The stadium was filled with an array of participants as the tune of a full-dressed, well rehearsed school band resounded triumphantly with chords that sang of celebration. Outside, ten proud representatives from the Penang Floorball Association waited eagerly for their maiden entry into the hall.
It’s been seven years since Penang first held a floorball stick and now at that very moment, ten representatives has taken the honour to step into the hall as the first ever floorball contingent in Sukan Penang. It took seven hard years to pave the road to this level and yet, standing there as part of the first SUKPEN ever was merely a small glimpse of what is to come.
Floorball is about to explode into the sports scene beyond our imagination. You people better be ready for it!
An array of participants at the opening of SUKPEN 2009.
School band welcoming the contingents from various sports.
Time for celebration!
That was the scene at the opening ceremony of SUKPEN 2009 at the Balik Pulau indoor stadium. Floorball has been recognized by the Penang Sports Council. Yes, finally! This has definitely marked a milestone for floorball in Penang. Being part of this historical moment, BBF could not just sit back and let it go by. We have to carve this into the history book of floorball, and by that, we mean blogging.
10 representatives from PFA at the opening ceremony.
The Floorball SUKPEN Competition saw 9 teams participating from both clubs and schools, battling it out against one another to be the first ever champions of SUKPEN. It was encouraging to see schools rising up as well. Their participation reiterates the growth we so long to see in Penang. Having said that, we still need to encourage and push for schools to embrace the sport. We want to see floorball defying the words of sceptics!
Time to kick-start SUKPEN 2009 Floorball competition!Historical moment indeed!
Match Fixtures & Results3rd December 2009 (5.00 to 9.00pm*)
Preliminary Group Matches | SXI LUNATICS | 3 | vs | 1 | FRONTLINERS | (A) | | FIREBRANDS INFLUENCE | 0 | vs | 2 | INNEBANDY! CO. | (A) | | FIREBRANDS IRRI | 0 | vs | 6 | ZTEC 8CERS | (B) | | CONTACT | 2 | vs | 2 | SXI LUNATICS | (A) | | FRONTLINERS | 2 | vs | 1 | FIREBRANDS INFLUENCE | (A) | | CIKU'S UNITED | 0 | vs | 2 | FIREBRANDS IRRI | (B) | | INNEBANDY! CO. | 1 | vs | 0
| CONTACT | (A) | | ZTEC 8CERS | 6 | vs | 0 | BUKIT JAMBUL | (B) | | SXI LUNATICS | 1 | vs | 1 | FIREBRANDS INFLUENCE | (A) | | FRONTLINERS | 2 | vs | 2 | INNEBANDY! CO. | (A) | |
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*final 3 matches postponed to 4th due to power outage*
4th December 2009 (5.00 to 10.00pm)
Preliminary Group Matches | CIKU'S UNITED | 0 | vs | 6 | ZTEC 8CERS | (B) |
| FIREBRANDS INFLUENCE | 0 | vs | 3 | CONTACT | (A) |
| FIREBRANDS IRRI | 1 | vs | 2 | BUKIT JAMBUL | (B) |
| INNEBANDY! CO. | 0 | vs | 1 | SXI LUNATICS | (A) |
| CONTACT | 0 | vs | 2 | FRONTLINERS | (A) |
| BUKIT JAMBUL | 2 | vs | 0 | CIKU'S UNITED | (B) |
Group Table & Placing
| GROUP A | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
| 1 | INNEBANDY! CO. | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| 2 | CONTACT | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 3 | SXI LUNATICS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 4 | FRONTLINERS | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 3 |
| 5 | FIREBRANDS INFLUENCE | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 8 | -6 | 0 |
| GROUP B | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
| 1 | ZTEC 8CERS | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 18 | 6 |
| 2 | BUKIT JAMBUL | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | -3 | 4 |
| 3 | FIREBRANDS IRRI | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | -5 | 2 |
| 4 | CIKU'S UNITED | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | -10 | 0 |
Semi Finals INNEBANDY! CO. (A)
| 4 | vs | 0 | BUKIT JAMBUL (B)
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ZTEC 8CERS (B)
| 2 | vs | 3(p) | CONTACT (A)
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3rd Placing | BUKIT JAMBUL | 0 | vs | 7 | ZTEC 8CERS |
Final | INNEBANDY! CO. | 1 | vs | 0 | CONTACT |
Final Placings:
Champions: Innebandy! Co.
