Montfort are badminton champs!

By Lee Hwee Cheng

Montfort Junior School, Monday, February 26, 2007 – A clash of the mini titans took place at the Montfort Junior School on this Monday afternoon, as Montfort Secondary beat Singapore Sports School 3-2 to be crowned as the Kings of C Boys badminton in the North Zone.

:God Bless You, Asraf! We all love you!”

A deadpan voice boomed cheekily over the sound system, drawing some laughter from the crowd. Montfort’s Mohd Asraf, 13, looked over and smiled shyly at the supporters at the sideline, as he was getting warmed up for the face-off with Sports School’s Kirk Lim, also 13, in the first Singles match of the day.

After an initial show of resistance from Lim in the first few rallies that saw a multiple changeover of serves and kept the score at 0-0 in the first game, Asraf quickly found his groove, proving to be one of the better players on court today.

Slightly bigger-built, yet much quicker and more nimble than his opponent, Asraf took control of the game with a near-perfect execution of control and strength that soon had Lim running between forecourt and backcourt.

A powerful smash and a few kills later, coupled with many unforced errors on Lim’s end which saw the shuttlecock fly into the net or out of the boundary lines, Asraf was easily leading the game 10-0.

In contrast to Asraf’s composed tactics, Lim looked tired and demoralized early in the middle of the game. Maybe it was the lack of good judgement and the continuous runs of unforced errors, or maybe it was simply a stroke of poor form and a loss of willpower – but Lim was clearly outwitted.

Unable to return most of Asraf’s clever smashes yet faced with a long-limbed opponent who seemed to have the answer to those he could return, Lim could gain only a few points, mostly as a result of Asraf’s own errors.

Asraf continued the rampage to win the singles match in 2 sets (15-2, 15-0), giving Montfort an easy 1-0 lead in the tournament.

In the second Doubles match, Montfort’s Nathawit Mutanon, 14, and Muhd Muzhafar, 13, were pitted against Sports School’s Ranen Tan and Gordon Ho, both 14.

In what eventually proved to be one of the more exciting matches of the day, both sides were of equal strength, creating an interesting display of back-and-forth rallies, unexpected shocks and scores, and numerous changeovers of service possession. If there was a moment throughout the tournament that first hyped up the crowd, it would have been this.

Tan and Ho won the right to serve first, but quickly lost it through a series of errors which had them missing a few simple drops in mid-court and also sending their counter-shots right into the net. Montfort did not let up on the opportunity and quickly extended the lead to 13-2 in the first game.

Just when the Montfort boys thought they could seal up the first set, the game took a sudden turn in the middle. Through a momentarily loss of concentration and perhaps some complacency on Montfort’s side, Sports School held service possession for a few rallies, and forced a few points out of Montfort’s weak returns that ended in or under the net.

On top of that, there were some displays of poor judgement that resulted in easy points for Sports School. The efforts from Tan and Ho saw them on a run of five straight points to bring the score to 7-13.

The continued fight put up by Sports School raised the tension of the game toward the end of the first set, but time was not on their side.  Nathawit and Muzhafar recovered in time to take down the first set 15-10.

The heat continued in the second set, and the Montfort boys regained their composure early on as they powered their way to a 7-1 lead with a few convincing smashes.  Then, as if on cue again, Sports School rebounded as Montfort slipped into yet another daze. Ranen and Gordon ralled to 7-10 but unfortunately that turned out to be the closest they would get to their opponents.

The better-coordinated duo of Nathawit and Muzhafar took the remaining points, capitalizing on Sports School’s subsequent slip-ups, to seal the second point for Monfort with a 15-7 win in the second game.

With Montfort leading the finals 2-0, the third Singles match became crucial for Sports School, and it proved to be the match of the day.

Diminutive Ngo Yi Chye, 14, from Sports School had only one do-or-die mission – to keep his school in the match, as he faced off with a similarly built Ronaldi Kurniawan Saphala, also 14.

Ronaldi made good with his first-service bid, and after a few well-placed smashes and some tactical play to force Ngo into errors, he quickly led the first game 7-1.  A change in service possession at this point, as a result of Ronaldi hitting a return right into the net, proved to be a costly mistake for the latter.

Ngo, in an instant, found his turbo-charge, and subsequently put on a startling display of beautiful backhand flicks and powerful smashes, and levelled the game at 7-7.

Power packed in two small packages would best describe the two players. The beauty of the match lay in the consistency of long backcourt rallies, rarely changing in pace and tactic, with points scored mostly on out-of-boundary shots or weak returns that failed to clear the net.

With the game next tied at 9-9, Ngo kept his game consistent as Ronaldi succumbed to a few more crucial mistakes.  Ngo held his nerve and took the first set 15-9.

The second set opened to a promising start, with both sides making powerful moves to bring the score quickly to 4-3 in Ngo’s favour. The score then stayed stagnant as both sides put up a magnificent fight for service possession and neither managed to score any point within the next 12 shuttles.

A sudden slip-up from Ronaldi saw him make a subsequent series of unforced errors, and Ngo cruised to a 15-4 win in the second set much to the delight of the Sports School contingent.

Ngo the tiny hero had kept Sports School alive in the title chase with a 2-0 win, leaving Montfort leading in the overall score by only one match at 2-1.

The mounting pressure was now passed on to the fourth Doubles game, between Sports School’s Ng Choon Yeow, 14, and Sean Lee, 13, and Montfort’s Chay Jun Yang and Jamie Wong, both 13.

Both sides looked equally matched this could have been another showcase of nail-biting intensity with scores see-sawing up and down. But the duo of Chay and Wong proved to be the better team with more consistent communication and coordination, while Ng and Lee showed their weakness in team-play as an obvious lack of communication led to a few half-court shots being missed by either player.

Showing that good teamwork usually wins games, the young heroes, Chay and Wong, sealed the victory for Montfort in 2 sets (15-7, 15-4), sending the chanting, sweating crowd of Montfort students hanging from the railings into a frenzy.

In the last Singles match of the finals, Sports School’s Gerald Ong, 13, beat Monfort’s Wasin Wachiradilok in 2 sets (15-9, 15-13).

It was indeed a good fight of strength, skill and willpower between Montfort Secondary School and Singapore Sports School between the badminton giants of the North Zone.

As the beaming Principal of Montfort Secondary School said in his speech before he gave away the medals, “Let’s hope all top four schools in the North Zone win our rightful spots in the Nationals Semi-finals.”

Well said.

And all the best, boys!