Sports School are badminton champs

Story by Coach Dick Yip

Marsiling Secondary, Tuesday, February 27, 2007 – Singapore Sports School captured the North Zone title after fighting off a feisty Xinmin Secondary by a score of 3-2.

Xinmin’s 1st Singles player, Tanapat was quick out of the block against her Sports School opponent, J Q Mok.  She raced to a 3-0 lead quickly before losing serve to Mok who gained her first point to make the score 3-1.  But the powerful Tanapat regained serve immediately and powered her way to a 6-2 lead until two errors in a row on her part gave Mok a chance to score two points easily to make the score 6-4.  Mok took advantage of Tanapat’s errors to score another point to bring her closer to 6-5.

However, Mok’s run of three straight points came to a complete halt when Tanapat muscled back the serve and in a display of massive attacking power, scored a psychologically important point to increase her lead to 7-5.  Thereafter, Mok had no answer and Tanapat piled on the points to run away with the first set, 11-5.

In the second set, Tanapat continued her masterful display, powering her way to a 7-0 lead.  Covering the court quickly, retrieving easily and executing precision drop shots, Mok managed her first point only executing a beautiful drop shot at the net to bring the score to 7-1.

Thrown off, Tanapat made an error to gift Mok another point.  7-2. Surrounded by teammates and coaches shouting "Xinmin! Xinmin!" and "Sports School!  Sports School!" for their respective 1st Singles players, the two were locked at 7-2, exchanging service a few times before an exquisite cross court drop shot by Tanapat brought her to 8-2.

In the next rally, a shot by Tanapat dribbled over the top of the net, leaving Mok with absolutely no chance of retrieving it.  However, to her credit, Mok didn’t lost heart and won back serve, benefitting from two unforced errors by Tanapat and winning three points in a row to make the score 8-5.  However, Tanapat reasserted her presence on court and did not cover up another point to score three more points to wrap up the second set 11-5, giving Xinmin Sec a 1-0 lead over Sports School.

In the First Doubles game between Xinmin and Sports School, it become obvious quite quickly that Xinmin’s pair of Shinna Lim and Jeolyn Keong would find the going tough against Noriko Goh and Toh Siew Fen.

The Sports School pair’s superior skills allowed them to race ahead quickly to a 9-1 lead. Finding it hard to settle into any rhythm, the Xinmin pair then made six errors in a row to gift the last six points to Sports School to allow them to wrap up the first set 15-1.

In the second set, Noriko Goh and Toh Siew Fen were again piling on the points quickly, moving to 5-1 before Xinmin could do anything about it.

Shinna and Jeolyn stemmed the tide a little by scoring two points in a row to make the score 5-3 but that was all they were allowed as Noriko and Siew Fen attacked relentlessly, causing unforced errors on the part of their opponents.

They eventually won the second set 15-3.

With the score tied at 1-1 and their enthusiastic supporters cheering them on, two of the most promising talents in B girls badminton this year prepared themselves on court for the third match of the day, the Second Singles. Carrying the hopes of the Sports School was Samantha Neo while her rival Thitirat is an established Xinmin star.

When play started in the first game, Samantha raced to a 3-0 lead through poor touches by Thitirat, who won her first point from Sam’s mis-hit. 1-3. Then came the first ding-dong, with service changing over a record 9 times! There was no long rally. Instead both opted to surrender tamely on regaining service, either serving into the net, hitting long or hitting out. Clearly, both players had not settled into their normal game yet.

Thitirat got the next point when Sam hit out 2-3.  She returned the favour for Sam to go 4-2 up.  With a cross-court smash Thitirat regained serve and got the next point when Sam smashed out 3-4. Another smash along the side line that was out made it 4-4. Service changed hands a few times more as the score crept to 5-5. A Thitirat error at the net made it 6-5. A powerful cross-court smash, and service was back to Thitirat who wasted the next rally when she misjudged a high clear that dropped onto the back line. Samantha took advantage of all these misses by Thitirat to move ahead with a nice cross-net flick. 7-5.

Thitirat’s misery continued as a couple of misjudgements allowed Samantha to go 9-5 up. Thitirat regained serve with a killer smash at 5-9. In the ensuing rally she hit the shuttle long. Back to Sam again at 9-5. A minor ding-dong occured before Thitirat missed a drop shot bringing the game to game point at 10-5. Sam served high, Thitirat dropped, Sam played a simple net return, Thitirat tried a cross-court net placing but it went out ending this game with a score of 11-5 in Samantha’s favour.

The breather at game’s end allowed Thitirat’s coach to give some much-needed input. She came back on and raced to a 4-2 lead quickly in the second game using her wide repertoire of strokes effectively. Samantha caught up with a beautiful drop and a fine net return. 4-4. They fought point for point to 6-6. A lob that was too long made it 7-6 before another misplaced smash by Samantha made it 8-6.

Samantha’s inconsistency was costly as two more smashes went out the side lines giving game point to Thi: 10-6. Thi served high but Sam executed a perfect drop to regain serve. Two uncharacteristic Thitirat errors allowed Samantha to creep up 8-10. In the next rally, Thitirat unleashed a powerful side line smash which the line judge (all line judges are students from different schools) pointed to as "in". But the match umpire overruled, giving the point to Samantha. 9-10.

