South Beddington 4
Mens Division 3
An intense match against the team who came up from Division 4. Being unbeaten last season could have imbued them with an eagerness and winning mentality that we struggled against at times. In general, the quality of the games was very high and we had to produce some solid badminton to see them off. Amusingly, there was a Chinese guy called Alan on their team who Ringo and I have come across at Penguin BC in Wimbledon on Friday nights. Ringo had also played against Alan's partner, so the inside knowledge definitely came in useful.
Ringo and I were first on, but lost in straight games against a pair we really should've beaten - two guys in their 50s whose only trick was seemingly a very slow serve - upwards of 10 seconds! Luckily our other two pairs were on hand to win the next two - our top pair Steve & Kaz crucially beat their top pair, whilst Matt & Anushka beat the Chinese duo of Alan & Robert, making the score 2-1 to us after 3 rubbers. Steve & Kaz worked their magic again by beating the oldest pair, but Matt & Anushka conceded to their top pair in a best of three. Ringo & I contributed a rubber by beating the Chinese duo to make it 4-2 after 6 rubbers.
In a tense finish, South Beddington fought hard and pulled back the next two rubbers. Matt & Anushka were unable to beat the oldest pair and, against our team's theory that Ringo & I would struggle against their top pair, contrived to give it a damn good go, only just missing out 21-11 5-21 20-22. We should definitely have won this rubber as we were 20-17 up in the 3rd game and somehow threw it all away. Not only would it have possibly made the final score 6-3 but it would have eased the pressure on the final game.
The stage was all set at 4-4 going into the final rubber of the match for King Steve to work his usual magic vs the Chinese pair. He hadn't bargained on how much they wanted to win the match, though! Although the latter had yet to win all match, they weren't to be beaten without a fight as they took our guys to a best of 3, which we only just scraped in the final game 22-20.
Overall, they were a competitive bunch that definitely gave us a run for our money, and the return match at Wilsons School will be very interesting!
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