Linejudging for the AE2006

Wow~! So much was discussed here in my absence! I was away for the All England from Tuesday till Sunday and just got back. I was the official linejudge (in red sweatshirt, black cap) throughout the championships. Yannie will definitely shriek with joy when I share with her my encounter with the Chinese team, if I see her on MSN that is. Congrats to Jason for getting LinDan's black tshirt~! I got his training shirt when I asked him for it while he's walking in the tunnel. I will share this experience with you by categorising it into a daily event. Some pics will follow suit as well~ so stay tune!

 

In the middle of the night, I am now compiling my memories into words, trying to get every detail in as much as possible. So much to share yet to hard to pen them down in correct order. Sigh...will try to do as much as I can before going off to bed, and its already 4ish in the morning. Dear me, why am I doing this in such an ungodly hour???

 

Hohohoho~! I thank you all for my fellow team mates of linejudges. We worked hard to concentrate on the shuttle all the time. But at times linejudges are tempted to look elsewhere, especially to other courts or the wide screen. That usually makes the line call bad, others are due to slow reaction and confusion. At times you know that its out, you saw it go out, but then your arms just won't listen and point in instead. Its very tempted not to change the call as they do not want to show that they're not concentrating. Its common and that's some tend to show double actions as if they're not certain. It happened in the mens singles finals between Lin Dan and Lee Hyun-Il.

 

Well fellas, been busy all day trying to sort things out after being away for a week. My email inbox topped at 139 emails~! Taking me a whole day to clean my room, do the laundry, put up posters, and finally some time to do some this. Its not finished yet though, but I'll continue when I can find the time.

Day 1

Tuesday started by travelling to down London at 6 in the morning from Cardiff. Had to settle some stuffs at the High Commission before going up to Birmingham at 5pm. Arriveed at 8pm in Birmingham Digbeth Coach Station. Took a taxi to Norfolk Hotel where most linejudges are based. Checked in at the reception and went straight up to the room. Had some small snack of biscuits and sandwiches and tried to sleep. Failed to sleep due to sleeping too much on the coach earlier. Watched telly instead, they had nip tuck on one of the channels, kinda interesting. Kept on changing channles and tried to doze off. Fell asleep after tosing around till midnight.

Day 2

Woke up at 6am. My mobile's alarm is ringing madly. Had a shower and some breakfast of biscuits and bread with tea. Had to ruch to the NIA as told to be there by 7.30 in shirt and tie, black pants and black shoes. Felt as if I'm actually going to work. Caught a cab at 7am and went staright down. Arrived infront of Hyatt Agency and the big ferris wheel and walk starigh to the NIA. Its Cold~! After 5 minutes of brisk walking in the cold morning, went into the AF4 entrance. Wave my invitation letter to the security and went straight in. Was directed by the reception to the LineJudges' room at the far end near the tunnel entrance. Met John, the Director of LineJudges for AE. He got me my tag, my red sweatshirt and my cap. He then asked me to go to Olympian Suite 2 for briefing at 8. About 30 minutes to kill, I went into the arena. Saw the Chinese Team training. Saw Cai Yun, Fu Haifeng, Zhang Jun and Xie Zhongbo training at court number 6. They mix up pairing and was sparring away cursing and joking at times. Gao Ling was with Huang Sui in court 5 and Xie Xingfang is training with Zhang Ning in court 4.

The ladies finished of first as I hear them saying something about going back to the hotel for breakfast. Gao Ling went back to get her stuffs and I went to her for a pic. Then to the rest of the ladies when the finished packing up. The guys are still playing around in court. When its about time to go for the briefing and I'm was about to leave, the guys finished and Cai Yun was made to bend over at under the net exposing his backside to Fu and the rest. They took aim and hit him with shuttles~! What a way for punishment for making mistakes!

