipped the game), Regu Raman (had not joined the team at that time of photo taking), Hans Schaefer (there are some people who have never met Hans in the team, actually that applies to the whole team), R Selvakumar (because he could not make it, he purposely told the other team players that the game was at the wrong pitch, this denied his strike partner who incidentally shares the same birthday as Selva, 10 Oct if you must know, the pleasure of bagging a dozen goals and overtake him, smelly fella), Eric Tan (arrived late, normal....), Aidil Idris (rotation system meant that he sits this one out)

ORA denied by lucky SVHA

6 September 09, SINGAPORE: Old Rafflesians Association (ORA) were awfully devoid of luck as they fell 1-0 to SVHA in a crucial game at Sengkang 2 stadium.

ORA easily missed more than a dozen chances and are firmly back into the relegation zone. However, the SHF tournament rules would render that ORA cannot be relegated as they already have a team in Division 3.

Noentheless, with the loss, ORA are out of the long shot of making the play offs. SVHA meanwhile are firm favourites now to edge Hollandse Club and claim that final spot in the play offs.

R Selvakumar was the saviour for the masters as he struck in the 50th minute of the game to decide the tense encoutner which saw the latter and Ganesha Periasamy yellow carded.

Meanwhile, Hollandse Club produced a polished performance and ousted d'Masters 2-0 to knock out their victims of the running for a play off berth.

The win sets up a quarterfinal like clash on 12 September 09 at Sengkang 2 between Hollandse Club and SVHA.

SVHA will effectively need a win to be in a good position to qualify. The Hollandse Club can still qualify if they lose this mammoth fixture but the Dutch look like a side that will be looking to ensure that they deny the SVHA a win and give them more than a fighting chance of qualifying for the play offs.

However, a Hollandse Club win will send them to the play offs in 4th place.

We expect all of you to be at Sengkang to lend your earnest support to SVHAns quest to make the play offs for the first time in their brief league history.

--ends--

SVHA squeeze past National Women

29 August 09, SINGAPORE: In the battle of the national teams, SVHA edged the National Women 1-0 to keep their hunt for a playoff spot very much life.

Needing to win all their remaining games to have a realistic chance of playing in the play-offs, the SVHA started nervously, a frame of mind that would haunt them for the rest of the game. Despite the nerves, they created the better chances and were denied time and again by the National Women defence and exceptional goalkeeper.

The attack led by Kanan Packrisamy were well marked and it took a bizarre decision by the Australian umpire for the early deadlock to be broken. SVHA's George Edward was attempting to score off a penalty corner and the ball struck the National Women seemingly on her body. The umpire awarded a penalty stroke which was bizarre as the player had not used her body deliberately to block the ball and the goalkeeper was behind her.

All the same, Packrisamy with his nerve of steel in tow converted the stroke with consumate ease (the end result should never be in doubt :))

The win coupled with Hollandse Club's defeat at the hands of C&C United has proppelled SVHA back into the top 4. A position they will probably retain if they win their final 2 games.

--ends--

SVHA fall to SCC

22 August 09, SINGAPORE: The SVHA's desire to make the playoffs hit a huge snag when they were pipped 2-1 by SCC in the Singapore Hockey League Division 2.

Trailing at half time, the SVHA recovered and equalised via a R Selvakumar penalty corner goal. The masters took control of the game there on end and were pushing for the win. However misses from the goal scorer. Silvester Selvan and Olaf Bluemke left them open at the back and the cricket club took full advantage.

With less than 5 minutes remaining a SCC counter attack was converted and left SVHA's fate very much in other results going their way.

The defeat has allowed teams as low as ORA, d'MAsters and CSC back into the play-offs contention.

--ends--

SVHA back into top four

15 August 09, SINGAPORE: SVHA have huffed and puffed their way back into the top four but are weakest placed amonst the other contenders.

Having played 7 games the masters are on 13 points 3-adrift of joint leaders SRC and C&C and on par with Hollandse Club who have played a game less.

It's exciting times ahead once SVHA put paid to d'Masters' challenge with an early Kanan Packrisamy goal. The stocky striker's 5th of the season was a neat deflection off Silvester Selvan's hard and low centre. It was then a R Selvakumar show as the lethal centre forward claimed two carbon copy goals, first from Olaf Bluemke's shot at goal and second off Gordon de Souza's pass.

A short but telling bad spell for the masters alowed d'Masters a come back as their centre forward Edwin Tan Teik Jin got the better of SVHA goalkeeper Aidil Idris in their one-one battle.

