2008 Chris Gulin Masters
Event
This year’s Chris Gulin Masters Event was a memorable one with more than 70
players from all across the northwest region. We were fortunate to have a
diverse group of players this year ranging from
We would like to thank all
of those that put so much time and effort into making this tournament a
successful one. We believe that Chris would be proud to see the fruits of his
labor prospering so well.
A special thanks goes out to everyone who worked at the desk
to keep the tournament running smoothly. Melissa Tang, who worked so hard at
the registration desk is very much appreciated.
Registration was a very pain-free process this year thanks to her! Patcrick Ip, Katherine Ip, and Clinton Chen also did a great job at manning the
desk and teaching Bryan Lam and me how to run the software on Friday and to
help run the tournament on Saturday. Without their help, the tournament could
not have stayed so close to schedule. There would have been major problems if
it were not for their great experience in running these tournaments. Also,
thanks to all of the other juniors that assisted me and Bryan at the desk by
making announcements, preparing scoreboards, running scoreboards to courts,
giving players new shuttles, collecting old shuttles, and posting up the draws.
Thanks to Christine Chen, Vicky Chen, Renata Baker,
Erika Baker, Herman Wu, and
I can’t thank my dedicated
partner enough, Bryan Lam, for helping me so much with his calm head and logic
at the desk. Together we pulled off a decent tournament on Saturday, not bad
for our first time! Also, thanks to Steven Ip for
helping us on Saturday so that we could eat lunch halfway through our work! I
now have a newfound appreciation for those that juggle scoreboards, microphones,
a tournament software, and 70+ players for other tournaments!
Thanks to those that went
out of their way to prepare the food for the players so that they could keep
their energy levels up between play! And a big thanks to Ufililya
Davis and everyone else who made the Saturday night dinner so great with a
50-50 raffle, tons of great door prizes (ranging from teas and wines to gift cards
to Yonex shirts, bags, and rackets), and excellent
Thai food catered to us by Thaiger Room (courtesy of
Duncan Lau). The food was delicious, and the dance was lots of fun!
Congratulations to all that won a door prize, and Wayne Dalin
as the winner of our 50-50 raffle. Part of the rest of those donations goes to
the junior program here at BBC! Thanks to all that participated in the raffle!
Last, but not least, we
couldn’t have hosted this event without players! Thanks to everyone that
participated in this event, and congratulations to all that won certain events!
This year was a very exciting year, with many heated and close games in many of
the semi-finals and finals. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s
tournament:
To start things off with a
bang, the 30+ Men’s Singles Final was played on Saturday and was very intense.
Leslie Lau was matched up in the final against Tao Yuan. Leslie took the first
game from Tao 21-19, but Tao came back and won the second game 21-18. Tao
continued his winning streak and won the final game 21-15. Both players did a
great job, and there were some extremely long rallies, but luckily for
enthusiastic spectators like me, both Tao and Leslie put up a great fight.
Almost immediately after the long game, Leslie had a bad case of cramps, but
did well to endure it throughout the day in his men’s doubles. Congratulations
for winning, Tao!
Andre Chan and Lindy Liu put
up a good fight, but in the end Greg Ung and
Ying-Fang Lai pulled off a victory for 30+ Mixed Doubles 21-16, 21-16.
Also, in the round robin
draws, congratulations to the winners of the 40+ Mixed Doubles, Chris Hubbard
and Esther Masuda, and to the winners of the 50+ Mixed Doubles, Frank Price and
Sanne Drybrough. Both pairs
had to play many games to win their events!
For Mens Singles, congratulations to Vincent Chong (40+ winner)
and Tony Knott (50+ winner).
There were some very intense matches
that I saw playing in the round robin draws. By the end of the tournament, I
would be surprised if they weren’t completely exhausted from playing so many
long games!
Even though Andre and Lindy
were the runner ups for their Mixed Doubles event, that didn’t stop Lindy Liu
from taking the 30+ Women Singles crown home. Congratulations to her great
victory (especially since that was the only women’s singles event!).
As usual, men’s doubles was
very intense among all age groups, and all of the matches were exciting.
Congratulations to Geoff Stensland and Tony Knott
(35+), Chris Hubbard and John Leung (40+), and Frank Price and Raymond Wong
(50+) who all won their men’s doubles events!
On court 1, everyone was
watching the 30+ Men’s Doubles Final when Greg Ung
and Ronald Langingi pulled off a victory against
Kevin Yu and Tao Yuan in three long intense games. Greg and Ronald won 11-21,
21-11, 21-19. After the game, Greg commented that he must have smashed more
than 300 times in the last game. It was difficult with Tao and Kevin’s strong
defense, but eventually, Greg and Ronald took the last two points and won the
match. Both teams did a great job!
Congratulations to Mike
Britten and Wayne Dalin who beat Geoff Stensland and Sing Lam in the 45+ men’s doubles final! They
make a great team, even though they were competitors against each other in the
45+ Mixed Doubles Finals and the 35+ Mixed Doubles Semi-Finals! Wayne Dalin paired up with Susan Rogers to beat Mike and Karren Britten both times. But both times, the matches went
to three games, and the scores were very close. Wayne and Susan won the 45+
Mixed Doubles Finals against Mike Karren with a score
of 22-24, 21-8, 28-26. Great job to both mixed doubles
pairs for putting up such a great fight!
Yukiko Kumakawa
and Katherine Ip did a nice job in winning the 35+
Women’s Doubles event! They didn’t lose a single game in their event – nicely
done!
Ying-Fang Lai and Masako
Cochran did a great job in their Women’s Doubles events. They won both the 30+ an 40+ titles! In the 40+ finals against Siu-Imm
Tay and Susan Rogers, the three games they played
were very close. But, at the very end, they were able to get 2 last points and
win with the score 21-9, 15-21, 21-19. Siu-Imm Tay and Susan Rogers made a great team, but had to play
each others in the intense 35+ mixed doubles final.
In the 35+ Mixed Doubles,
Leslie Lau and Siu-Imm Tay
eventually beat Wayne Dalin and Susan Rogers in the
final after 3 long games. Being the last event played in the tournament, extra
pressure was definitely added as they were put on court 1 for everyone to
watch. The silence was so intense before each serve; you could hear a pin drop.
But both experienced pairs handled the pressure well and gave spectators a very
entertaining match to wrap up the tournament. Despite the pain that Leslie
still felt the next day from cramps the previous day, him
and his wife pulled off a narrow victory at the end, winning 21-17, 12-21,
21-17. Congratulations to both pairs for giving everyone such a great game to
watch to end the tournament!
It has been my pleasure to
help out with this tournament and to watch some incredible matches! Everyone –
players and helpers – contributed
greatly to making this year’s Chris Gulin Masters
Event a memorable one! We hope to see you all next year for an even better
tournament!
~Rochelle Ng