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KE supporters were again treated to a full portion of drama and suspense at the badminton semi-finals against Eusoff on Tuesday night at Sheares Hall. Stunning tenacity on the part of KE’s players made it a tough fight. The scores speak for themselves: what a nerve-racking competition it was!

1st Singles

The ever-dependable Nino started the clash once again with a convincing win against his opponent. His dominance on court was so absolute that Eusoff did not seem to bother to put up much of a fight against him. The supporters from EH gave a few muffled cries during the first few rallies, and then silently watched as their first player lost, amidst loud cheers from the large KE contingent. Throughout this competition, Nino’s role as the reliable rock can never be understated, and all credit goes to him for having beaten all opponents without dropping a set.

After this match, the supporters from both halls truly came alive. Sports Comm supplied the normally already noisy Musa with empty bottles so that he could make even more noise with them. KE Badminton Team ‘fangirls’ waved placards that read “We” “[heart]” “You”. (”No KE fan has ever done that for me before!” ~ an amazed Ching Mien) And CJ began to pep up the badminton team with words of encouragement, while breathing out nasty threats to us supporters: “You better keep clapping and cheering the players, otherwise… I will SCREW you!”

1st Doubles

As a result, Ching Mien and Kai Kai began their match with the full support of an optimally psyched up crowd of KEVIIans. With us cheering and bellowing out words of encouragement at almost every point regardless of who won it, our two fighters kept up with their opponents, drawing even eventually at 20-20, at which point, the supporters began to chant “KE! KE!” in between rallies. Our dynamic duo then went on to secure the last two points, to our rapturous applause. Shahzad yelled, “Ching Mien and Kai Kai!”, to which the rest of us replied, “WE LOVE YOU!”, waving placards frantically.

During the next two sets, however, the opponents seemed to have gotten their act together, and eventually demonstrated that they were the better players after all. Throughout the game, Terence, CJ, Nino and some others kept going up to the players in between rallies to encourage and give advice on certain points of the game. Neither did the KE contingent cease to cheer the players on. Yet, sadly, it seemed that, having recovered from their initial shock, the EH players did not give us a chance to capitalise on their first set-back any further. They won the subsequent sets, and hence the game.

2nd Singles

Josh dealt with an opponent who was clearly a much better player. For starters, his serves seemed to drop from the very top of the ceiling, landing accurately every time at the furthest possible corner of Josh’s court. Never did Josh resign to his fate for a moment, nor did our supporters stop clapping and cheering for him. Yet, there was really nothing that could be done but to look on in distress as Josh lost the game despite putting in his heart and soul.

2nd Doubles

Damien and Remus took on what appeared to be the stronger doubles opponents of EH. They were quickly taken down in the first set, which resulted in some vital pep-talk and analysis at the sidelines before the second set. All that must have counted, because the second set was the most spectacular match of the evening. (Not forgetting the sight of Damien doing a split in order to successfully save a point - which caused all jaws to drop, including those of the Eusoff team!) Damien and Remus were trailing initially by about 7 points, but clawed their way back and finally drew even at 20-20. After which, they saved match point after match point until they were trailing 23-24, when finally they lost anti-climatically to a serve.

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KE’s badminton guys had put up such a tenacious fight against Eusoff that by the time this match was over it was 9.30 pm and the girls’ semi-finals (Eusoff vs KR) had already ended! All the spectators were hoarse and limp with the excitement of the evening, with hands that were sore from clapping. In a bid to conserve the energy of their players, Eusoff decided to forfeit the last singles game (which would have been played by Wang Qi) in our favour. KE supporters cheered for ourselves and the Eusoff players, who responded by cheering for the KE team, whose performance and spirited determination had truly commandeered the respect of all present!

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Despite having lost to Eusoff, badminton captain Ching Mien was nevertheless all smiles in a post-match interview: “No words can describe how proud I am of the team. I’m truly blessed and honoured to have been the steward of such a fantastic team! Special thanks must go to Nino, for all his time and help even though he’s busy doing his Honours year. We’ll be back next year, and better!“

And as for the rest of us, I believe that our massive cheering and support for badminton team gave them a psychological advantage over some of the other halls and contributed much indeed to their having advanced so far. Let us bring that same spirit and verve to our support for our teams in other sports!

See you with your red shirts!

- Zichun