Leading 3-1 at half time and d'Masters only playing with 9 men, the result looked secured, but SVHA laboured on without the suspended captain George Edward and Ganesha Periasamy, guilty of a glaring miss the last time out, compensated for that with a vital 4th goal for the masters late on.

The 4-1 victory saw the masters get back into the top 4 on superior goal difference and go up against SCC next week, a must-win game for the former if they are to secure that play-off place and not to mention keep up a slim but viable league title challenge.

--ends--

Valiant display but defeat nonetheless

8 August 09, SINGAPORE: The SVHA produced a valiant display in their SHL Division 2 match against hot favourites SRC. Goalless at half time the game was poised to finish under tensed circumstances and it did true to form.

Pegged back for most of the game, SVHA were determined not to hand SRC the advanatge, but last season's league champions were not to be denied and they scorded 10 minutes into the second half when Farlegh Clarke was the fastest to react to the rebound off SRC's penalty corner.

But SVHA could have restored parity when George Edward set up Ganesha Periasamy two minutes after going down. The latter only had the task of pushing the ball into an empty net but he missed when his fierce shot flew past the post.

Dejected the SVHAn s coulc not hold any longer and Nordin Manaf self-passed a free hit inside the SVHA defensive quarter past an inalert Mike Barton and finished intelligently with a squeeze shot.

The SRC barrage continued but no more goals at either end menat SVHA have got lots of work to do if they are to make the semi-finals.

--ends--

SVHA v SRC preview

vs

Attire: Red shirts, Black shorts, Red socks

SRC have agreed to play in Blue Black and Black (spoken to jude and he agreed)

Arrival time: 3.45pm at Sengkang 2

Manager: Can one of you bring along your lovely wife to be manager. Naren your dad has a 100% winning record with us, perhaos he can come again?

Squad (14 players) (mobile numbers listed so that you can call each other remind yourselves about the game):

Goalkeeper: Aidil (94577929)

Defenders: Mike (90238987), Aneel (90667644), Naren (91196434), Seng (97660070), Richard (91289125) and David (naren please call him)

Midfielders: Luno (91290205), Ganesha (97987712), Olaf (97815644), Tjalling (91730161) and Balbir (82387971)

Forwards: Gordon (98506347), George (81452231)

Unavailable:

Kanan (work committments)
Eric (overseas for work)
Silvester (overseas for long weekend)
Tony (overseas for pleasure, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TONY & SARAH)
Hans (injured back)
Selva (prior engagement, that's what he put down on the availability schedule, but he told george he is coming) (90030035)

I need a volunteer to call all of these players up, Naren or Ganesha? I know George will call them all the same, we need one more back up person to do the honours.

Please volunteer.

also we need a volunteer for water this week (24 small mineral water bottles).

Game 1: Kanan
Game 2: Eric
Game 3: Kanan
Game 4: Naren (I owe you S$7.50)
Game 5: Luno (i owe you S$7.50)
Game 6: Olaf/Balbir/Richard/Aneel/Gordon/Mike/Seng can one of you volunteer please

Statistics about the game:

SRC 1st on the league table
SVHA 3rd, 3 points adrift

Form Guide
SRC lies top with 2.6 points/game
SVHA are 5th on 2 points.game

Attack
SRC scores 5.4 goals/game and that's the best in the league
SVHA scores 3.4 goals/game and lie second in the league

Defence
SRC concede 2 goals/game and are 6th in the league
SVHA concedes 1.8 goals/game and are 4th best in the league

The computerised predictor has predicted SRC to win this game by a 1-goal margin. 3-2 the final score. It further affirms that SRC has a 57% chance of winning this game whilst SVHA 36%, the game being drawn is 7%.

Anti-climax but a win all the same

1 Aug 09, SINGAPORE: SVHA moved to third in the SHF Division 2 league following their 3-0 walkover over minnows Khlasa.

Looking forward to a big win and putting paid to the computer prediction of 4-1, the masters went about their warm nonchalantly only to be interrupted by umpire How's prolonged whistle.

With only one umpire on the pitch and neither captain being called over, the umpire had called off the game as Khalsa only had 7 players at that time.

It was later revealed that 2 of the players were at pitch 2 by mistake and were wondering where the rest of their team was? Ironically they arrived at pitch one a minute after How had blown his whilste and awarded the game to SVHA.

Disappointment was all around but a the two sides played a friendly game all the same and SVHA won that encounter 5-3. It's noteworthy that they had lent two of their senior players to Khalsa to even things out.

SVHA take on league leaders SRC this saturday at 4.30pm at Sengkang Stadium pitch 2.
---ends--

Face Protection

Gentlemen, Tony had suggested that since we will soon be playing sides that focusses alot on penalty corners it will serve us well to invest in some face protections for first or first 2 runners at penalty corners. I think Tony makes a good point.

