Uphill Badminton Club

BECKY & EMILY, ANDY & GRANT WIN CLUB TITLES

The Clubs annual ladies and mens internal handicapped doubles tournament were a great success this year with sixteen ladies and twenty men playing. The pairs were drawn from a hat and played in a one game to 21 round robin event with the top four pairs playing in semi-finals and a final. In the ladies competition all the games were hotly contested and it was pleasing to see that every pairing won at least one game with many of the games having close exciting finishes. The favourites, and eventual winners, were ex-Surrey League player, Becky Matthews and her partner Emily Look, one of the Clubs promising young players from the junior section. In the round robin Becky & Emily finished top, with Ruth Harding & Kate Robinson, another junior section player, finishing in second place. Nicky Mills & Becky's mother Maureen came third and handicapped outsiders, Julie O'Sullivan & Mary Dunn finished fourth. These four pairs then played off in semi-finals, with Becky and Emily beating Julie and Mary 21-15, and Nicky and Maureen beating Ruth and Kate 21-17, in doing so reversing their round robin result. The final saw Becky & Emily (combined age 51) beat Nicky & Maureen (combined age 108) 21-14. This score line may well have had something to do with the hard nights badminton on the senior pairing. A plate tournament was held alongside the main one, which Christy Langford & Emily Walker won, beating Becky Halfpenny & Fiona Singleton 21-20 in the final, in what was one of the closest games of the night. The photo shows the winners and runners-up from L to R: Becky, Emily, Nicky and Maureen The mens competition produced a frenetic nights badminton of 48 games!! Unlike the ladies doubles, it was the less fancied pairs that played splendidly on the night, with Grant Kelly & Andy Potts, from a handicap of +4, topping the box with a total of 184 points out of a possible 189. The runners-up with 175 points were Robin Curry & Billy Fear off +3. Both the top two pairs are in the Uphill junior section. Matt Valentine & Dave Barnes off -1 came third with 174 points and Matt Coles & Fred Brown off -4, one of the fancied pairings came fourth with 170 points. In the semi-finals Grant & Andy overcame Matt & Fred 21-17, and Robin & Billy beat Matt & Dave 21-12. The four youngsters battled out a high energy final which produced some exciting badminton. The game was close, and at 15 all could have gone either way. Just at the wrong moment a mobile phone rang off court, which disturbed Robin in the process of his serve, which then went into the net. Shortly after, Billy also served into the net. Such a small moment gave the upper hand to Grant & Andy who ran out winners 21-18 to complete a good final. The photo shows the winners and runners-up from L to R: Andy, Grant, Billy and Robin Both tournaments were again well organized and run by Eddie Prest and his team of helpers who got the handicaps about right, with all the pairings winning games.