Runners Up: Contact
2nd Runners Up: Ztec 8cers
4th Placing: Bukit Jambul
Team Reviews:
Innebandy! Co.Champions
Congratulations to the first ever Champions of Sukpen! Innebandy, powered by the usual suspects, anchored especially by Malaysia's best player, Deswyn Wan, muscled their way through the tournament steadily with effort and team work. A solid display which saw them conceding the least goals (2 in group, 0 in knock out). Well deserved winners!
Innebandy! Co.
Runners Up
Going into the competition boasting experiences players like Henry Cheang, Bryan Looi and Christopher Koh (loaned from Minden UniHawks), they scraped through the group stages nervously with rather unorganised plays and nail biting defending. However, they peaked when it matters most against the mighty Ztec 8cers in the Semis, leading twice before conceding a last minute equaliser, bringing the game into penalties where Contact once again defied all odds, ruining the hopes of Ztec 8cers to advance further into the competition. Innebandy proved too hot to handle and a fairy tale ending was simply not meant to be for Contact. Nonetheless, good effort from the team.
Contact.
2nd Runners Up
The red hot favourites stamped their mark in the preliminaries, thumping their opponents 6 to nothing in all matches but surprisingly ran out of steam in the crucial semis against Contact, much due to sloppy defending and ineffective fancy attacking play-ups. Although they snatched the life line with a great equaliser, poor finishing in penalities cost them the ticket into the finals. Poor Bukit Jambul received all the wrath in the 3rd placing.
Ztec 8cers.
4th Placing
A historical moment marked with yet another historical milestone, the birth of Bukit Jambul Floorball Club and a new chant to echo the arena. BJ Bahaya! Indeed they were
dangerous. The debutantes, marshalled by Iron Lady, Pei Li and Energizer Daniel Boey, broke through their group behind Ztec but the opponents in the knock-out round proved too strong, but no matter the defeat, it was a great achievement in Floorball as a whole seeing a new team rising up with such enthusiastic newbies on court playing their hearts out. Watch out everyone out there, its getting Bahaya!
SXI Lunatics & Ciku's UnitedThe second outing for SXI in Penang Floorball after their triumphant win in Sik Aun’s Floorball Challenge. This time, they sent not 1 but 2 teams. Lunatics being the seniors while Ciku’s United being literally the Ciku’s of Saints, the juniors.
Lunatics was drawn into quite a challenging group with the likes of Innebandy, Contact and their adopted club, Frontliners. They started off with a win over their mentors, a much weakened Frontliners but failed to keep the steam going as they conceded consecutive draws, which eventually cost them their qualification to the following round. Their final placing (3rd in Group A) indicates that goalie position is still young and new, and there are still a lot of immaturity in their play but it was still a very gallant display by the young guys with a few glimpse of magic throughout the tournament.
As for the Cikus, they might be young, small and seemingly fragile but do not be fooled as they played and fought like seasoned players and were not intimidated one bit by bigger and stronger opponents. Failed to register a point or a goal but it was good exposure for the Cikus. And it just makes our blood boiling, seeing these Cikus play and imagining their progress down the years ahead. Keep it up!
FrontlinersRelatively weaken after committing to sending 2 SXI teams for the tournament, leaving the team with a 'rojak' of experience and junior players, Frontliners struggled to make an impact and often looked thin at the back as fatigue kicked in late into the match with their small squad. Although the team failed to qualify but their effort in pushing for SXI deserved much praise and hopefully will inject the much needed encouragement to other clubs to push for more schools. A Floorball Tournament solely for schools in 2010 maybe?
