October

November

December

Saints Keep Up Pressure in Title Race
w/c 27th November 2006

Saint Mary’s A team got back to winning ways against Aldermaston, who have become a well known opponent having played them 3 times in the last 2 weeks due to Blackford Cup ties. This weeks clash saw the two sides head to head in the league. The Saints made light work of their opponents as they looked to keep up their chase of league leaders Shaw.

With the league having no handicap system, unlike the Blackford Cup, the Saints went through their matches in double quick time with Margaret Mason and Mark Ferguson ruthless in their demolition of all three of Aldermaston’s pairs. The only real obstacle for the Saints juggernaut was the pairing of Julie Ward and Laurence Sutton who at least managed to take a game off their high-flying opponents. But even they could not stem the tide, and Saints romped home with a morale boosting 9-0 victory.

The Saint Mary’s B team was also in action this week as they welcomed a Cannons A side who are once again shaping up to finish in their usual mid table position. Despite the 8-1 score-line in favour of Cannons, things could have turned out quite differently as three of the nine matches went to a deciding set. An in form Ross Parsons, playing for the first time in Division 1, and Frances Rayson gave everything they could to the Saints cause, but in all of their matches they fell just short. They could do nothing as the stars of the night Nigel Coombs and Sally Hill went through their games with little trouble, and provided a solid base for Canons to build on and eventually take the tie.

In Mixed Division 2, Shaw C made the short trip to take on Cannons B in a rather one-sided contest. Despite Shaw losing two of their women to illness and injury, they continued their fine form of late to dominate a Canons B side low on confidence. The ageless veteran Lucy Burton and Dave Mackley showed no mercy as they swept aside all three of Canons pairs with very little fuss.

Following in the same ilk, Gill Leech and Andy Pickles showed that age is not an obstacle as they too took all three of their matches, and made the tie safe for Shaw. Paul Rabbetts and Isobel Pigott, were the only light in the darkness for Canons as they took the only point in a 8-1 victory for the visitors.

In the same Division, newly promoted Bucklebury travelled to Kennet A, in an attempt to dent Kennet’s title ambitions. Despite the Bucks’ determination and steely grit, demonstrated aptly by Liz Drysdale and David Haynes, they could not overpower the hosts, as Steve Pennington and Kathryn Meakin showed just why their team are pushing for promotion this season. Pennington and Meakin led the way by winning all three of their matches, as kennet notched up a convincing 8.5-0.5 win, which moved them up the table and kept the Bucks rooted firmly to the bottom.

The Ladies Four league witnessed a see saw battle between Newbury and Aldermaston, which culminated in a tantalising 3-3 draw. Newbury got off to a good start taking two of the first three games to give them a lead at the half way stage. However, Aldermaston fought back under the brilliance of Helen Apsey, who firstly with the help of Pippa Dines and then Julie Ward swung the balance in their favour. With the final result coming down to the last game, the pairing of Hilary Hutchins and Lin Barlow were determined not to leave empty handed, and took it upon themselves to haul Newbury back on level terms with a solid 15-7, 15-8 win, and to leave the final result as a draw, which was a fair result all round.

Cup Cliff Hangers
w/c 20th November 2006

This week saw the completion of the first 2 Blackford Cup quarterfinals, with both going down to the wire. The first tie saw Saint Mary’s take on Aldermaston. First leg hosts St. Mary’s got off to a flier in the singles, with Janine Fisher and Gareth Jones recording emphatic wins to gain a good advantage that they were to hold for the rest of the evening. However, a superb final set of the evening (15-0) from Aldermaston’s Apsey-Fleming partnership meant that only 42 points separated the two teams at the end of the evening.

Aldermaston needed a fast start in the home leg, but Fisher and Jones once again extended the Saints’ lead in the singles.Drama followed though as Helen Apsey joined forces first with Keith Fleming and then Julie Ward to power Aldermaston into a 2-point lead in the match after 6 rubbers. Going into the very last set of the tie, St. Mary’s had a tiny two point lead, and having won the first set of the rubber 15-6, Aldermaston’s Julie Ward and Stephen Gaunt must have been confident of taking Aldermaston home, but Margaret Mason and Andy King pulled through for the Saints to ensure a victory by just 7 points.

In the second quarter final, Kennet B welcomed Newbury for the first leg, and this was a tale of a steady team performance from Newbury, as rubber by rubber they slowly eased away from Kennet. However, a dramatic 7th rubber saw Kennet make full use of the handicap as Nick Rivers and Paul Knight stormed to a 15-2 15-6 victory to reverse all Newbury’s gains in one fell swoop, to take the lead on the night. Newbury weren’t to be denied though, and the evening ended with Sheila and Andy Moore winning the final rubber to give Newbury a one-point advantage going into the home leg.