Samantha levelled the score 10-10 when Thitirat hit out. Thitirat asked for a 3-point deuce, won the next serve and the next point when Samantha tried a cross-court net drop which just missed. 11-10.

At this juncture, neither player was cool enough to snatch a win as service changed hands seven times. Both were playing a patient cat-and-mouse game, hoping the other side would make a mistake. This came in the next rally when Samantha hit a misplaced smash and gave game point to Thitirat. 12-10.  Then a final error – a missed drop by her rival – allowed Thitirat to claim the game with a score of 13-10 and this set the stage for the rubber. Her win led to much cheering and stamping by Xinmin supporters.

Back on court, a refreshed and recharged Thitirat raced to a 4-1 lead with Samantha putting up a dogged defence in the opening minutes of the final game. The long rallies soon took their toll and Thitirat surged to a 6-2 lead over a fast-tiring Samantha.

After the changeover of sides, Thitirat took total command, playing the best badminton of the match. Showing the full range of strokes in her possession, she mixed high and delayed low serves with exquisite lobs, drops, drives and delicate touches at the net to take the game 11-2. Overall score: 2-1 to Xinmin.

If Sports School were to have any hope of winning the title, they would now need the pair of Tan Wei Han and Cherie Chong to overpower Catherine Lim and Nicole Lin of Xinmin in the Second Doubles. It was do-or-die once again.

When the battle started, no one watching could have guessed that it would prove to be the turning point of the day’s proceedings. Such was the intensity and the excitement that at one stage, the actual score was temporarily lost by the umpire, the players and myself, a seasoned badminton veteran to boot!

In the first game, Wei Han and Cherie took a commanding 8-2 lead with ferocious all-out attacking play, leaving the Xinmin pair looking a little lost. Increasing the tempo and heat, Wei Han added further misery by taking the next four points easily. 12-3. But the Xinmin pair of Nicole and Catherine finally found their rhythm and started playing like true champions. In an unbelievable display of strength, with their supporters screaming behind them, they recovered from 3-12 to 11-12, leaving their Sports School rivals bemused.

But it came to an end when Nicole and Catherine missed two easy shots: a misjudged line call and a simple missed tap. The magic and advantage they had evaporated. Recovering from their loss of concentration that caused their supporters’ a collective heart attack, Wei Han and Cherie did not need a second invitation to take the next three points and the game 15-11.

Could Sports School pull it off or would the Xinmin pair somehow find their touch again? No doubt these thoughts flashed through everyone’s minds as the second game started. In the opening minutes, Nicole and Catherine gave their fans much hope as they went 5-2 up, mostly due to early errors from the Wei Han and Cherie. The latter pair then fought back to level at 5-5. It took a mighty long time to reach 6-6 as multiple service changes continued and neither side giving away much.

Both sides displayed good attacking, defensive movements and combination. Nothing much separated the level of play at this stage. It was 7-7 after a long spell.

Then Nicole and Catherine executed a beautiful cross-court drive to make it 8-7. The next series of exchanges were so intense, so fast and so furious on both sides that it left everyone bewildered as to what the actual score was after the players took a timeout. Was it  8-9, 9-10 or 8-10? No one really knew for certain.

But the game resumed at 9-9 with SSP holding serve. They went ahead with an acute drop that had "lucky" written all over it. The shuttle hit the top of the net, stayed for a second before tumbling over for a 10-9 score. Perhaps with luck on their side, Wei Han and Cherie won the next three points taking the score to 12-9.

Catherine and Nicole bravely battled on to narrow the score to 11-12 but they missed a simple net return and Sports School had serve again to take the next point to 13-11 with a killer smash. The next rally saw Wei Han and Cherie putting together ten smashes before finishing it off, bringing them to game point at 14-11. Then strangely, both Sports School girls, on the brink of a win, served low…into the net!

There were sighs everywhere, giving Xinmin the hope of a reprieve. Nicole and Catherine added a point more, bringing it to 12-14 with a perfect counter-block that was not retrieved. Taking back service with a neat net placing, Wei Han and Cherie went for the killer punch. They found it when, after another drop, the shuttle which could have tumbled either way, chose to drop over at their rivals’ side and end the hopes of the Catherine and Nicole. Score: 15-12 in favour of Sports School.

Overall Score: 2 – 2.

Now, the tension around the hall was at a peak. On the court it was a different story as a supremely confident Thng Ting Ting ,a Sports School star, made her appearance, relishing the chance of playing either hero or villain in this concluding drama. Facing her in this third and final singles match was her opponent Jacinta Koh of Xinmin.

After the high of the previous match, this encounter turned out to be an anti-climax as female equivalent of that legendary Chinese superstar known widely as "The Thing" ( Real name: TANG HSIEN HU) in the 60’s and 70’s, easily demolished her Xinmin rival with an impressive score of 11-2 and 11-1.

The SSP "Thing" (Real name: Thng Ting Ting!) was mobbed by her teammates, supporters and her parents. I walked over to the defeated Jacinta to speak with her and to her great credit she took the defeat bravely, calmly and with a smile still. Such a rare sight nowadays!

Overall Score:  SSP won 3-2 and with that the North Zone B Girls Badminton title. 2nd place: Xinmin. 3rd place: St Nicholas’ Girls. 4th place: Ang Mo Kio Sec.

More action shots in the Picture Gallery.