The Young and the Restless – Part 2 of 3

 As a continuation of our earlier article back in August, this month, we feature Gregory Isaac

Micheal, also known as Greg. He is another youngster who has been a consistent player with

our RSC hockey team in recent years.

Greg (3 rd from left) with the RSC hockey team in one of our early game post-Covid in 2021

Born on 29 th May 1995, Greg started playing hockey at the age of 13 and actively developed

himself as a hockey player in Sekolah Menengah Kepong Baru (SMKB).

“Hockey seemed like a fun sport. My cousin Brian is a hockey player and introduced me to the

game. I was actually much more interested in football when I was in secondary school. But I

decided to give hockey a try and never looked back!”

Wonderful memories from school day victory with SMKB U-18 team in 2010

One game that Greg remembers well is when he won the Zon Sentul tournament in 2012 with

SMKB, playing Maxwell in the finals. The match ended 0-0 and the game continued in extra

time. The first team to score the golden goal would win the cup, and that’s what SMKB did,

when Greg scored the winning goal in the final minutes of extra time. They carried the cup and

celebrated!

Greg loves to play in the forward position, scoring goals and leading his team to victory. His

speed, work rate and stick work makes easy work of his opponents (especially if it’s veteran

players like many of us!), regularly scoring with his reverse stick hits to all corners of the goal.

Complete band of brother in the RSC team with Agilan (1 st from left), Allan and Greg (4 th and

5 th from left) and Brian (1 st from right) in Langkawi 2022

According to Allan Netto - his team mate, senior at SMKB and best buddy, who had coached

Greg since Form 1 from scratch – “He is a fast learner and learns by watching others play,

then practising and mastering the skills observed. That’s how he became a good hockey

player”.

(L-R) Greg, Allan and Agilan, with the Guardians of the Galaxy

As a sportsman, he looks up to Michael Jordon as an example of consistency, dedication and

discipline in his sport, which led to him being the GOAT during his era.

In 2021, Greg suffered a serious knee dislocation during a game, as he was dribbling the ball

out of defence and suddenly dropped when he made a quick turn on the run. We all thought

that would have ended his hockey playing days – he proved us wrong.

Today, he is back to his best, working hard over the many months with his discipline and

determination to recover from his injury (including many pool sessions at RSC Kiara!). In fact,

he has come back stronger than before, making him an even better player today.

Working hard on his recovery and receiving a token of appreciation from Dato’ R. Yogeswaran

for this role in the organising committee of the RSC 6s Hockey Fiesta on 16 th Oct 2021

In the local hockey scene, Greg looks to Prabahkaran Periathamby (Praba), a former

Malaysian international, for inspiration and guidance.

“As a forward, watching Praba play is simply mesmerizing. He displays simple yet brilliant

manoeuvres, allows him to dribble past players and score goals almost effortlessly.”

“Praba has guided me in my hockey journey and continues to guide me until today. When we

play alongside each other, he coaches and gives me tips on improving my game.”

Greg with Praba (4 th from left) in Bali earlier this year (left) and with team Grays (right)

Greg and Praba at a recent RSC match

On the more personal side, Greg grew up in a Catholic environment, was an altar boy at the

Jesus Caritas Catholic church in Kepong Baru and has always been a family-oriented person.

He is currently a teacher in a special needs school and plans to continue his teaching career

for as long as possible. Greg is generally soft-spoken and his caring nature is what brings his

friends and team mates close to him (besides scoring many goals for the team lah!).

Greg is truly a hockey player with a heart!

Royal Bangkok Sports Club (RBSC) Interport at Kiara Sports Annexe

 19th Nov 2022 marks another important day for Malaysia as the rakyat decides on the next

government of the day. On this same day albeit on much smaller scale, another significant event

took place – our long awaited interport game with RBSC (last played over 2 decades ago), which

was held at Kiara Sports Annexe.

As the rain held back for PRU15 election day, so too for our game vs RBSC. The cloudy weather,

after a wet morning, and the well rolled pitch (as well as it could be rolled, at least) served a perfect

evening for some entertaining hockey.

However, due to the overwhelming response of our section members, we had to form 3 RSC

teams to allow everyone a chance to play.

The young RBSC team

And the rest of the many RSC players who turned up for the game

The RBSC team came with a largely young team, and was originally planning to play in our RSC

9s tournament, until it was called off indefinitely due to PRU15. The youngest RBSC player was

only 15 (or so they said!) with majority of the other players in their 20s and 30s.

As usual, our RSC teams were a mix of youngsters, middle aged (I would say this “saluran” is the

biggest group) and many veterans - including K Balasingam and guest player, Franco De Cruz.