The second leg was a remarkably similar affair, with Newbury once again producing a solid performance before Kennet’s magic 7th rubber – this time Rivers and Knight recorded a 15-5, 15-7 victory to once again put them right back into contention. It wasn’t enough though and a determined performance from Sheila Moore and Keith Watts (15-11, 15-11) in the 9th rubber put Newbury into the comfort zone as they eventually won through by 6 points overall.

Away from the Blackford Cup, in the Men’s top flight Shaw B gained a morale-boosting win at Kennet A in yet another close tussle. Shaw eased into a 2-0 lead, but then Kennet’s top pair of Chris Tompkins and Steve Hitchcock came to the fore, to pull the home team right back into the match with a faultless night’s work to take all three of their rubbers. Shaw were picking up most of the other rubbers though, and it was left to Richard Ilsley and stand-in Rick Stone to clinch the match in the 9th rubber, defeating Kennet’s stand-in pair of Andrew Earl and Steve Fox 15-11,15-6 to run out 5-4 victors.

In the same division, promoted Kintbury entertained Newbury and this time a dominant performance from one of the home-pairs was sufficient to gain victory, as Roger Scully and Kevin Digweed led Kintbury to a hard-won 6½ - 2½ victory.

In Men’s Division 3, Jenkins and Roper won all their the rubbers to ensure that Aldermaston overcame Newbury C by a 5½ - 3½ scoreline.

In Mixed Division 2, Shaw B once again underlined their intention to make a rapid return to Division 1 with an emphatic demolition of Downlands A. They cruised to a 9-0 victory, with Cate Poore and Mike Pembroke particularly dominant.

Downlands enjoyed a much closer encounter as they entertained Kennet A. An amazing 6 of the 9 rubbers played were halved. Downlands gained a 3½ - 2½ lead, but then victories for Kennet in rubbers 7 and 8 saw them move into a 4½ - 3½ lead, and when Dave Morris and Fiona Harris won the final set of the evening 15-12, a 5-4 victory was in the bag for the visitors.

Cup Holders Out In First Round
w/c 13th November 2006

First round matches in the Blackford Cup provided shocks and excitement on the local badminton scene in the last couple of weeks. In this knock-out competition the whole squad from a club gets a handicap which dictates the score at which each game starts; it is also the only time that singles are played alongside both mixed and level doubles. Played over two legs, home and away, and decided on total points scored, it requires a quite different approach from normal league matches.

Cup-holders Kennet took to the court against St Mary’s, their handicap somewhat reduced from last year in recognition of their success; nevertheless they started each game at +2 to St Mary’s -9. It was apparent from the off, that things were not going Kennet’s way this year; not until the fifth rubber did they get with in striking distance as Nick Bazin and Steve Pennington lost narrowly to Pete Braithwaite and Gareth Jones. Three rubbers were then shared, with Bazin and Steve Hitchcock inflicting a 15-3 defeat on Braithwaite and Mark Fergusson, but the end of the first leg saw St Mary’s leading by 58 points.

Nine days later, St Mary’s brought in Andy King for Braithwaite and, with confidence high, played even better. Teresa Nightingale and Fiona Scarrett took a game from Margaret Mason and Andrea Farmer, but only by a single point, and only Kathryn Meakin with Steve Pennington could actually score more than their opponents over two games. The second leg lead of 103 points made for victory for St Mary’s by a devastating 161 points.

It was all much closer as Bucklebury met Downlands; handicap adjustments allowed the Bucks to start each game 6-0 ahead. Bucklebury’s Linda Cross was fast out of the blocks to take her singles 11-5, 11-4 against Helen Mason, but Downlands were just ahead at the end of the third rubber. However, Cross playing with Liz Drysdale came out 20 points ahead in their ladies clash with Mason and Hannah Townley, and the totals began to mount in Bucklebury’s favour. Particular damage was inflicted again by Cross in her mixed doubles with Stuart May. End of leg one and Downlands down by 54 points; but far from out.

Team changes, the experienced Keith Parsons coming in to play mixed doubles with Karen Simms, and home advantage at the Downlands Sports Centre where many a fine team has come unstuck, made life much more difficult for Bucklebury. Hannah Townley exactly reversed the ladies singles score from the first leg and Alex Setten continued the trend in the men’s singles. Margaret Neville and Paul Madden steadied nerves for Bucklebury, but the lead was gradually being whittled away. It was not, however, until the second game of the final rubber that Mary Ann Stephens and Ananya Jeshtadi managed to wipe it out altogether. The aggregated final score was Downlands 460, Bucklebury 455; the difference of just five – one of the closest ever – illustrating graphically the old adage about playing every rally to win.

If you don't see a menu to the left, you have entered this web site through a back door - please click here to view the full version of the NDBA web site.