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.