The cost will be something like S$200 per mask.

I would like to garner your thoughts on this subject. Kindly comment.

Match Preview: SVHA v Khalsa

SVHA v Khalsa 1 August 09 Sengkang Hockey Stadium 1 6pm

SVHA in red shirts, black shorts and red scoks
Khalsa in greyish blue outfit

SVHA have mustered 18 players for this game (Gentlemen, do not expect too much game time, let's share the responsibility of getting the 3-points from this game)

Goalkeeper
Tony Halliwell

Defenders
Seng Richard Luno David Naren Mike

Halves
Ganesha Silvester Eric Hans Balbir Olaf

Forwards
Gordon George Selva Kanan

Team Arrival time 5pm

Team talk by manager (in the absence of a non-playing member of the team, Eric will handle the team talk)

Captain: George Edward (however I am mulling over the idea of giving the captaincy to a player who talks the most and gets himself into trouble that way only he will be carded everytime the team gets out of line, what say you?)

Vice Captain: Selvakumar

Form Guide
SVHA have played 4 won 2 drew 1 and lost 1 with Khalsa losing all 4 of their games to date.
SVHA is number 6 on the form guide on 1.75 points/game whilst Khalsa are 12th (last) on the form guide with 0points/game

Attack
SVHA are third best in the attack category with 3.5 goals/game while Khalsa are 10th with 0.75 goals/game

Defence
SVHA are 6th in the defence category with 2.25 goals conceded/game while Khalsa are last with 5.5 goals conceded/game.

Computer generated predicted score for this game based on the above statistics
SVHA 4
Khalsa 1

It is predicted that SVHA has a 72% chance of winning this game with a 2.58 goal margin difference in the least.

SVHA let's get our act together and win this game handsomely.

Tornados blown away by SVHA

26 July 09, SINGAPORE: The Singapore Veterans' Hockey Association brushed aside their defeat to C&C United last time out and blew Tornados away in an excellent second half showing.

Leading 2-1 at the break, a fine half time pep talk from acting manager Richard Ng galvanised the team and produced 4-unanswered second half goals to destroy Tornados.

Selvakumar R bagged 4 goals to bring his tally up to 5 for the season and George Edward added one to get him on 4 for the season. Gordon de Souza scored the second goal of the game and thus opened his account for the campaign. Kanan Packrisamy who did not score and had arrived only for the second half is on four goals to complete SVHA's 14 goals thus far, information for those stats freaks out there. It's ntoeworthy and encouraging that the SVHA's forwards have contributed all the goals the team has scored.

However, there are some old bad habits that needs to be eradicated from the masters game and the team has acknowledged that they need to work on these things before this week's encounter with table propping Khalsa.

Another win for the Lion masters would see them join SRC and C&C on 10 points at the top of the table.

Next SVHA game is against Khalsa on 1 August 09 at 6pm Sengkang 1.

SVHA crashes to C&C

18 July 09, SINGAPORE: At the newly built Sengkang Hockey Stadium 1, the Singapore Veterans' Hockey Association tasted defeat for the first time this season following a 4-2 reverse at the hands of high flying C&C United.

The ill-tempered match did not produce any goals in the first half until a contentious opener 10 minutes into the second period got things going. The C&C United forward, Vai had appeared to strike the ball with the head of his stick over his head past Tony Halliwell in the SVHA goal. Having not seen the incident originally, Chen Tien How gave the goal following vehement protest from the Masters.

It was a telling point in the game and also a turning point as C&C rode their good fortune and scored 3 more goals in quick succession. The 10-minute spell where SVHA were 4-0 down sapped their spirits, but two break aways from George Edward with Kanan Packrisamy finishing them exquisitely were nothing but consolation to the masters.

However, poor sportsmanship from a C&C United player led to a skirmish between Aneel Kumaarr of the SVHA and the unnamed C&C player. However despite tempers flaring good sense prevailed and things settled down to see C&C United enjoy their victory and SVHA smarting from the agony of their defeat.

SVHA take on Tornados on 26 July 09.

SVHA denied win by speedy CSC

12 Jul 09, SINGAPORE: The Singapore Veterans team arrived at Sengkang in a positive mood after their opening day victory against the IA, but knew they were in for a tough game against a very young and well organised CSC team which had an average age about half that of the Veterans.

The Vets adopted a deep formation to contain the fast running and skillful CSC team. A well organised defence and midfield contained their many attacks whilst launching frequent counter attacks. Early in the first half the SVHA took the lead from a Selva short corner strike which deflected in off the prone CSC keeper. The keeper was injured in the process but luckily for CSC they had a reserve keeper waiting on the sidelines.