At the briefing, we were gathered and were introduced to the umpires and to our court leader. Mine was Mike, he's a wonderful man with lotsa of stories to tell. We were then brought to the arena and gathered according to our groups. The first match would start at 9am. I getting more and more nervous as the seconds ticked off. Not sure whether I will make a bad call. All that Mike ever said was keep focus and enjoy it. Some people prefer to watch only the line but some prefer to follow the shuttle. I prefer to follow the shuttle as I wouldn't want to miss out on the game. Near the tunnel, Shon Seung Mo is jumping around swinging his racquet, warming up for his first game. I took the opportunity to have a quick pic with him. He's very friendly indeed, very warm and kind. Not fierce at all, one can easily make friends with him. I am then to find out that my first match was Shon's with Canadian Andrew Dabeka. When I sat down, my heart was pounding hard. Not sure why. Excited? Nervous? Happy? I have no idea which emotion came over me. All I know was that my heart was pounding heavily as I see Shon start his match. I was hoping very hard that he will win. By the way I look at it, he's got great body strength but kinda lack consistency. Although I can see that Andrew is not his match, he gave points away by misjudging the shuttle. The one I remembered most is that I call a shuttle in when he saw it out. He went to the umpire but was ignored. He came breathing heavily and with his hands at his waist, he looked at me partially smiling. Then he asked me, "Out?" I just showed pointed in without saying anything. But in me, I felt bad for letting him down. I'm most certain that its in but he saw the shuttle bounce out. But anyhow, I'm more determined to focus steadily and concentrate more. The more I tried to do so, the fear of giving a wrong call gripped me even harder. I breath heavily through my mouth and my hands went cold that I have to put them under my thighs. But nothing bad came after that. Its mostly easy sightings of in and outs. The line judges swap seat after one game, and there is a leader in every game. When I swap seats, I realised that I have to make a call of when to stand and when to seat. Its my first time to being a leader but the chap next to me gave me hints throughout. Not long after, Shon took the game at 15-10, 15-12. I heaved a big sigh and signal everyone out of the court after the umpire got down from his throne.

After my first match I had a 2 match break, not knowing what to do, I just sat around and watch other players in their game. Then Lin Dan came over with a earphone on. My goodness~! he sat just 5 seats away from me. I was jumping with joy inside and I stole glances at him once a while. When he saw me he just smiled and continues watching. I finally went over to ask him to take a pic and we chatted a while. I found out that although he is from Fujian, he doesn't speak the dialect~! He speaks hakka at home to which I had a simple conversation in hakka with him. Then I had to leave him to attend to my duties. After that, Boonsak came over and started to warm up. His match is with Rajiv Ouseph of England. I had a quick chat with the England coach while they are warming up for the game. I remember Rajiv now as the one who reached the finals of Welsh International Championships last November.

to be continued....

 

Hiya James, I tried putting the pics in between the stories/ report but I can't seem to upload any pics for the time being. Not sure why though. But will try again later...its all up to your imagination now~ Let them fly...

 

