Howard 6
St Andrews 3
Hybrid Division 1
Final match of the season, so it was somewhat disappointing to fizzle out. We needed to score 4 rubbers at the very least in order to ensure survival in the division, and in typical St Andrews fashion we started the match in slightly too cavalier end-of-season mood.
Scott & reserve Sarah B were up first, just stealing the first game of the opening rubber but badly succumbing in the following two games 20-22 21-9 21-14. Steve & Sarah K went a bit closer in the 2nd rubber, but still lost 21-19 21-19. I struggled with Gerry throughout the 3rd rubber, going down in the first end but we fought back valiantly to take the 2nd game before bowing out in the final, 21-14 18-21 21-16. So having been set a target of 4 rubbers to stay in the division, we were 3-0 down after the first 3. Far from ideal was an understatement.
The ladies started to put up a fight and won the 4th rubber, again in 3 games. Scott & Steve continued our ascension by winning the 5th in a close encounter 19-21 20-22, but our progress finished there as Gerry & Sarah K couldn't find a way past their opponents, losing in straight games. Next, I was up with Sarah B (a good first team player) and felt reasonably confident about my chances, given I had beaten this pair on home turf last month. They made a good fight of it however, and we needed all our determination and concentration to take the 7th rubber 23-25 13-21.
With our 3rd rubber won, we needed to win 1 of the last 2 to ensure survival. Sadly for us, Steve & Gerry were blocked by their Man 1 & 3, losing a very close best of three in 20-22 22-20 21-18. It was now or nothing - and the final rubber of the season fell to myself & Scott...we didn't really get into a comfortable rhythm against our opponents and they won in straight games to deny us survival.
We finished this interesting season tied on points and rubbers won/lost with New Malden. After this point, survival is determined by rubbers, games and then points between the bottom two sides. We lost 6-3 away at New Malden but then fought back to win 6-3 at home. So that was still tied. Unfortunately our match secretary crunched the numbers and found us to lose by 20 games to 21 over the two legs. Relegation by the tightest of margins! Still, Steve will be pleased to play so many rival teams next year which have bars on their venues...
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Thursday, 18 April 2013
badminton match 23
St Andrews 8
Ebbisham B2 1
Mens Division 3
Final match of the season on home turf. A convincing scoreline hid some close games, though. Our pairs for this match were me & Scott, Kaz & Anushka, and Steve & Gerry.
First on was me & Scott, cruising through the first game of the first rubber 21-7, though a few too many errors on our part nearly gave them the 2nd game - we saw it out 21-18. Steve & Gerry went on against their top pair Gavin & Peter next, again winning in straight games 21-12 21-18. Kaz & Anushka went on last (but had the most favourable order of play, 3-5-7) and also won 21-5 21-18, continuing trends of not just winning in straight games but winning the 2nd game to 18! So, comfortably 3-0 up after the first 3.
Steve & Gerry returned on court for the 4th rubber, winning again in straight games 21-13 21-11. Then it got tricky from there. Ebbisham kicked it up a gear and really made Kaz & Anushka work. Gavin & Peter won the first game but our lads just held on to steal it in the 3rd game, 16-21 21-14 23-21. That gave us the 5th rubber and the 2 points for winning the match.
Me & Scott started brightly and opened the 6th rubber with a 21-11 win, but we really took the proverbial foot off the gas and surrendered tamely 18-21 13-21 to hand Ebbisham what would be their only win of the match. There were no such problems for Kaz & Anushka against their weakest pair, with another comfortable win 21-14 21-6, making the score 6-1 after 7 rubbers.
If the opposition hoped to gain further inroads against me & Scott after taking our eye off the shuttle, they were to be proved wrong as we went on court for the last time and prevailed 21-14 21-19 against Gavin & Peter, before Steve & Gerry fought valiantly in the final rubber to just edge it 21-19 19-21 21-18. The match was most notable for how we all struggled at some point against opposition pairs the rest of the team cruised against, but overall we ran out 8-1 winners.
