SINGAPORE – Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) maintained their supremacy in the National School Games (NSG) B Division boys’ squash as they beat St Andrew’s Secondary School 5-0 in the final at the Kallang Squash Centre on April 29.
The ACS(I) boys did not drop a single game in all five matches en route to their fourth straight B Division title – and 10th since 2007, excluding the Covid-19 pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
They had beaten the same opponents by the same score on April 22 in the preliminaries and ACS (I) captain Li Yuan Xin, 15, said they knew they were carrying the favourites’ tag coming into the match.
He said: “For the past few years, we’ve been the favourites, so it’s about staying focused for every game and if we play to the best of our abilities, we should be able to take it.”
St Andrew’s vice-captain Jaered Chia, 15, knew that it was going to be a mountain to climb, saying: “Before coming in, to be quite honest, we kind of already knew that it’ll be quite hard to win, so the expectations that our coaches and teachers put on us was to just try our best.
“I think they are just on a different level, most of them are national team players, whereas we only have one on our team (Nic Tay).
“I feel that despite that, we’ve performed admirably, and we’ve actually gone quite far and nobody really expected us to come all this way.”
And admirably they did perform in their opening match, when Ethan Tan of ACS (I) was made to work by Ethan Ng despite winning 11-5, 11-8, 14-12.
Ethan Kuan then turned on the heat to beat Jaered 11-2, 11-1, 11-4 before Yuan Xin secured the win with an 11-1, 11-3, 11-2 win over Barrett Bock in the third match.
With the title already in the bag, Keith Lee – who lost his match in the 2023 final against National Junior College (NJC) – saw off Nic 11-5, 11-8, 11-4, before Shaan Kumar completed the rout with an 11-7, 11-2, 11-2 win over Gabriel Chew in the final match.
ACS (I) coach Victor Koh, who has coached the school for 27 years, believes that there is “no secret” to their continued dominance at the NSG.
The 61-year-old said: “I think the boys were hungrier and wanted to win badly, they work hard and train hard.
“Since the first gold medal that we won (C Div in 1998), I think it has become a culture, the juniors look up to their seniors and they want to emulate them.”
When asked about their opponents’ grit, Koh said: “They are trying to put up a good fight, but obviously, the strength of the squad in ACS (I) is quite clear.”
Yuan Xin felt that Ethan Tan was their most outstanding player for overcoming a tough opener and putting them on the winning path.
He said: “Ethan Tan was fighting really hard because both he and his opponent were pretty equally matched up and he did well to stay focused and calm, so I think he’s a standout player for us.”
In the third-place play-off, Raffles Institution beat 2023 runners-up NJC 3-2.
