April Week 1
Hurst get a kick in the Bucks
Hurst’s highflying mens team tasted defeat for the first time this season to a most unlikely source. As the Champions elect made their way along the A4 to play relegation threatened Bucklebury, the last things on their minds would have been defeat. The start of the tussle saw the tie swing back and forth as both sides tried to get daylight between them. The Bucks started brightly with Paul Madden and David Haines winning a tight first rubber, and followed by their second pair of John Holloway and Tim Witcomb. However Mark Payne and Ray Nonger replied for the visitors and by the seventh rubber Nigel Appleton and Barry Egginton had moved Hurst into a 4-3 lead and another successive win was on the cards. However the Bucks, spurred on by threats of relegation, took the 2 remaining rubbers, thanks largely to the skill and venom of Madden and Haines, and won the tie 5-4.
In the same division Kennet B and Cannons B had a titanic battle too, as Kennet were also pushing for promotion. Unlike Hurst they continued there good run of form and took the points, despite the valiant efforts of Oli Adams and Andy Stevens of Cannons, who won all three of their rubbers. The final deciding rubber came down to Andrew Earl and Steve Gore, who scrapped to a three end win over Paul Rabbetts and Andy Evans who had gone the distance in all three of their encounters.
In Mens Division 1, Shaw B had a week they would rather forget as they slumped to two straight defeats and certain relegation. Shaw B’s first defeat came at the hands of Wantage who strolled through to an 8-1 win, and then they were annihilated 9-0 by St.Mary’s. The only other game in the division saw Wantage come away with a good 6-3 win over a strong looking Cannons side, with Adrian Brown and James Berkeley yet again doing all of the damage.
In Division 3, Greenacre upset promotion chasers Shaw C in another close encounter in the matches this week. The stars of the show for Greenacre was the pairing of Andy Gove and Kourosh Newmanzand, who won the decisive rubber when in counted. All the while Keith Simms and Andy Pickles went away disappointed having won all three of their rubbers for the visitors. Elsewhere St.Mary’s B turned out only two pairs for their home match against Kennet C, and still came away with a 6-3 win, which kept their title hopes on track.
In the Ladies 4 Premier Division Newbury kept up their relentless bid for the title with a hard fought 4-2 win over Shaw. Yet again league veterans Sheila Moore and Julie Eatwell were the spearhead of the win as they moved 7 points clear of their nearest rivals in the league. In the other end of the league, St.Mary’s A team astonished even themselves as they recorded their first win of the season against Aldermaston. The majority of the plaudits were correctly directed towards Rebecca Meagrow, who played superbly through the evening, and steered the Saints home in a tight last rubber to take the tie 4-2.
The Ladies 4 Second Division this week threw up a first against second tie, which ended up being a rather one-sided affair with front-runners Downlands taking the match 5-1 against Bucklebury. The Bucks recovered from this defeat to record a 3-3 draw with Kennet, with the Drysdale twins prominent throughout.
Mixed Division 1 witnessed a basement battle as Shaw B travelled to fellow strugglers Aldermaston. Despite the close proximity of both in their league standings, Shaw came away with a 7-1 win, with much thanks given to Cate Poore, who agreed to play despite her daughter being in labour with her first child.
In Mixed Division 2 Downlands succumbed to the unstoppable truck that is Kintbury. Despite the scoreline, the match was extremely close, and when you take into account that Mary Anne Stephens and Ananya Jeshtadi had to concede two rubbers due to injury, things could have panned out a lot differently.
Mixed Division 3 was the setting for yet another 5-4 thriller. This time it was the turn of Kennet C to take the spoils as they dented the promotion chances of Cannons B. This was a remarkable turn around for Kennet C as they had earlier in the season lost to the same team 7-2.
April Week 2
It was Mixed doubles all the way in this week's action. In the top flight, struggling Kennet were in the last chance saloon as they faced two must-win games in quick succession. In the first tie, Kennet welcomed Cannons' A team and made a promising start when Steve Pennington and Kathryn Meakin surged past the visitors' top pair of Claire Struthers-Semple and Per Lauridson. Cannons struck back immediately though, as first Sally Hill and Pedro Cosa and then Kim Rhodes and Sacha Emery won their opening games to give the visitors a 2-1 lead. Struthers-Semple and Lauridson then got in on the act by winning rubber 4, before Hill and Cosa won rubber 5 in emphatic style to take Cannons out to a 4-1 lead. Kennet were now broken and Cannons eventually cruised to an 8-1 win.