The big question is, with 2 teams out of 5 in our division being relegated this year, have we done enough to secure our place? We currently lie 2nd bottom of the table, but we are tied with 3rd place Coulsdon & Purley on 8 points, though they have a much better 'rubber difference'. There can't be many teams who have won half their matches on the calendar and still go down! Ebbisham are definitely relegated having lost all 8 of their matches.
Ebbisham B2 1
Mens Division 3
Final match of the season on home turf. A convincing scoreline hid some close games, though. Our pairs for this match were me & Scott, Kaz & Anushka, and Steve & Gerry.
First on was me & Scott, cruising through the first game of the first rubber 21-7, though a few too many errors on our part nearly gave them the 2nd game - we saw it out 21-18. Steve & Gerry went on against their top pair Gavin & Peter next, again winning in straight games 21-12 21-18. Kaz & Anushka went on last (but had the most favourable order of play, 3-5-7) and also won 21-5 21-18, continuing trends of not just winning in straight games but winning the 2nd game to 18! So, comfortably 3-0 up after the first 3.
Steve & Gerry returned on court for the 4th rubber, winning again in straight games 21-13 21-11. Then it got tricky from there. Ebbisham kicked it up a gear and really made Kaz & Anushka work. Gavin & Peter won the first game but our lads just held on to steal it in the 3rd game, 16-21 21-14 23-21. That gave us the 5th rubber and the 2 points for winning the match.
Me & Scott started brightly and opened the 6th rubber with a 21-11 win, but we really took the proverbial foot off the gas and surrendered tamely 18-21 13-21 to hand Ebbisham what would be their only win of the match. There were no such problems for Kaz & Anushka against their weakest pair, with another comfortable win 21-14 21-6, making the score 6-1 after 7 rubbers.
If the opposition hoped to gain further inroads against me & Scott after taking our eye off the shuttle, they were to be proved wrong as we went on court for the last time and prevailed 21-14 21-19 against Gavin & Peter, before Steve & Gerry fought valiantly in the final rubber to just edge it 21-19 19-21 21-18. The match was most notable for how we all struggled at some point against opposition pairs the rest of the team cruised against, but overall we ran out 8-1 winners.
The big question is, with 2 teams out of 5 in our division being relegated this year, have we done enough to secure our place? We currently lie 2nd bottom of the table, but we are tied with 3rd place Coulsdon & Purley on 8 points, though they have a much better 'rubber difference'. There can't be many teams who have won half their matches on the calendar and still go down! Ebbisham are definitely relegated having lost all 8 of their matches.
Thursday, 11 April 2013
badminton match 22
St Andrews 0
Penguins 9
Mens Division 1
With Nick out after hurting his hand, Adam busy at work and Anushka suffering from 'man flu' symptoms, I finally got my first call up for the Mens 1 team in the highest division. As if my expectations of an insanely tough match couldn't get much higher, Penguin arrived with a strong team determined to make sure of victory, and in turn be crowned this year's champions of the Sutton League.
Our team was Neil & Martin, Conor & Robin, me & Ben. I did my best to throw a spanner in the works by misplacing my rackets at the start of the match, frantically legging it back to Wallington to search the house and back to the church again! I ended up borrowing Neil's spare. In the event, me & Ben were 3rd pair up first against Tao & Arak (the latter playing for Canada...gulp!) and unsurprisingly lost in successive games 12-21 11-21. Surprisingly we just outscored Neil & Martin against that pair, (11 in each game) so I was pleased with that. Our second rubber was against a quick powerful pair, Yestin & Chris - again we succumbed to 12 and 15, and again outscored Conor & Robin who posted 11 and 9.
Our final rubber of the match was against Vibul's nephew Jay and his partner Colin. We made a sluggish start and some poor unforced errors handed us a heavy defeat to 9, but we were actually ahead in the second game 16-12 before somehow conspiring to lose to 17 - seems like the opposition found another couple of gears just when they needed it.
