Hybrid badminton match 8/10: one of the three

Wow, I haven't posted on here for a long time, have I? Mostly due to several loose ends in various sections of my life needing tying up - band, badminton, etc. I've decided to be an uber-nerd today and compile a list of various statistics for the Hybrid team that played this game against Howard, a team from Leatherhead:

L1: Sarah

L2: Helen

M1: Nick

M2: Krish

M3: Chris

M4: Jamie

ORDER:

Nick & Sarah                    M1      L1                    Lost

Krish & Helen                 M2      L2                   Won

Nick & Krish                     M1      M2                  Lost

Nick & Chris                     M1      M3                  Won

Sarah & Chris                  M3      L1                    Lost

Sarah & Helen                L1        L2                   Won

Helen & Jamie                 L2       M4                  Won

Krish & Jamie                  M2      M4                  Lost

Chris & Jamie                  M3      M4                  Lost

RUBBER STATISTICS:

Sarah                                   W1      L2       T3

Helen                                   W3      L0       T3

Nick                                      W1      L2       T3

Krish                                    W1      L2       T3

Chris                                    W1      L2       T3

Jamie                                   W1      L2       T3

TOTALS                                W8      L10     T18

CUMULATIVE RUBBER STATISTICS:

Sarah                                   W5      L19     T24     P8      

Helen                                   W8      L1        T9       P3

Nick                                      W8      L4       T12     P4

Krish                                    W1      L2       T3       P1

Chris                                    W5      L10     T15     P5

Jamie                                   W1      L8       T9       P3      

GAME OUTCOME:

Lost 4-5

Hybrid badminton match 7/10: slowly, slowly

We put up a good fight against the strongest team in our division - the currently unbeaten Sutton Adults. As we had lost the home leg 0-9, we were itching to exact some kind of retribution, although we knew that the odds were probably against us. Luckily, the team captain Sarah saw fit to field an extremely strong team herself. We were lucky to be able to call on Neil, from our Mens 1 team; Nick, the Mens 2 captain; Anushka, a Mens 2 reserve player; and, last but certainly not least, Helen, a Ladies and Mixed 1 team player. 

In Hybrid matches, as with other league matches, there is a sequence of play. The captains are supposed to rank their players in order of strength and ability, with the highest being '1' and the lowest being '4'. Thus M1, or Man 1, would theoretically be the strongest man. Sometimes, there is an issue of gamesmanship, and of 'sacrificing' a weaker man to a stronger opposing pair, but keeping your strongest pairs to try and eke out some rubbers further on in a game. St Andrews is a very fair club in that they normally declare players in strength order and don't play too many mind games. Thus we played Neil as M1, Nick as M2, Anushka as M3, and myself as M4.

My rubbers were with Nick, (lost 14-21, 15-21) Helen (lost 14-21, 15-21) and Anushka. (lost 11-21, 17-21) However, overall I was quite pleased with the way that I played, particularly in the opening game of the rubber with Nick. A few points from the end of this game, I had cleared the shuttle but unfortunately set up a smash for one of their players. The opponent predictably smashed it, and on pure reflex I stuck my racket out and the return actually went over the net - but Sutton Adults being as lightning quick as they are, the other player was ready at the net and waiting for my shallow return, so he tried to kill the point, but only succeeded in burying it in the net. There was a nice round of applause from the rest of my team sitting on the sidelines! Overall we lost this game 4-5. Thankfully, after this performance, Sarah has confirmed me as playing in two of the final games of the season: against Howard (match 8, home) and Ebbisham. (match 10, away)

Back to the training ground, then!