Remembering our grandfather

Aunty Polly has her way of honouring the memory of her late father.

A formal studio shot of the Ng family,
grandfather and grandmother with their 11 children

She would buy and eat grandfather’s favourite kueh koleh kacang (Malay delicacy made with mung beans) and cook his favourite dish, steamed salted pork belly.

While obeying the prevailing nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO), she lamented that it was impossible to get kueh koleh kacang from her regular Nyonya kueh shop this year because it was closed.

The MCO however, did not stop her from preparing a dish of steamed salted pork belly at home to savour for dinner in fond memory of her dear father.

I know because Aunty shared her lament with me and sent me a photograph of her dishes for dinner on March 30 where I spotted the juicy slices of steamed salted pork belly.

Grandfather with his grandchildren,
the children of his first three children 

I’m pleased that my Stop and smell the Bunga Raya piece, with a brief recollection of grandfather’s passing on March 30 some 40 years ago, evoked reactions from family members.

In her response, Aunty Polly shared two group photos from her album, one of grandfather with his grandchildren and the other with the family celebrating grandfather’s birthday.

Grandfather was father of 11 children. While the grandchildren from his older children had the privilege to interact with him and have their own memories of grandfather, the grandchildren from his younger set of children have never met him.

That is why an article by Bobby Chee published in The Star dated 16 April 1980 that featured grandfather at his passing headlined, Ngoh Tee – Johore’s Maker of Champions, is so precious.

Grandfather or Ah Kong to his grandchildren, was the fifth son in the Ng family and was named Ngoh Tee, where ngoh in Teochew dialect means five or the fifth.

The old newspaper cutting from
The Star, April 1980

Readers are familiar with my “grandfather stories” featured in My Johor Stories, some of which have been documented in my series of books, My Johor Stories: True Tales, Real People, Rich Heritage and My Johor Stories 2: Interesting Places and Inspirational People.

Under Memories, I shared childhood memories of growing up in grandfather’s house, a double-storey bungalow with an adjacent badminton court, formerly located at No. 154 Jalan Ngee Heng.

Where champions were born, has a description of the house where my siblings and cousins used to lodge with our grandparents so we could conveniently walk to school.

At that time, our parents were based in the Health Sub-Centre in Masai for work, (Read: Going Back to Masai-chusetts) and as we were already attending schools in Johor Baru, they decided it was best for us to stay with our grandparents and continue with our education here.

In Family Ties, I shared about our link with the Wong family in Johor Baru and revealed how grandfather met with the Wong brothers when he was visiting their neighbourhood in the 1930s while he was courting our grandmother.

At that time, the Wong family and their extended families lived in the san pah or new settlement that was developed around a freshwater pond near Jalan Ah Siang and Jalan Lumba Kuda.

A studio shot of grandfather and his
lovely daughters,
[L to R] Sylvia, Lily, Lucy, Annie and Polly

Grandmother and the Wong brothers were cousins. And when the Wong brothers recognised grandfather as the four-time Johor state badminton champion, they asked him to coach them in the game.

Happy to win their favour – particularly when he was courting their cousin sister – grandfather gladly agreed and helped the Wong brothers to build a court in their compound under the chiku tree, where he started to train them.

Then in 1936, the Wong brothers, Peng Yee, Peng Nam and Peng Soon, formed a team with grandfather to win the Foong Seong Cup, a challenge trophy donated by a Chinese businessman.

When Tan Sri Mohamed Khir Johari became president of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) in 1960, he renamed the trophy, the Khir Cup.

While the Wong brothers were skilled badminton players, the most outstanding and talented among them was Peng Soon who went on to become one of the greatest singles players in the early post-war period.

He was four-time winner of the All-England singles title and a member of our first Thomas Cup team who won the inaugural tournament held in Preston, England, and brought home the trophy in 1949.

Grandfather was four-time Johor
  badminton champion in the 1930s

Malaysia, then known as Malaya, was the only Pacific zone participant and beat Denmark 8-1 to become the first nation to win this prestigious title! 