It was always going to be super tough against a team who normally play 2 divisions above my usual, but overall a good experience. Hopefully as 3rd pair we didn't disgrace ourselves, but taking into account that the other pairs were also unable to win a rubber shows just how tough Penguins were on the night. Thanks to Neil and Anushka for giving me the opportunity to play, I really played my heart out every single point!
Penguins 9
Mens Division 1
With Nick out after hurting his hand, Adam busy at work and Anushka suffering from 'man flu' symptoms, I finally got my first call up for the Mens 1 team in the highest division. As if my expectations of an insanely tough match couldn't get much higher, Penguin arrived with a strong team determined to make sure of victory, and in turn be crowned this year's champions of the Sutton League.
Our team was Neil & Martin, Conor & Robin, me & Ben. I did my best to throw a spanner in the works by misplacing my rackets at the start of the match, frantically legging it back to Wallington to search the house and back to the church again! I ended up borrowing Neil's spare. In the event, me & Ben were 3rd pair up first against Tao & Arak (the latter playing for Canada...gulp!) and unsurprisingly lost in successive games 12-21 11-21. Surprisingly we just outscored Neil & Martin against that pair, (11 in each game) so I was pleased with that. Our second rubber was against a quick powerful pair, Yestin & Chris - again we succumbed to 12 and 15, and again outscored Conor & Robin who posted 11 and 9.
Our final rubber of the match was against Vibul's nephew Jay and his partner Colin. We made a sluggish start and some poor unforced errors handed us a heavy defeat to 9, but we were actually ahead in the second game 16-12 before somehow conspiring to lose to 17 - seems like the opposition found another couple of gears just when they needed it.
It was always going to be super tough against a team who normally play 2 divisions above my usual, but overall a good experience. Hopefully as 3rd pair we didn't disgrace ourselves, but taking into account that the other pairs were also unable to win a rubber shows just how tough Penguins were on the night. Thanks to Neil and Anushka for giving me the opportunity to play, I really played my heart out every single point!
Friday, 5 April 2013
badminton match 21
St Andrews 5
Ebbisham D 1
Mens Fours Division 2
I employed the familiar tactic of giving match experience to Benno, and beefed up our defences by naming Steve over Ron. Anushka was the other player.
Ebbisham D's captain is the father of three boys, so most of the time we can expect at least 2 O' Briens to be named on the team sheet. Tonight was no exception, with the frighteningly young Gareth starting as their Man 1, something not lost on Steve who struggled to take the opener seriously! We did eventually knuckle down and won in straight games.
We had to play out of sequence as Anushka was nearly 45 minutes late....*cough*. I had a strange game with Benno in which were unlucky not to convert a win, losing 21-23 19-21. So it was 1-1 to us after the opening 2 rubbers. Anushka turned up not long after and was forced to play two rubbers back to back (no time to waste in Fours!), winning both of them to give us a score of 3-1 and at least one point. Steve continued the progress and won with Benno, whilst after busily stuffing his face, Anushka came on court for the last time with me to win again, making a fine 5-1 win overall.
Ebbisham D 1
Mens Fours Division 2
I employed the familiar tactic of giving match experience to Benno, and beefed up our defences by naming Steve over Ron. Anushka was the other player.
Ebbisham D's captain is the father of three boys, so most of the time we can expect at least 2 O' Briens to be named on the team sheet. Tonight was no exception, with the frighteningly young Gareth starting as their Man 1, something not lost on Steve who struggled to take the opener seriously! We did eventually knuckle down and won in straight games.
We had to play out of sequence as Anushka was nearly 45 minutes late....*cough*. I had a strange game with Benno in which were unlucky not to convert a win, losing 21-23 19-21. So it was 1-1 to us after the opening 2 rubbers. Anushka turned up not long after and was forced to play two rubbers back to back (no time to waste in Fours!), winning both of them to give us a score of 3-1 and at least one point. Steve continued the progress and won with Benno, whilst after busily stuffing his face, Anushka came on court for the last time with me to win again, making a fine 5-1 win overall.
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