MC-RMC Weekend

Some updates from MC-RMC Weekend:

- it is safe to say that koleq actually "walloped" RMC. We won rugby, English debate, basketball, volleyball and lost football and BM debate. So that's a 4-2 to us (the visitor mind you).

- the English debate (our first team) was good and fun. A scores of former debaters and old boys attended the debate, our thanks to Suhaimi Sulaiman (Class of 80), Ben (Class of 90), Faiz and Min the wife (Class of 91), Rizal (Class of 92), Canoe (Class of 93), Allen (Class of 94), Zaaba, Dzuf and Izrin (Class of 2000). I was particularly quite proud of them since they had improved a lot and incorporated whatever comments we had been giving them since 2003.

- the BM debate (our second team) was quite a disaster, but the boys worked hard for it. We were sometimes too harsh in our feedback that I felt guilty afterwards, especially considering it was the first time the two of the debaters (one in F2 and one in F3) debated for koleq. I think the fact that RMC had never beaten us in BM debate in recent memories (even when we sent our second team) added to the over critical feedback to the boys. But as Ben put it, it's better to lose a friendly debate if losing it means rectifying many weaknesses in our arguments and performance, in preparation for bigger tournaments. Our thanks to Ucop (Class of 93) and Izzat (Class of 04) who joined the coaches and old boys team for the debate.

- Volleyball game was fun, we won 3-1. At some points I actually felt for the RMC boys as losing at your own turf is always a painful experience, whether you are RMC or MCKK boys. But the boys from both teams tried their best - even the cheering squad from RMC did their part - but it's healthy to see that they lost to a better team.

Some observations during the carnival:

i) I was surprised at how much RMC boys had changed in terms of "discipline" from our time. We had always had a grudging respect for RMC boys back then for their high discipline in public, after all they were trained the military style. But the display in the auditorium on Friday night was quite disappointing because they even jeered at their own team (though they were very polite to us and MC boys). The last speaker gave up speaking altogether at one point because of the noise and jeering from their own camp.

Having been a debater myself back then, I could understand how it feels to be jeered by your own schoolmates in front of a visiting team! We joked around that if old boys complain that present MC boys are not as "disciplined" as they were in the yesteryears, we should send them (the complaining old boys) to RMC ha ha.

ii) A friend from another elite SBP school who tagged along innocently made this comment after all budak koleq had taken their place in the auditorium: "Apsal budak koleq sekarang buruk2 hah?"

iii) During the volleyball game, the small no's of budak koleq who were at the court were extremely quiet. Strange enough, most of the shouts and "cheering" coming from MCKK camp was from the teachers and old boys. If it had been our team back then, I would be near dancing near the court waiting for the whistle!

So things do change over the years - some changes were good while the merits for other changes are more debatable!