The inaugural games in 1949, was to become the most important men's badminton competition in the world.  

Wong Peng Soon did not have a foreign coach but he became a world-class player, acknowledged as one of the greatest badminton players of all time.

He was probably born with a gift in the game and with a good coach and the right attitude, he excelled in his game.  

Grandfather had his own badminton club, the Companion Badminton Party where badminton enthusiasts joined in the daily training at our badminton court in No. 154 Jalan Ngee Heng.

He not only trained badminton greats like Wong Peng Soon, but also equipped his children with the skills and tactics to become champions.  

His eldest son, Uncle Roland was Johor champion for consecutive years, taking over from his father who was reigning Johor champion for four years.  

Uncle Roland’s last international title was singles World Veteran Champion held in Taiwan and he partnered the late Datuk Eddy Choong to win the doubles Veteran Champion title.

Grandfather [Left] with Frank
Mongford Still,
Richard's grandfather in Johor Baru

Another son whom grandfather trained to excel in his game was Uncle Billy who was a member of the 1967 Thomas Cup team who brought the trophy home.

Grandfather’s youngest daughter, Aunty Sylvia, still holds the prestigious title as the only Asian women to win Gold for badminton in the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, a record which remains unbroken to this day.

Uncle Arthur, who was attached to the Royal Malaysian Navy, used to represent the Navy in badminton tournaments so whenever he was home on furlough, I remember grandmother would admonish him with, “Tah por wan sek!” in Cantonese.

Loosely translated this phrase means, “Playing badminton for a living,” because the bulk of his career seemed to involve playing badminton rather than in naval duties!

In Book Two of My Johor Stories, I documented Richard’s Quest which at first, may seem out of place but it was important to put this on record because we discovered from an archive newspaper cutting that our grandfathers knew each other!

Richard Dunn, an Englishman in the UK who read my story on Johor’s Hills and Palaces, came to JB with his wife to visit the familiar places here that were also recorded in his grandmother’s memoirs, Going Astern.

Richard, who was rather proficient with online research, discovered an archive newspaper from the Singapore Library website, published in the Straits Times dated 1 November 1936. 

The first line of a report headlined, “Johore Baru to hold tournaments,” read:

“At a committee meeting the Johore Baru District Badminton Association presided over by the vice-president, Mr Ng Ngoh Tee, in the absence of the president, F.M. Still, it was decided …”

It was indeed a pleasant surprise to discover that Richard’s grandfather, Frank Mongford Still, and our grandfather not only knew each other but also worked together in the same badminton association!

A formal photo of grandfather and
grandmother when grandfather
received his Long Service
award from the Johor Sultan

Grandfather’s skills and influence as a badminton player and coach were exemplary and he is well remembered for instilling a unique champions’ attitude among the players who trained under him.

In addition to badminton, his children, their spouses and grandchildren who had a relationship with him, have their own memories to share.

In his memory, Aunty Sylvia shared a formal photograph of her parents snapped in a photo studio – as it was fashionable in those days – to document that important occasion when her father was honoured by a Long Service award by Sultan Ismail, then Sultan of Johor.

Her husband, Uncle Mok addressed this message to his sons, who had never met their grandfather (and he shared it with the rest of the family too).

They only have photographs of him and at the 40^th anniversary of his passing, Uncle thought it appropriate to share a brief portrait of the father of their mother. He said:

“I spent much time with your Ah Kong during those days while courting mum at No. 154 Jalan Ngee Heng. (By the way, they had a 10-year courtship!)

He was undoubtedly a righteous, disciplined and a no-nonsense man.

A man of few words but when required of him to voice his opinions, he spoke without fear or favour.

He had many accolades, but he was never a show-off.

To top it all, he had a good sense of humour and trickery up his sleeves…

This is my tribute to him, even though its late, but its better late than never.”

