Dear All, I am writing to bring you the wonderful news that WYK won promotion to Div One for next season after beating West Island 5-1 at King's Park today. It is an extremely exciting match as all the matches were very close. We turned out the same winning pairs as the last match after a convincing 5-0 victory against WYHK. Today, Long Long and Tony Chow played first pair, Tommy and Oscar second pair; and Chris and Barry played as our third pair. West Island was full strength today and turned out the same squad as their last match against WYHK. Louvre and I scouted the opponents last week with Edmond at HKTC. In the first round, the WYK Team was in some difficulty against determined opposition from West Island. Tony and Long Long were 2-4 down in their match against West Island's first pair and within one point of going 2-5 down. They fought back valiantly winning 6-4 in one of the best matches on display this season. Oscar and Tommy were a break down in their match before they identified the weaker link in the pairing and started firing winners after winners. They won with great authority 6-3 against their second pair. It was a great morale booster for the team. Chris and Barry played brilliantly today and they worn down their opposition and won 6-3. It was a big turn around in form for Chris as he had been training extremely hard over the past 2 weeks to overcome his weaknesses in volley and ground strokes. With only 3 weeks to go in School Cert, Barry turned in a majestic performance and helped the team to a flying start today.&nb sp; In the second round, Tommy and Oscar did the business against their third pair and won 6-3, whereas Chris and Barry lost to their first pair by the same score-line. There were lapses of concentration by young Tony and Long Long, but they dug deep at the crucial stages and won their match 6-4 and sealed promotion for us. As Father Baptista puts it, this was a great team performance throughout the season. Our WYK Tennis Team has a united squad of players pushing the starting 6 to the forms of their life. Jordan, Nicholas, Calvin, Louvre, Horace, Brian all played their parts by pushing their teammates in practice and more importantly supported every single match. As for the backroom staff, Ernest and Edmond were miracles workers. They have been professional with the way they prepared the squad. With their strong bondage for WYK, it is like a dream come true for our young coaches. Just for today, the following Old Boys turned up on courtside Joseph, Charles, Kane and Chun Chun, Jack, Alvin and Anthony turned up to cheer for our boys. They were experiencing the joys of winning and the agonies of losing every point in the match. Live commentaries were provided for Simon, Edmond and Tony Ko. Henry Leung phoned in from Macau and Amb rose SMS Kane in between seeing patients to find out how we are getting on. A special mention must go to Fr Baptista who turned up very early but was watching the match from the woods when they started. After he turned up when we needed him most, we started to turn the tide and won net chords after net chords in a tight match. It was a change of luck from the St Joseph match when a net chord turned victory into defeat. Chairman William Lee turned up to show his support and shared the moment of victory with all of us. A big thank you to William for treating us to a lunch at Stanford Hotel afterwards. Also, Gary To (ex-coach) turned up to support us and was amazed by the transformation he witnessed among our players. Matthew, our captain, joined the celebrations at lunch after taking his A-Level exam nearby. I wonder whether he could hear the last cheer of WYK at King's Park at around 10:30 am after the last ball was hit. There were also some group photos take n at the venue. After the play-off round of 4 matches involving the 5 group winners, our record stands at 3 wins and 1 loss (5-4 defeat against St Joseph). We are guaranteed of a minimum of second place finish, regardless of results everywhere. If WYHK finds enough resolve to win their remaining match against St Joseph (3-3) and West Island (3-3), we have an outside chance of being crowned Division Two champions. A Second Place Finish is all we could ask for. Nevertheless, we have made great strides in the past 18 months after the set up of Fr Finneran Memorial Fund. Last year, we were a shade unlucky against South Island in the group matches. However, the Team was playing table tennis rather than tennis and could not string 3 shots together in a rally. We went back for some further practice matches after our victory. Kane and I spent the whole day benchmarking the improvement in our players. Tony Chow is playing like a man on fire. Tony and Long Long lost narrowly to Kane and I 6-4 today. I won a small bet against Fr Baptista which I could not take because he supported the youngsters. Kane and Oscar then drew with Joseph and I in the afternoon when Kelvin came down to join us. The young guns of Oscar, Tommy, Calvin and Nicholas were having some more practice at Junction Road in the afternoon. We had a couple of doubles when Kelvin and Joseph bt Tommy and Oscar 6-1. Kane and I fought hard to beat Calvin and Nicholas 6 -3. Let's savour the moment of promotion, but looks forward to a big challenge in Division One next season. I am sure all of you will be fired up to take St Joseph apart next season. Revenge will be sweet. Hope that this fantastic news will reach Covan, Marco and Thomas Lee who are currently out of town. Cheers Raymond 4/6/2008 1:07 AM