Monthly Archive for October, 2008

Nic organised a little dinner session at Newton Hawker Centre with some bloggers and the Singapore Slingers’ Sam Harris,Eric Sandrin and girlfriend (sorry I forgot her name) on Monday night. Having stayed in Singapore for about four months, of which over two months were in preparation for 21 games, both Sam and Eric are still acclimatising to our little city state. So when it comes to finding really good food, I guess they are still trying to figure it out.

Not too accustomed to Singapore food, Sam and Eric were opened to what we ordered and we came up with a number of ethnic delicacies including sting ray, fried Hokkien mee, satay, cockle and a bunch of other stuffs I can’t remember. Describing its ingredients and the style of eating at hawker centres, the bunch of us including Mo, Nic, Hillary, Daphne, Molemole, KuKuNehNeh and Kris (got the roll call from Kris’ site) ate into the night to fill our hunger pangs.

Left: Eric goofing off with a plate of satay | Right: Sam and his really really small plate of Hokkien mee

Left and right: Sam and Eric giving ice kachang a shot

Standing at over two metres tall, it was not surprising that the two players received a number of stares from all directions at Newton. As we headed out of the hawker centre, we had that final cam whoring moment (well…more for me actually) and compared heights. News flash: I can’t touch the top of Sam’s head. Yup…he is that tall.

Unfortunately, I had to buy dinner for Lyn (my boo) and headed home while the rest of them goofed off elsewhere in the south. You can read more about it at Kris and Molemole’s blog. With more games coming up spanning a few months, we are looking forward to more of such makan sessions. Until then, the Slingers will face off with the Malaysian All-Stars on 5 Nov at 7.40pm. Tickets are available at Sistic.

A few more photos in my Flickr album here.

Thanks to my colleague, I scored two tickets to last Friday’s Singapore Beer Festival 2008 at Fort Canning Park. With the tickets, 20 F&B coupons and the fact that Friday is Ladies Night, Lyn (my boo), Justin, Junn (his boo) and I popped over to the venue for a night of beer, food and loads of fun. Drinking beer from around the world including France, Australia and Ireland (just to name a few), we partied into the night until our stomachs are full and our coupons ran dry. I won’t go into detail since the photos can speak for themselves. So here we go…

Left: Lyn and Junn with the samplers | Right: Justin and me doing God knows what..

Left: Our buddy Lawrence who came down all the way from Brewerkz Indoor Stadium | Right: Our night begins

Left and right: Food glorious food…

Left and right:…and more food

Left: Scene from the inside.. | Right: …and outside

Left: People I know and love | Right: People I don’t know but love their helmets

So yeah as you can see, we had a blast. More photos in my Flickr album here.

Thanks to Nic again for the court side passes, Lennie, Sharon (his boo) and I headed over to the Indoor Stadium yesterday afternoon with the other nice bloggers to catch the clash between the Singapore Slingers and Sydney Spirit. Unfortunately this time round, after a 3-0 record in the Singapore Challenge Cup, the slightly weaker Slingers were unable to successfully defend the $10,000 bounty. The Sydney Spirit energised from their win over the Adelaide 36ers last Saturday maintained their composure despite their delayed flight (arriving at 1am on game day) taking down the Slingers’ spirit 90-81.

Slingers big men Armein Krikland and Eric Sandrin were sidelined with injuries leaving the team short of inside presence. Krikland who had a hamstring injury may be sitting out for the next 10 weeks. Sandrin, the Slinger bad boy, after a nasty cartwheeling fall during the Air 21 meet up had three fractures in his spine putting him out of any game for the next five weeks. With that, the Slingers suited up Jamal Brown from the Malaysia Petronas (who got in the night before) to fill in the forward shortage.

As the ball tipped off, the Slingers led for a few minutes during the first quarter before handing it over to the Spirit and trailed since. The Spirit, taking advantage of the lack of inside defense drove into almost any open spot they can find for an easy two. The Slingers, unable to wear the hats of their injured compadres had difficulty in posting up the Spirit’s offensive rebounders, giving way to many second chance scoring. In addition, sharp shooting from the Sprit snipers had helped maintain the visiting team’s lead, taking away the game.

Left: Going in for a shot | Right: A failed alley-opp but impressive air time

Left and right: Spirit players going to the hole

Ironically, Lennie and I were pleasantly surprised to see Luke Martin donning the Spirt jersey. The both of us had witnessed him play many times for a number of years under different teams including the defunct Sydney Kings, the South Dragons and now the Sydney Spirit. To be honest, we are impressed with his style of play. Still keeping to his tough defence and deadly offense, our guards had a heck of a time trying to keep him down. To make matters worse, Derrick Low, a fellow point guard proved to be a force to be reckon with. With Martin sitting out during his breaks, the Spirit with the help from Low were still able to ensure ball transition, getting their big players positioned.

Right: Shane Mcdonald defending Martin | Right: Martin and his deadly mid-range

Left and Right: Low giving Darren a hard time | Right: Low guarded by the Al Vegara

Bruised but unrelenting, the Slingers were not willing to let the Sprit win without a fight. Blagoj Janev and Darren ‘The Doctor’ Ng kicked their game up to another notch, contributing about 40 points together in their bid to keep the Sydney’s spirits low. However, the Slingers’ lack of offensive and defensive rebounds, poor outside shooting and free throw droughts were enough to put this game to bed, in favour of the Spirit. Despite the lacklusture performance and injuries, the 8-point loss proved that the Slingers are not going to make it easy for any team to walk away with  the $10,000. They will fight and oh yes…there will be blood.

