SIBU: Team Tyrelink Wheel defeated defending champion Hock Kwong 2-1 to lift the championship crown of the Sibu Badminton Association (SBA) Challenge Cup 2012 held at TN Sports centre here recently.
The match went right down to the wire before Tyrelink’s third pair of Johnson Ting/Wee Teck Hock edged Hock Kwong’s Melvin Sim/Mohd Ariff 21-9, 23-25, 21-19 to seal the game.
It was also sweet revenge for Tyrelink as they were denied victory in last year’s edition.
SA Enterprise was third after they beat Paris Bridal 2-1.
With the victory, Tyrelink pocketed RM1,000, a trophy and medals while Hock Kwong had to be contended with RM500. SA got RM350 and Paris Bridal bagged RM150.
Tyrelink, fielding its first choice pair of Wong Kong Who/Jeffery Phang took the first game after beating Hock Kwong’s Ting Wei Ping/Ting Ming Wong 21-13, 21-15.
It was the only defeat for the Tings’ pair in the championship and despite putting up their best; they just could not penetrate the defensive play of Tyrelink mounted by Wong/Phang.
In the end, Tyrelink prevailed and took the first point.
Hock Kwong’s Peter Ho/Paulus Lau stepped in and redeemed a crucial point when they edged Tyrelink’s Lau Hua Chew and Yii Ching Tiong 21-12, 21-11 to level the score at 1-1.
All eyes were on the deciding game. In the first set, Tyrelink’s Ting/Wee was in their element as they immediately surged ahead, winning the match easily at 21-9.
Ting/Wee continued to display moments of brilliancy in the second set as they surged forward to another lead but at 18-12, their play surprisingly stalled as they made several unforced errors.
This allowed the Hock Kwong’s pair of Sim/Ariff to capitalise and they immediately closed the gap to 20-20 before wrapping up the match at 25-23.
Buoyed by their comeback victory in the second set, Sim/Ariff took a commanding lead in the deciding game at 15-9.
However, this time, it was their turn to get stuck and allowed Tyrelink to crawl back and wrapped up the game at 21-19.