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Among the famous football clubs in the country, Hong Chin FC’s grand scale anniversary celebrations include a dinner which will be held on Saturday July 21
Hong Chin was a unique
football club because it was a community football based club, run by passionate
and volunteers, who had to source for funds and most of the time contributed
themselves.
The 50th
anniversary organising committee secretary Michael Yei said 150 persons,
including famous veterans and football personalities who made a name for
themselves in the sport with Hong Chin FC, have confirmed their attendance for
the dinner.
Among them include Datuk
Santokh Singh, Datuk Dina Rizal, Yip Chee Keong, Abdullah Ali, John Engketesu,
Peter Ambrose, Reduan Abdullah and many others.
Among the notable
players who have come through Hong Chin include the likes of Lai Kok Kim, Tan
Kim Meng, Khalid Ali, Reduan, Lim Hong Hock, K. Gunasegeran, Lim Then Guan,
Engketesu, Peter Ambrose, Chan Chee Mun, Abdullah Ali, Yip Chee Keong, R.
Subramaniam, Peter Rajah, Reduan Yunus and late Chow Chee Keong and Ong Yu
Tiang. Many of them turned out for Selangor and the national team.
Last Saturday a Futsal
tournament was organised at NPNG Sports Centre, as part of their anniversary
celebration.
The Futsal tournament with the theme
‘Living in the Football Spirit’ saw
40 veterans teams compete and another
15 veterans who came to support and cheer us on.
 |
| At the Futsal tournament - from right Michael Yei, Datuk Dina, Tan Kim Choon organising chairman, Yip Chee Keong, Datuk Santokh Singh and oldest particpant 76 year old Sucha Singh |
The youngest player was 46 years old
and the oldest was 76 years.
For everyone's efforts and determination
.....EVERYONE HAD TO BE A WINNER .....winner's gold medal was awarded to all - be
it players or supporters.
“This year’s celebration
event is the biggest to-date, although Hong Chin FC has had its annual
gathering to come together to touch base, renew friendships and comradeship,”
said Michael.
Hong Chin FC was officially registered in 1968 when funds were acquired
to compete in the FA of Selangor League, although it was founded much earlier
as a social club for the community of Brickfields. The club was formed to
provide budding youngsters of the area a chance to become good footballers by harnessing
their talent.
Hong Chin, which means ‘ever onwards’ in Chinese, was started by the
late Charlie Tan and a group of friends from Scott Road, Brickfields (now known
as Jalan Tun Sambanthan).
Charlie and his friends even rented a flat for their clubhouse (26A,
Jalan Padang Belia – formerly Jalan Kandang Kerbau off Brickfields) facing the
former Railway Recreation Club (RRC) ground
(ear marked and sealed for a mega office complex 18 years ago but still remains
sealed and no project upcoming) which was their home ground.
Hong Chin who started off as a small club, made giant leaps to become
one of the feared teams not only in the Selangor League but also at the
national club level competition (FAM Cup).
They won honours at the Selangor Dunhill League, invitational
tournaments at the FAM Cup.
 |
Division I match between Hong Chin and UMNO in 1970 |
Yei
recalled his association with Hong Chin and football those days: “I grew up in
the Scott Road/Jalan Kandang Kerbau (now Jln Tun Sambanthan) vicinity. My early
days of playing football was on the Railway Recreation Club (RRC) field, the
YMCA Field and the Jalan Chan Ah Thong Field. These were the three famous
football venues in the Brickfields area. During those days, crowds used to
gather around these fields practically every evening to watch football games
under the auspices of the Football Association of Selangor (FAS).
“Monday,
Wednesday and Fridays were Commercial League games whilst Tuesdays and
Thursdays were for the Open League. The popular teams then were Sharpees (mainly
comprising Indians) and Hong Chin (mainly comprising Chinese). The Railway and
YMCA Fields were the place where these two were located. The Chan Ah Thong
Field was where Datuk M. Chandran and Datuk N. Thanabalan were the stars.”
Other
famous fields and associated with clubs include the Pudu field which was used
by Selangor Recreation Chinese Club (SCRC), Selangor Indians Association (SIA) using
the Kampong Attap ground, UMNO and Sultan Sulaiman Club at Sultan Sulaiman Club
Kampong Baru ground, Railway Recreation Club at the Ipoh Road and Sentul Pasar ground, Tamilian Physical Culture
Association (TPCA) using Stadium at Kampung Baru, JKR using the Cheras ground
and Royal Sealangor Club using the current Dataran ground to name a few fields.
“The
RRC Field was the main field where many matches were played and it was “home”
for Sharpees and Hong Chin. Hong Chin were in Division One whilst Sharpees were
in Division 2. I began my footballing days playing for Sharpees and
subsequently, the late Charlie Tan approached me to join Hong Chin.”
Charlie
was largely instrumental for opening Hong Chin to receive players from other
races. Hong Chin slowly but surely saw more and more Indian and Malay players.
Then there was the period when we had an influx of players from Victoria
Institution led by our able captain, Tan Kim Chuan and others like Indran, Dinabandu
(Datuk Dina Rizal now), Michael Yap and Yap Kian Fui.
Hong
Chin over the years from their humble beginnings at the Brickfields Railway
Recreation Club (RRC) ground, went on to play their Premier
Dunhill League matches at the Merdeka Stadium, TPCA, Kajang Stadium and Klang
Stadium and then FAM Cup at State Stadium.
“We would not have had a history if
not for Charlie in particular and his friends. All of us owe much to him. Infact
if you mention Hong Chin, you must mention Charlie, and if you talk about
Charlie, you have to talk about Hong Chin,” said organising chairman of the
anniversary celebrations Tan Kim Chuan.
“We
had the likes of Sandy Ho Schwazenbeck)
who sponsored all the jerseys, shorts, socks for the team then and friends like
Dennis Raj and Tan Lip Peng to name a few. The team owe to all these people
including many ex-players who came back to support the club with their
generosity.”
The loss of Charlie in 1993 due to illness, saw the club started facing
one problem after the other from losing their training ground, financial woes
and players choosing to play for more illustrious and richer clubs and playing
for their employers.
While Paul Tan (Charlie’s brother) took helm of the club after the
demise of Charlie tried to keep the club afloat, it was difficult times as
their only private football club then in existence.
Hong Chin at one time even nearly had to vacate their club house due to
non-payment of rental but timely intervention from one of their former players
– Gopi Vellachan - and a few long-time supporters managed to solve the problem.
While the old-timers are fighting hard to keep the legacy of Hong Chin
alive with a veteran team and their annual gathering, the club now does not
have a clubhouse.
But the name ‘Hong Chin’ is still kept alive by team manager Vijiyan
Veloo who manages the team and is trained by N. Kananpathy at Taman Megah in
Petaling Jaya three times a week and play in the Selangor Division One league.
They
may not have top players in the team, but the legacy and true to its name
"Hong Chin (Ever Onwards) it is still alive after 50 years!
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