Sunday
saw apocalyptic weather, as Cambs IInd team fought the elements to
travel to Leicestershire IIIrds for their second match of the season.
Once safely in the 'home of Leicestershire badminton' though, the team
was still battered by a storm of tricky games.
With
four courts in play, all the singles games went on together. The men
(stand-in Sam Scharf, and Paul Heads) secured reasonably comfortable
wins, notwithstanding Paul being annoyed at his own performance in the
second end having lost a comfortable lead to only win 23-21. However,
the girls faced an uphill task, playing strong Leics ladies. Katie
Morton was battling a hangover, while Jessica Sharman was grappling with
singles nerves. After starting brightly, Katie was edged out of a
tight three-ender 21-18, 19-21, 17-21. Jess was engaged in a singles
game with the most astonishing number of serving errors from both
players. It really was down to who could serve the most consistently,
and while she started to play well, Jess couldn't quite string enough
points together and lost 18-21, 16-21.
The level doubles game followed a similar pattern, albeit with a shock in the mens. All four ladies games went to Leics, who had quality in depth in their squad. All of the games were close, with the Cambs ladies getting to mid-high teens in every one. Club partners Louise Tarbit and debutante Jacquie Dennis played well, but couldn't exert control over the Leics ladies. Katie and Jess went agonisingly close with another three-ender against the second pair, finishing in setting: 14-21, 21-16, 20-22.
In the mens, Sam and
Skipper Daniel Bates were playing like men who had somewhere to be,
winning the first end against the Leics first pairing to 7, and then
finishing the second to 16. They also won against the second pair
comfortably. Paul and James Wilson however won their first game easily
(21-8, 21-14), but then came up against a wall in the second. They
found the Leics pair's defence just too good, and could not adjust their
game plan, leaving them 19-21, 19-21 down.
That
meant Cambs were trailing 5-7 going into the mixed, with a victory
looking unlikely. However, the traditional favouring for mixed in the
County came again to the fore. Paul and Katie have rapidly developed an
understanding, and for the second match running registered a commanding
win 21-13, 21-12. James and Lou made harder work of their game, losing
the first end in sets before building up a real head of steam, and
winning 20-22, 21-19, 21-12. That left Dan and Jess still on court, and
the match there for the taking. After slipping slightly in the middle
period, they secured the game and the match by playing solid badminton
and running away in the third end, winning 21-18, 17-21, 21-14.
The
so the win was secure, although Leics IIIrds left with a well-deserved
bonus point. An exhausted Cambs team fell in to head for home, but the
difficult day dragged on a little longer, with navigational crises
making it difficult to find a suitable en-route watering hole which
wasn't located down a dead-end country lane. Cambs would also like to
register a formal complaint to the Beefeater Observatory
in Braunstone: not only does it not feature correctly on TomTom, but it
is unacceptable to advertise 'Ultimate Chips', which have not a single
quality which could be described as 'Ultimate', nor which are little
more than a small cup of french fries...It was certainly sorely lacking for a hungry badminton team.
The
IInd team now enjoy a break in matches until mid-January, when the
face.... Leics IIIrds...(!) The team will need to come out fighting to
again earn points from the return leg.
The team: Daniel Bates (c), Sam Scharf, Katie Morton: Hurst Badminton Club / Paul Heads, Louise Tarbit, James Wilson, Jacquie Dennis: Ely Victoria Badminton Club / Jessica Sharman: Court Badminton Club
More information about results of the Cambs II team is available on the Team Page.