Boonsak match against Rajiv is nothing to sweat about. Rajiv is more of a defense player and Boonsak having the experience after years being in the field, held Rajiv all over the court. Boonsak is patient and waits for the kill. I can simply hear his rhythm why sitting down. It sounded like bum, bum, bum, pak! score! At times a longer tempo. Pushing Rajiv deep into the baselines, Rajiv finds it hard to keep up and loses is tempo. Many shots went to the net. Although his coach is behind me is shouting for him to slow his game and concentrate on the rally, the advice seemed ineffective. Boonsak is just way too fast for him to keep up. Oh oh oh oh yes yes yes~!!!! Getting kinda excited on a new found fact. If you ever get close enough to Boonsak in his game, you can actually hear him strike his racquet strings. At first, I heard pling pling pling pling, and I was wondering how in the world he did that??? How did he strike his racquet like that making such crisp sounds? After a hard long stare, I found out that he's got kinda long fingernails on his left hand. On his thumb especially. Its just his style. If Xia Xuanze have got his shirt collar up, Boonsak have got his strings strumming. Back to the match. As Rajiv is struggling to keep up, he is forced to play more attacks. Boonsak's defense is so quick that he counter every net play and defensieve shots nicely that Rajiv is forced to lift or give a bad net shot. All these to which Boonsak came in with an attack. Rajiv is good at his sideline defences, Boonsak shots were mostly body attacks. The tempo that I remember would go, serve, rally, rally, dropshot, net, net, lift, smash, return, smash, return, tap/ net kill. The three consecutive attack from Boonsak at the near end of court, middle of court and at net. This is Boonsak's tempo mostly throughout the game. Rajiv's shot is mainly rallying, drop shots and net, attacking a few times. However, when Boonsak's score gets to 10, Rajiv obviously is trying increase his tempo by attacking more. His coach is constantly asking him to cool down and not rush but yet, attacks were constant at every possible chance. Rushing into every shot proves deadly and Boonsak ends the game at 15-9, 15-13. Attacks when Boonsak reaches 10 helped Rajiv earn a few points as Boonsak misjudged Rajiv's shot and was caught off guard. I was sitting there with a racing heart. I can hear myself whisper, "Come on Boonsak, just a few more!" When Boonsak ends the match, I wanted to jump up and screamed with joy! But then my position doesn't allow me to. I have to wait till the umpire got down and we were off the court before we can actually do anything else. Once off the court, as Boonsak rested near to where I sit, I was trying hard to listen what his coach told him. Alas, its all in Thai, but still the language sounded nice. For those who might not know, only Boonsak is sponsored by Gosen while the rest of the Thai squad is sponsored by Yonex. His shoes however reads: "Vitro". Not sure what shoes are those. Never heard of that brand before.

Behind me, or at the next court, Malaysian Sairul Amar Ayob is having a easy game against Jean Lefort. I often stole glances at the game while linejudging Boonsak's game. Thanksfully I did not give a bad call. Sairul style of play seemed effortless. His shots were "cool". He made every shot seemed so easy. I just don't know to describe the softness more than this. You will have to see it yourself. His serves and shots are nice to watch. Not long after Boonsak's match finished, Sairul finishes his match as well although Boonsak started the game forst. I think Sairul's game is relatively shorter in the region of 30 minutes. Soon after that, my court leader came over with our food vouchers~! Weehee~! Food glorious food, I'm off to the member's lounge cafe to get food. I went a little too late and all food is done for. Lunch is over and I have to wait for dinner at 5.30~! SO I just went and get some sandwiches and loads of mustard. I love mustard~! The yellow slimey gooey~! When I got back, Cai and Fu is already sitting near where I'm based playing around resting, sitting and chatting away. Apparently, they've been competing while I'm away at Boonsak's match and at the cafe. I went over and with some information at hand from *Yannie*, I have a quick chat with them. They're very nice people indeed, unlike Gao Ling, yucks. After that I went on to hand my sandwich, spilling some mustard while chomping them down. Not long after Cai and FU left. But wait~! I have not even snap a pic with you guys yet! Oh well, they'll come back definitely later. Then Sairul came over to fill up his water bottle. I had a the chance to chat with him in Malay. He is really friendly indeed. Very laidback, just like a typical Malaysian kampung boy who plays football in the evenings. I asked who is he playing next and he told me he is from Sweden. I replied, "Cehwah bang, senang ler nak makan. Elok ah camtuh." (Wow brother, easy game, good for you.) He shook his head and smiled, he replied "Ok ler, budak Indon. Ntah aper Wiboro aper natah." "Alah bang, boleh punyer. Senang jer nak makan nih. Usaha bang!" (He's ok, he's from Indonesia, not sure what is name is, something wiboro.) (Awww come on big brother, its gonna be easy for you to take. All the best!) He finished collecting from the water cooler and we wave me goodbye. Not long after the munchies, I'm off to linejudge again. This time the game is between Eric Pang and Kasper Oedum.

to be continued........sleepy now....

 

I suppose that his parents speaks Hakka and their family moved to Fujian. So Hakka is still spoken within his family. Its just like someone from Guangzhou who speaks Cantonese, moved to Beijing. He speaks Cantonese at home but Mandarin while being outside with his peers. Do you get me?

I'm still unable to upload pictures *stomping feet* . Not sure why?