Despite the diverse team mix, everyone played to the strength and ability of each player on the

field. This made the game very much enjoyable for the young and the not so young, as well as the

spectators.

Our “supporters” on the sidelines

The RBSC team played their first game vs the RSC Reds team, and deployed a hard running

game. However, experience (another term for “ageing players”) and our grass pitch slowed them

down a little, as we held them to a 0-0 draw.

This was followed by a goals galore between the RSC orange and RSC white team, with the

orange boys coming up tops!

Dio and Jay taking the game to the RSC whites team

Finally, after the “warm-up” games, we played a well contested RSC-RBSC interport match in the

late evening. The score was 1-0 in our favour from a fantastic cross by Dio, which was connected

into goal by Pinko. Nonetheless, both teams had many opportunities and displayed good

teamwork, running and skills to entertain the rest of us at the sidelines.

We gave no quarter, and neither did they!

Dinner followed by the usual formalities saw Ter and Pop being chosen as the best player and

most promising player from the RBSC team. RBSC reciprocated by choosing Muru as our best

player - according to RBSC, it’s because they could not get any goals past him today. Whilst

Jaidev was identified as the most promising player amongst our young talents.

Nav, from RBSC presenting the awards, followed by a toast form the RBSC team

A second opportunity was given to the RBSC team to redeem themselves in a boat race, but our

drinking team proved to be too superior on this night! Our guests were so impressed by our first

guzzler, they requested for demonstration. The demo ended in 3 seconds. Thanks Ben for

accommodating the RBSC request!

Looking at the line-up, the RBSC boys didn’t stand a chance.

By this time, the beers were already flowing at a good pace and the noise level escalated in

tandem. Hence, it was decided that it’s time to call the formalities to an end!

A big thank you to RBSC for visiting us, and we certainly look forward to seeing you in Bangkok

next year!

World Masters Hockey World Cup 2022

 World Masters Hockey World Cup is held every 2 years with age categories starting from O35

up to O75. It is organised by World Masters Hockey (WMH) Ltd, who is solely responsible for

organising all masters hockey tournaments worldwide for both men and women, and is

recognised by FIH.

Due to the pandemic, the 2020 World Cup was postponed and finally held this year in 3

locations : Nottingham (England) - O35, O40 categories; Cape Town (South Africa) - O45, O50,

O55 categories; Tokyo (Japan) - O60, O65, O70/O75 categories.

The RSC hockey section is proud to announce our members who have represented Malaysia in

the recent World Masters Hockey World Cup in the various categories as follows:

O45 Team

Kuhan Shanmuganathan

I.Vikneswaran

Sukhdev Singh Kailay

Vishnu Iaduray

Malaysia O45 Masters Hockey Team 2022

O50 Team

Hariharan Ramachandran

Charles Lim

Ranjit Singh (Coach)

Malaysia O50 Masters Hockey Team 2022

O55 Team

Surinder Singh

Brian Anthony (Physiotherapist)

Malaysia O55 Masters Hockey Team 2022

O60 Team

Dato’ Collin Lawrence Sequerah

Hooi Ka Choy @ Casey

Surinder Singh (Played for both O55 and O60 team)

Malaysia O60 Masters Hockey Team 2022

O65 Team

Simon See

Awtar Singh @ Gary

Mohindar Singh @ Mike

K Balasingam (Manager)

Malaysia O65 Masters Hockey Team 2022

Congratulations to all the above players for being selected to play for Malaysia at the WMH

World Cup 2022!

You guys are living proof that there is no age limit to active participation in competitive sports!

Our O60s team achieved the best result amongst all the Malaysian teams by achieving 3 rd

placing, whilst the O65s team was 4 th . Old is certainly Gold… or in this case, Bronze!

For all the links to the various tournaments, scores and results, please go to the following link:

https://worldmastershockey.org/ 

Hockey Section AGM 2022

 The hockey section AGM was held on 15th Sept 2022 with the usual formalities of reporting on the

last year’s activities and financials.

A new committee was elected as follows:

Convenor : Avinder Singh

Secretary : Charles Lim

Treasurer : Sanjay Saigal

Committee members : St John Davies, Jegan@Emrran

Final convenor’s report by Simon See and clarifications by Oommen Koshy to the floor

We bid farewell to Simon See, who has been convenor for the last 5 years.

Running a section is never easy and Simon See was fully dedicated in ensuring the section remained

active through the years of his convenorship, organising games every week without fail, actively

participating in tournaments, whilst maintaining a strong financial discipline in keeping the section’s

books and funds in order.

