badminton match 13

St Andrews 6
New Malden 3

Hybrid Division 1

A better result on home turf, though there were a couple of contributing factors. We had an above average strength team with first team player Neil ushered in to replace "busy working" Scott and Anushka replacing Gerry...captain Sarah must be getting jittery about the very real threat of relegation! New Malden likewise fielded an average to strong team. When we played at theirs in the first Hybrid match of the season, they had a strong player called Dennis who wasn't here this time round; in his place was Tariq from their second mens 6, but they made up for it by having one stronger lady than previously.

Neil & Sowji were on first but lost in a best of 3 to Robin & Jo. Debatable if that was surprising as that New Malden pair are in their first mixed team. Steve & Sarah won, and then me & Anushka entered the fray, winning in straight games to make it 2-1 to us after the first 3.

After palpable excitement of a very close first game which was just lost 27-29, the ladies rubber was conceded in straight games. The clash of the titans (Man 1 & Man 2 from each side) was next; Neil & Steve did us proud and won comfortably. Next up was me & Sowji vs Tariq & Lyn. We easily won the first game and were well ahead in the second, but took our foot off the gas and lost it. I switched my brain on for the deciding game and we prevailed 21-12 17-21 21-10. We were 4-2 up after 6 rubbers.

Anushka didn't fare well with Sarah; she missed some shots to bring New Malden back into the match. We needed to win one of the last two to take the game. I was on next with Neil and we made short work of Chris & Tariq, winning in straight games 21-11 21-11 to secure our points. To round off the match, Anushka won well with Steve, resulting in a nice 6-3 home win. Me & Steve won all 3, Neil & Anushka won 2 and the ladies won 1 apiece. This victory went some way to shrugging off the embarrassment of last night.

Bizarrely, having lost 3-6 away at New Malden in the season opener, we are now 9-9 with them on aggregate for this season, and also 9-9 on aggregate with Sutton Adults having won 5-4 at home but losing 4-5 away. It looks to be very tight at the middle to lower end of division 1 this season. En garde!