Firebrands Influence & Firebrands IrriFirebrands Influences led by James and the Hamid Khan boys was trapped in the group of death. But they fought on aggressively with their hit and run style, almost snatched a win from Frontliners before a late winner by their opponent, then forced a draw against Lunatics costing them their qualification from the group.
Firebrands Irri on the other hand, with the inspiration of team captain Gary, were on the brink of qualification, beating Ciku’s United but lost narrowly by one goal against the debutants, BJ, which the latter qualified at their expenses.
In the end, both teams failed to qualify. Firebrands (2009) commitment in sending two balance teams was encouraging considering they were formed less than a year but their inexperience really show as struggled to retain possession and execute decent plays. Like the saying goes, there is no shortcuts, only hardwork, back to court and more training. Hoping to see them progress in Div 2 2010.
DynamicsAnother new member joining Penang Floorball. Formed under Sik Aun Baptist Church and participated their first competitive tournament organized by themselves in conjunction with their Food Fair one two months back, but sadly a clashes of events forced Dyanmics to pull out.
Snapshots:
All-Star Team:
Goalkeeper: Joshua Lim (Contact)
Slow (as usual) but solid between the post and rose up to the occasion when needed to. The goalie was on fire against Ztec in the Semis, denying Ztec shots after shots and then carried the team into the Finals via saves in penalty shoot-out.
Defender: Don Shakir (Contact)
The Div 2 All-Star defender living up to his name with yet another solid and compose display beyond his age, marshalling Contact defence as well as distributing crucial passes up front. May not have scored but definitely prevented many.
Defender: Kew Pei Li (Bukit Jambul)
Strong, aggressive and she is a girl.
The Iron Lady of Frontliners switched jersey colours but definitely didn’t switch style. Leading BJ all the way into the Semis with her usual no nonsense defending and adding on with a bit of goal scoring touch. Solid as always.
Centre: Deswyn Wan (Innebandy!Co.)
It’s already kind of boring and repetitive on writing how superb he plays. It would be a surprise if he didn’t played well and led his team all the way to the gold medal. Usual stuff from Master Des in the centre, showing aspiring centre how much effort they will need to sweat if they are thinking of even catching a sight of his back.
Forward: Adrian Koay (Ztec 8cers)
Another Div 2 All-Star (centre) making his mark but this time further up the court as a forward. Adrian showed that he can also score poacher goals, banging in the goods for Ztec but most importantly is being consistent in doing so. Well done.
Forward: Bryan Looi (Contact)
The temperamental forward showed why he’s the top forward in Penang by scoring some really good goals, especially the almost-to-be-winner-right-court-volley against Ztec in the Semis. A little more consistency and toning down emotionally will see him up another level though.
The All-Star team.
From right to left:
Bryan Looi, Adrian Koay, Deswyn Wan, Don Shakir, Joshua Lim and Kew Pei Li.
Overall, SUKPEN 2009 was a success, an event that brought much joy simply because it showed the potential in which floorball has in Penang. This inaugural event came with much anticiaption and surprises as well. One noteworthy incident would be the historical power outage on the first day of competition! What are the odds! But it was good to see that the participants were sporting enough to cooperate with the officials and came to a mutual agreement to postponed the matches to the following day. They showed team work and unity, hence, the success of SUKPEN 2009!
Another historical moment - power outage!
If there's one thing that SUKPEN has made clear to all of us, it would be the fact that there is no stopping floorball from growing. There is no boundaries nor limits to its potential. More to come for sure!
To all floorballers, brace yourself for bigger things to come!
(Note: BBF do not have an official photographer.
Hence, we only have a limited collection of photos in which we can pick from.
To teams whose photos we did not include in this post, apologies on our part.
If you would like to help BBF to source more photos, please feel free to e-mail us your collection of photos to our e-mail address.
Your help is much appreciated!)
The young...
the old...
(Errr... Sugar daddy??!!??)