Grandfather receiving his Long Service
award from Sultan Ismail, the Sultan of Johor

Then my brother Kenneth, jumped in with his recollections of being among the boys (along with cousins Philip and Malcolm) who also lodged with our grandparents, and were often assigned the task of clearing dog poop from the badminton court in the evenings before the training commenced.

Grandfather had devised a poop pan from an old metal biscuit tin attached to a broom pole used to collect dog poop (dropped by our pets, Rajan and Bonzo) by gently putting-in the poop with the flat edge of a separate short plank, an exercise we fondly referred to as playing golf!

On wet days, the boys would have fun drying the court with old gunny sacks. One would sit or squat on an outspread gunny sack while the other would hold its top two corners to drag the sack across wet puddles left by the rain.

He said tasks such as these were often rewarded by grandfather who would treat them with a fizzy drink of chilled Coke or Fanta Grape, conveniently bought from the provision shop next door.

Our grandparents with their 11 children;
Photo captured on the badminton court at No. 154

Besides building a jungle-gym complete with a see-saw for the children to play, grandfather had also built a wooden bench under the window that opened from the wall of our next-door-neighbour’s shop.

We could just step on the bench to reach the open window to place orders for soft drinks – and no matter what time it was – these orders were quickly served through.

Grandfather always had small change in his little bowl of coins. Very often he would reward us children with five-cents or ten-cents, which we were permitted to spend on treats from the neighbouring provision shops.

We could pick from a range of preserved fruits but one of our favourite treats must be ice-ball which the provision shop uncle made from a live-action stall.

He would mould shaved ice into a ball and flavour it with rose syrup with a drizzle of evaporated milk for takeaways, a popular choice with students.

For those who preferred to eat at the shop, he would serve the shaved ice on an enamel-coated metal saucer for them to eat with a plastic spoon.

As for us – the friendly neighbours – we would bring our dinner plates (much wider than a saucer!) to buy takeaways.

A rare shot of grandfather in his
garden at No. 154 Jalan Ngee Heng

The provision shop uncle would kindly heap a mountain of shaved ice over a dollop of sweetened red-beans and top it with syrupy flavours – all for the princely sum of five-cents!

Then we would bring our sweet treat home and further top it with more evaporated milk from grandmother’s milk jug (kept in the refrigerator) before thoroughly enjoying this slushy cool refreshment!

Even after grandfather had retired from active coaching, his passion for the game kept him at the court side every evening during the training sessions.

When the serious training started, the court was off-limits for us children.

But before this, the court was for the children to play our games – often with our uncles and aunties joining us – for fun as well as for their warming-up.

To encourage the youngsters to play badminton, grandfather fashioned rackets with short shafts to match our shorter heights so that we would not damage the rackets (if we swung the racket and it hit the ground!)

Our cousins, Philp and Malcolm, were pitched against each other in a singles match – often with an attractive reward – to encourage them to play with their best efforts.

Sometimes grandfather would pick up a racket to play and he would challenge his opponent (one of the children!) to try his best to beat him.

He would often taunt his opponent by saying that he could (still!) beat him even when he had one hand tied behind his back!

And yes! Grandfather was the one who introduced us to swashbuckling heroes like Lone Ranger and his sidekick Tonto, gunfights, cowboys and Indians, among other heroes, first from his collection of comic books and later, at the cinema.

Grandfather and grandmother with their 11 children and grandchildren in the 1960s;
 [Front row on the floor, third from Right] That me scratching an unbearable itch on my ear!

In Escape to the movies, I shared about our thrill of going to the cinema with grandfather on weekends after we had completed our share of household chores.

These unforgettable movie treats were my earliest experiences of watching movies at JB’s landmark cinema halls, Rex and Lido.

Much later when our younger cousins were born, our doting grandfather would buy gifts of tricycles for them to play. And when they learnt to pedal, these kids rode their colourful tricycles around the badminton court.

I have yet to mention my introduction to Teochew opera through grandfather's Long-Play vinyl records...Ah…There are just far too many memories about grandfather to share!

This is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, but I hope our younger cousins who have not met grandfather would get to know more about the man who was our Ah Kong.