Left: Darren’s firepower continues to shine | Right: Darren’s defense cutting drive

Left and Right: Janev powers in with both right and left hand lay-ups

A big shout out to our local players Pathman Matialakan and Koh Meng Koon who represented us and fought bravely against the Spirit. Pathman who seemed more aggressive in his offense this season ignored the heavy Spirit defense and did his best in dropping as many points he could. Even Koh who made his first appearance in the Singapore Challenge Cup as a Slinger was able to quickly contributed points – a few seconds after coming out of the bench. (Sorry dude, I had a fantastic angle but didn’t shoot in time. But go ask Lennie, think he got a nice shot). Well done guys!!

Left: Pathman going to the hoop | Right: Pathman made both free throws

Left and Right: Koh defending

In my honest opinion, I think the Slingers could have taken the game if they converted all their free throws. It has been a while since I have seen them miss so much. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the next game as the visiting Beijing Aoshen Olympian this coming Sunday.

With our forwards down, I am hoping that the four-day training this week will allow Jamal to understand the team dynamics and fill in the missing forwards’ shoes. Jamal who flew in the night before the game came in cold and without any training with the team. Hence, it was understandable why he was unable to contribute effectively despite his many attempts at going to the hoop. I’m sure he is looking forward to redeem himself and hammer a few dunks this Sunday, so watch out Olympians.

Left: Brown trying to beat the Spirit offense | Right: Brown in Sandrin’s jersey going to the hoop

Tickets are available at Sistic. More photos in my Flickr album here.

Thanks to Nic again, Lyn (my boo) with Lennie, Sharon (his boo) and I headed over to the Indoor Stadium again yesterday night to catch the match up between the Singapore Slingers and perhaps my third favourite team, the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants. Well to be honest, I am not exactly rooting for them due to their style of play but rather the team name. I mean did you check out their name? The coolest name for a basketball team ever!! You have no idea how much I so want their jersey… .

Unfortunately this time round, we didn’t really get the corporate box or beer coupons resulting in the first sober Slinger game I ever attended…honest! However, Nic scored Lennie and me a couple of court side passes which allowed us to fire our cameras from any angle on the floor. For a person who loves sports photography (basketball in particular), this is perhaps the first professional sport I have ever covered in an official capacity. So you can imagine how sweet I think this is.

Left: Me going artistic and all | Right: The Slingers returning to their bench

With a crowd of almost 5,500 flocking to the stadium, most of them Philippine supporters (i.e Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants), the Slingers were ready to play an away style game despite being the host. As the whistle blew to start off the game, the two teams went on head to head with hard and physical plays. Given the evenness of the two teams, I believed the Slingers had never trailed once (correct me if I am wrong on this one) .

Left and right: A crowd of about 5,500 pronged to the Indoor stadium

Purefoods coming energised from their victory against the San Miguel Beermen (another freaking awesome team name) during the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Pre-Season tournament the night before, were hoping to repeat another win against the Slingers. However the frequent rough plays including a repertoire of flying elbows and body checks were not enough to slow the home team (well..home’ish) as Purefoods were chewed up with a 92-84 loss.

Left and right: Purefoods offense

However, the game tenacity that Purefoods brought to the Singapore Challenge Cup showed that taking a game from the Philippine Cup finalist will not come easy. Driving into every single defensive loophole they could find, Purefoods found themselves responding to everything the Slingers threw at them. Fire power from both teams were pretty much even as they traded shots and three-pointers. Purefoods tough defense gave our guards a very hard time with them double teaming at almost every single Slinger possession, resulting in a number of turnovers…but not enough to cost the game.

Left and right: Purefoods offense continues..

Left: Shane McDonald runs into a wall of the Purefoods defence | Right Dr Darren Ng scurries to recover his ball

Not allowing anyone to take home the bounty of $10,000, the Slingers stepped up their game as the big men bodied against Purefoods releasing hooks and layups. Helmed by Dr Darren Ng, the Slingers got some huge leads as his firepower from both the arc and free throw line contributed 23 points. Bad boy Eric Sandrin who suffered a sore back from his previous meet up with Air 21 put his pain on hold as he fearlessly crashed boards and stuffed dunks showing that the Slingers are no pushover.

Left: Darren driving to the hole… | Right: …and firing from inside the arc

Left: Eric pulling down a rebound… Right: …and stuffing in for an uncontested two

Down by a man with Kirkland sitting out, the Slingers held as a team and kept their momentum in their bid to maintain their lead. Ignoring cheap shots and rough plays, the Slingers rallied with the help from big man Blagoj Janev muscling to the rim and even playing point guard for a number of plays ensuring his guards take position. Philippine import Al Vergara proudly held his head high in his Slingers jersey despite the constant boos from his fellow countrymen. He sure did his part by leading the Slinger offence as he tried to widen the lead and forcing turnovers.

Left: Janev the forward… | Right: …and playing point (‘ish)

Left: Vergara eyes for the rim… | Right: …and forces a turnover

As usual, we caught an ugly scene as the Purefoods team confronted a fan which lead to the Philippine (Purefoods) fans throwing items like coins, paper and a bottle of mineral water towards him. Missing by a mile, they landed on the refree tables and the bottle hit a female spectator on the head (she’s fine). Yup, this is a usual treat when you watch the Philippines playing basketball and I guess we have to get used to it.

One for all, all for one I guess…

Great win for the Slingers again as they come out victorious with a 3-0 record for the Singapore Challenge Cup. They will take a break from Asian meet ups this Sunday as they face the Sydney Spirit. Tickets are available at Sistic.

More photos in my Flickr album here.