Amongst the comments from our section members in our Whatsapp chat group :-

“Thanks Simon for all the hard work and support to the team. Ur a legend for sure”

“Simon - my hat’s off to you and your wife (pillar of strength and backup support) which enabled you

to provide complete dedication for the passionate sport of hockey we all love. Your role as convenor

was very exemplary.”

“Simon, your contribution is immense. The love and dedication for the sport and section is clear for all

to see.”

Thank you Simon for your hardwork and commitment to the section and the sport!

Interport Match with Royal Bangkok Sports Club (RBSC) on 20 th August 2022

 The weather was kind on the day of interport hockey game with RBSC on 20th August 2022,

Saturday although certain parts of the field was waterlogged due to the rainy season in Bangkok.

As we were approaching the playing field, a senior RBSC player and ex RBSC captain, Surasek called

out Poon's name! It has been many years since our last interport game with RBSC, but truly, the

friendship between our clubs never waned during these years.

Pre-match team photo with RBSC

The game was played at a fast pace by the young RBSC team with some young expatriates,

compared our RSC team comprising of players in our 40s and older. The first quarter was very even,

though RSC rued some missed chances. RSC increased the tempo during the 2nd quarter and scored

our 1st goal compliments from Vic Suppiah. 

Our midfield marshalled by S. Kuhan, Vicky, Jonathan and Gagan were outstanding and we scored

our 2nd goal through penalty corner taken by S. Kuhan. During the 3rd quarter, Vic Suppiah scored

another field goal before RBSC got the solitary goal. The match ended with Dio finishing it off with a

reverse stick goal to trick the keeper.

Sukdev, Kapaay, Anand and Simon played brilliantly at defence, despite Sukdev performing his

“slipping and falling” dance due to the wet pitch. Avinder had a huge opportunity to score as well,

but missed with his massive overhead slap hit which went into the side netting. The other forwards,

Ray and Suraj had their chances but also couldn’t score. Poon later played in the last few minutes of

the game. Overall RSC played very well as a team, and S.Kuhan was voted the man of the match.

Some coaching by Poon, which I assume resulted in a goal from Suraj

We were then treated to a traditional Thai style dinner after the game. During the dinner, Surasek

informed that the last interport game was held some 25 years ago and he promised that RBSC will

come for interport game at Kiara next year. He requested RSC to have a challenge trophy for this to

keep this tradition and friendship going.

Inevitably, the night events somewhat traversed into the realm of another challenge in the form of

a boat race. This time, RBSC’s talented team ensured that we did not have any chance of another

victory, and this “match” was won by RBSC!

It was obvious that RBSC had several talented youngsters in their team, as was demonstrated during

the game. Vicky, our KLHA president, even invited a Thai young player (14 years old) to come to

Malaysia to develop his hockey skills further.

It was a great outing and everyone, including our lady supporters, truly enjoyed this fellowship and

camaraderie. See you in KL RBSC!

End of the 1st quarter 2022!

 March marks the end of the 1^st quarter of 2022 and was indeed a busy month for the hockey section.

Our weekly games at Tun Razak hockey stadium have been well attended. A big thank you to our resident chef, Bernard Gomez, for his generous contribution home-cooked cuisine at many of our post-match makan.

Post-match vs Cochrane on 1^st Mar 2022 

We also attended the celebration for the Royal Ipoh Club’s 125^th anniversary and participated in the sports carnival on 12^th-13^th Mar 2022. Sadly, the hockey tournament ended prematurely with the sudden demise of former hockey international, S.Sivabalan (who was playing for the Royal Klang Club). 

The RSC members in Ipoh, with their spouses

RSC also took part in the 16^th SSU Kelab Aman KL Senior Veterans Hockey Tournament on 26^th March 2022. On the same day, we hosted Malacca Club at RSC Kiara for a 5-a-side friendly inter-club game.   

The RSC boys at Kelab Aman in the morning, and back in Kiara in the evening!

As the borders open up on 1^st April 2022 and more restrictions lifted, we hope to see more of our hockey friends from other states and participate in more tournaments in the coming months!

Happy Year Of The Tiger

 As we usher in the year of the Tiger, the hockey section played a home vs home game on 5th Feb 2022 (Saturday) at RSC Kiara. The clouds were looming, but the weather held on as the 20-odd players took to the field.

The game was played at a relaxed pace as many were restarting hockey again after a long break. Many old faces made an appearance and we sincerely hope to see them more often in the future.  

Vic, Chanti, Suresh, our 2 Anands, Suraj, Avinder, St John Davies – Always good to see you back playing hockey at Kiara!  

After our game, how better to celebrate the Chinese New Year, but with the customary Yee Sang! Here’s wishing everyone a successful, happy and healthy year ahead! Huat ah Huat ah Huat ah!