Sutton Adults 5
St Andrews 4
Hybrid Division 1
The match started sluggishly for us, conceding the first 2 rubbers - then I went on with Gerry and won in straight games 11-21 15-21 to pull one back for us. Unfortunately the ladies lost, as did Steve and Scott. We were therefore 1-4 down after 5 rubbers, but fought back well to win the next 2 to make it 3-4 after 7. In the 8th rubber (me and Scott on), the game exploded into life as their youngest player Doug got upset on court with Scott's serve, arguing that he hadn't struck the shuttle properly. Doug refused to shake hands with Scott after that marathon game (which we lost 28-26 20-22 21-16) and their captain accused two of our players of having illegal serves, prompting our captain Sarah to argue with theirs ("qualified coach John") on the sidelines for a good 20 minutes which culminated in her threatening to report him to the League. It is bizarre how John had the entire match to raise the subject of illegal serves but only chose to do so at match point in the 8th rubber, which is the worst kind of gamesmanship and should see sanctions. Worse was that he accused one of our best players Steve of an illegal serve but didn't confront him directly about it and only complained to our captain. With the greatest of respect to Sutton Adults, Steve has previously played teams far better than them and nobody has ever complained about his serve. A truly hostile team and one that we will probably not play again.
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