The next game for Kennet was a visit to fellow strugglers Shaw B. Shaw's Pembroke-Poore partnership got the hosts off to a fine start, but Kennet's Sue Haines and Steve Hitchcock made their intentions clear by taking the first set in rubber 2 against Lucy Burton and Jason White. That seemed to spark the Shaw pair into action though, as they stormed through the second set and then won the third to take a 19-21, 21-8, 21-15 win. Kennet desperately needed a win now, but Helen Wooldridge was joined by veteran Kevin Walker for Shaw, who pushed back the years by battling to a 21-18, 21-19 win over Steve Pennington and Alice Sun. Shaw now had a 3-0 lead, and with renewed confidence they never looked back to claim a morale boosting 9-0 victory. Kennet are now relegated, but Shaw B look odds-on to retain their Division 1 status.
In Division 2, St Mary's B team underlined their promotion to division 1 with a thumping 9-0 victory over Newbury's B team. The Saints' Rayson-Digweed pairing typified the determined qualities of the team, as they battled to three hard-fought victories, while the emerging talent of Rebecka Meagrow and Ross Parsons gained their three wins with more ease.
It was left to the two fixtures in Division 3 to produce tight finishes. First there was the dogfight between Whitchurch and Downlands B, who are vying for the unenviable position of propping up the rest of the league. Whitchurch made a flying start, winning the first two rubbers with ease, but then the pivotal point of the evening game in a titanic battle in rubber 3, where Whitchurch's Mark Loader and Pauline Prior scraped past Paul Denne and Karen Simens 20-22, 22-20, 21-19. That put the home team into a 3-0 lead, but Downlands battled harder than ever from then on, and eventually Whitchurch won by a 5-4 score-line which brings them level on points with Downlands.
The second match was a promotion battle between Kennet B and Bucklebury, with third-placed Kennet needing victory to maintain their hopes of gaining promotion. The match started with two three-set rubbers. In the first, Kennet's Linda Hayes and Nic Rivers came agonisingly close to a two set victory, but finally lost out 21-17, 23-25, 10-21 to Linda Cross and David Haines. Rubber two also went to Bucklebury, as Theresa Chandler and Paul Madden overcame Steve Fox and Alice Sun 21-19, 20-22, 21-8 to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. The next 4 rubbers were shared, leaving Bucklebury requiring just one more rubber to gain promotion, and Cross and Haines duly obliged in rubber 7 as The Bucks ran out 6-3 winners. The result of the upcoming match between Bucklebury and Cannons B will now determine who will be Division 3 champions!
April Week 3
The badminton season is rapidly drawing to a close. With only a few
weeks left to go, the last remaining key matches are deciding which teams
will end up taking the silverware. The top two teams were fighting
hard in the Mixed Division 1 decider when Shaw 'A' visited St Mary's
'A' in a match that the home team had to win in order to stay in the title
race. It was nip and tuck all the way and looked to be going the
Saints way before Walker and Harrison surprisingly snatched a hard-fought
last rubber from Jones and Farmer to win the match 4-5.
Shaw
cemented their claim to the title after their penultimate match
of the season which was against Newbury 'A', a team who have blown hot and
cold this season. Bently and Eastwood were the only pair to win a game in
which Shaw finished 8-1 victors.
St Mary's 'A' took out their
frustration of losing to Shaw 'A' on the same club's 'B' team. Revenge is
a dish best served cold and the Shaw team looked like they never warmed up
- Cate Poore and Mike Badd were unable to encourage any life into
their team who went down 9-0.
Mixed Division 3 saw Cannons
'B' catching up with their backlog of matches hosting top-of-the-table
Bucklebury and then Whitchurch in quick succession.
Bucklebury were too
strong for the Newbury outfit with Haines and Neville picking up all 3 of
their rubbers and stealing the spoils for the away team 3-6.
The
Cannons team regrouped for the visit of Whitchurch and although Gordon and
Prior put on a good show for the villagers, a reduced complement of team
members in the visiting side meant that 3 games were gifted to Cannons who
ended up triumphing 7-2 and securing their automatic promotion
place.
The only Ladies match this week was in Division 2 of
the Ladies 4's. Bucklebury and St Mary's 'B' halved the points thanks to
Janine Fisher grabbing all three of her matches for the Saints in her
first match for the team.
In Men's Division 2 Hurst welcomed
an under-strength Cannons 'B' team. On the night the matches played ended
3-3 but this handed victory to Hurst as the Cannons team were penalised 3
rubbers for not fielding a full complement of pairs. Hurst have now
emphatically won the division and must use the summer to prepare for the
increased standard of the highest division.
In Division 3 the
mid-table clash saw a solid Aldermaston host a Kennet 'C' team which
lacked much invention. Winter and Gore were the only pair to pick up any
rubbers for the away team who were beaten 7-2.
Aldermaston
probably thought it would be much the same against St Mary's 'B' but the
latter were unstoppable with Evans and Yeung leading the Saints to an
impressive 8-1 victory and, with only one match remaining, the Saints 'B'
team remain unbeaten this season