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%.