Contributed by Christopher Ong.

Yio Chu Kang Sports Hall, Saturday, December 6, 2008 – Nanyang Technological University clinched the inaugural Cheers Post-Secondary Team Challenge 2008 after securing a morale-boosting win in the keenly fought opening men's doubles.

In that match, Temasek Polytechnic's Aaron Tan and Chew Swee Hau, and Ng Wei Pin and Hamon Shen of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) served up a captivating display of badminton. Indeed, sections of the crowd could be heard saying: "Beautiful!"

No more than two points separated the pairings at any point during the keenly fought first-set, and with the score at 11-10, Hamon delivered two consecutive mid-air smashes that Aaron barely managed to block. His third smash in Swee Hau's direction left the latter sprawled on the ground face down after he dived to block unsuccessfully.

The 25-minute match ultimately ended in NTU's favor 21-19, 21-18, handing them a huge psychological advantage.

23-year-old Hamon said: "It was quite an intense encounter. Personally, I have not played at such a high intensity for some time."

"Further, Swee Hau and Aaron only recently left the national team and are still in touch with the game."

He added: "I think our match was very significant. For our team, the women's singles and doubles were must-wins, and we hoped to get the final point from either the men's or mixed doubles."

NTU's strategy was spot on, considering that in the men's singles, Aaron was simply too strong for Ng Shang Ian.

Having played in the men's doubles barely less than 20 minutes earlier, Aaron had to gather all his reserves to see off Shang Ian in the men's singles as his school trailing 2-0 in the best-of-five final.

Indeed, fatigue appeared to get the better of him in the first set as Shang Ian beat him 21-19.

Undeterred, he came back strongly in the next set as he raced to a 11-4 lead. There was even time for some showmanship as he hit an amazing return between his own legs, drawing catcalls from the spectators. He took the second set 21-7.

However, a limping Shang Ian had to retire with the score of 11-2 in the rubber set, which ensured that Temasek survived to fight on.

Despite suffering this setback, NTU's quality in depth was apparent in the fourth match when Tan Yan Min beat Temasek's Lee Mei Zhu 21-13, 21-15 to clinch the trophy.

Earlier on, Raffles Junior College (RJC) had easily swept aside Anderson Junior College (AJC) in the third/fourth placing play-offs.

AJC's Denning Tan got his team of to a good start as he beat Daniel Lim 21-10, 21-13 with a display of finesse and power, combining well-placed drop shots and powerful smashes.

However, RJC dominated the rest of the encounters with mixed doubles pairing Nicholas Oo and Macey Tan showing the way with a 21-17, 21-17 victory over Shangguan Weifeng and Germaine Chay.

Showing great skill, Nicholas and Macey pulled their opponents into the different corners of the court, causing them to tire quickly.

The next two match-ups were one-sided affairs, as RJC's Vanessa Poo beat AJC's Kimberly Huang 21-4, 21-7, with Vanessa's teammates Loke Yun Sheng and Sheena Tan completing the demolition job with a 21-4, 21-4 victory over Tey Wan Shi and Lim Ting Yin.

For more information and the results on Cheers Post Secondary Team Challenge 2008, you can log on to this website.