The badminton boys of Montfort Secondary beat the Singapore Sports School 3-2 in a ‘C’ Division thriller.  Montfort, which has a long and proud tradition in local school badminton, was the venue for this clash between the two school badminton giants. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

The 1st singles was won by the Sports School.  The 2nd singles produced a titanic battle between Montfort’s Ronaldi Kurniawan and Ngo Yi Chye of SSP.  The former hails from the land of Rudy Hartono while the latter was a proud product of Tao Nan Primary.  There was nothing separating the two in terms of their fitness, array of strokes, courtcraft, deception, mobility and maturity of play.  The match went  the full distance, each winning a game before the final outcome in the ‘rubber’.  It was still touch and go at 14-14 when Ronaldi caught up. (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

Yi Chye cleverly opted to set the deuce at 17 points and then won back service.  He kept calm, composed himself and went on to take the final 3 points with the score of 17-14. (Photo 3 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

Montfort showed their strength in the doubles, winning both of them.  With the score tied at 2-2, that set the stage for an exciting 3rd singles match between Sean Lee of SSP, an ex-Tao Nan player and Wasin of MS who hails from the land of ‘Sawadee". (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

What a match it turned out to be!  Initially, it looked like a battle between David and Goliath, the diminutive Sean facing the giant Wasin who was taller and bigger by half.  Both players gave their all in their match.  Sean has one of the best cross chops for one so young.  Time and time again, he used it very effectively to catch Wasin off guard.  In the end, that wasn’t enough as Wasin cleverly exploited the physical differences to his advantage to win the close match. (Photo 5 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

The players from both schools did not disappoint the assembled crowd of supportive and noisy teammates, coaches and parents.   They enthralled swith numerous instances of brilliant play. The standard of badminton exhibited was very high and it augurs well for the future of the sport in Singapore. (Red Sports very own Coach is a holder of a Level 3 coaching certificate in the sport). (Photo 6 © Les Tan/Red Sports)