SVHA's lead was short lived when less than 5 minutes later slack marking allowed CSC to score a well worked and clinically finished deflection which gave the SVHA keeper no chance in his Singapore league debut.

Not long into the second half the SVHA regained their lead when George Edward smartly finished after one of the frequent counter attacks. The Veterans sat back and looked comfortable defending their lead until a strange umpiring decision allowed CSC back into the game. Despite having blown for an offence in the 22 the umpire allowed CSC to restart from the opposite sideline catching the veterans off guard. A cross to the far post allowed CSC to score with a simple tap in whilst many Veterans players will still arguing with the match official. Despite strong protests the goal was erroneously allowed to stand.

What followed was a final 10 minute onslaught from CSC which the tired legs of the Veterans dealt with valiantly to hold on for a well-earned point -Report courtesy of Tony Halliwell

SVHA Div 2 start with win

4 July 09, Singapore: The Singapore Veterans' Hockey Association started the 2009 season with an unconvincing 4-2 win over division 2 debutants Singapore Indian Association. With only 1 player on the bench, the SVHA laboured to bag the important 3 points on offer.

Finshing with only 3 points the whole of last season, the SVHA's haul in their very first game this term is promising and provides a good platform for them to launch their push for finishing in the top half of the league table.

Of course, if luck was to be on their side as it was today, there are some quarters that believe that this team can make the top four, but let's keep that quiet for now.

However, what we cannot keep quiet is the fact that our captain George Edward lead by example and scored 2 and made 2 in the the 4.

IA started poorly but some jitters amongst the SVHA men allowed the young Indians to get an early penalty corner. A statistic that proved to be decisive as the young charges scored off a deflection.

It was a case of more misses until George's penetrative run into the circle and cheeky jink set up Kanan Packrisamy, who cooly touched the ball past the on rushing goalkeeper. At 1-1, the SVHAns pushed for the second and minutes later they were rewardedm when George finsiehd off a Kanan push out from the penalty corner. 2-1 to the good at half time.

IA came out in the second period hungry but it was SVHA that were doing all the attacking and Kanan was guilty of a in the leats 2 clear cut misses and George had 3 shots on the trot saved by the keeper from 3 yards out and Eric equally was frustrated, sorry frustrating in front of goal.

As with any game, IA thus scored the equaliser via confusion. At 2-2the game swayed IA's way, but George would not have that and he made an amazing run from inside the SVHA half and dribbled all the way into the IA cricle and blasted to sound the board! 3-2 to SVHA and they were off the hook? Almost, to make sure, George did another one of his amazing runs and this time fed Kanan who once again slotted past the on rushing keeper,almost carbon copy. 4-2!

Next up for the SVHA is CSC next week on 12 July 09 7.30pm Sengkang Stadium 2. Please come and support the Masters of Hockey!

Australian visit

Our Senior Masters team

Our masters team, i think

Before the rain took our fun away

We had so much fun, even the pictures turned out funny

We stood tall against the well organsied Aussies

Fond Penang memories

Now that we are going to go to Penang again, i thought we just get a glimpse of last year

Opening ceremony


Just before we destroyed the Australian Harlequins last year

Calendar redux

NYP sessions ceased for the time being

Gentlemen, kindly take note that our weekly Friday sessions at NYP has ceased for the time being. We thank the NYP Alumni and NYP for inviting us weekly for the past year or so and George for alerting us on the opportunity at NYP in the first place some 13 or 14 months ago.

Although we hope to be invited again, at our age we appreciate that all good things must come to an end. We will be working on a new weekly adventure for us all but in the meantime, I trust all of you who have even been to NYP once on a Friday would have had a jolly good time there. For those memories and others that was had, we owe all those repsonsible a gratitude of thanks.

Calendar of events

5th Edition of the SVHA Carnival

The 5th edition of the SVHA Carnival will be held on Friday, 1 May 09 (Public Holiday)

Venue: Singapore Indian Association
Time: 2pm to 6pm
Attire: White or Blue jerseys
Fees: S$10 per member

Carnival open to members only. Membership will be open to anyone above the age of 30 regardless of gender.
Current Membership rates:
Annual: S$50
Life: S$500

SVHA activity updates

Dear SVHAns,

In the spirit of reducing workload and choking up your email inboxes, I am mooting with the idea of placing our events on this blogspot. All you have to do is save this blogspot as one of your favourites and sign in. You can make posts and be informed of all the SVHA activities.

However, if you continue to want us to email you activity updates kindly request by replying to kanan1071@yahoo.co.uk

In the meantime many thanks for reading this notice.