PAUL & FIONA WIN UPHILLS MIXED TOURNAMENT

PAUL & FIONA WIN UPHILL MIXED TOURNAMENT

The 'D' team played Portishead 'A' team at home and lost by 7 rubbers to 2. The team of Fiona Singleton, Matthew Valentine, Sue Garrett, Chris Ponting, Chris Retallack and Dave Barnes all gave a good account of themselves despite being outplayed. On the night Dave Barnes proved the pick of the Uphill team, winning the third mixed with Chris Retallack 21-17, 21-19. He then went on to take the second mens rubber with Matt Valentine to three games before losing 11-21, 22-20, 19-21. In the final mens rubber Dave & Chris Ponting won 21-18, 20-22 and 15-21 to complete an enjoyable evening. For Portishead Clare Varney, Ellen Marsh and James Cant won all their Rubbers.

Uphill 'E' team were also at home to Nailsea & Yatton Optimists 'D' and won by 6 rubbers to 3. The team of Helen Woodfin, Matthew Potts (Capt.), Caroline Poole, Tom Higgins, Rachel Harding and Robin Curry are mainly juniors. In this match Rachel, Matthew, Tom and Robin, the four juniors in the team, played some very mature badminton for their age, showing good court coverage and positional play, and constructing some very good rallies before playing winning shots. The match started with Captain Matthew Potts & Helen Woodfin losing a very close first mixed rubber 21-23, 21-15, 15-21. Caroline Poole & Tom Higgins, unbeaten together so far this season, then won 21-13, 21-11. Rachel Harding & Robin Curry played well but lost 19-21, 9-21. In the ladies Caroline & Helen won 21-8, 21-12, but Helen & Rachel lost 21-16, 19-21, 18-21 in a hard fought rubber. Then Caroline & Rachel played well to win the last ladies 21-11, 21-10. In the first mens Matthew & Tom won 15-21, 21-10, 21-11. In the second mens Matthew & Robin won 19-21, 21-11, 21-17, and finally Tom & Robin won 21-6, 21-8 to round off a fine win. For Uphill both Caroline Poole and Tom Higgins won all their rubbers.

The photo below shows the winning 'E' team. From L to R: -

Robin, Rachel, Tom, Caroline, Matthew and Helen.

Uphills mixed doubles tournament took place over three evenings this season. It attracted a field of sixteen men, but as fewer ladies were available some of them had to double up with different partners to make up the total pairs to sixteen. The event was then played in two round robin boxes of eight pairs, with the top two pairs from each box qualifying for the semi-finals and final on the third evening.

The winners of the first box were Paul Edwards & Fiona Singleton, with Matt Cole & Ruth Harding runners up. The second box was won by Steve Matthew & Fiona Singleton, with Mark Edwards & Caroline Poole runners up. Becky Halfpenny & Tom Higgins (a junior) played well to finish third in this box just two points behind Mark & Caroline.

The first semi-final saw brothers Paul and Mark Edwards playing one another with partners Fiona and Caroline. This game was close in the early stages with Mark & Caroline up at the change of ends at eleven, but Paul & Fiona proved too strong in the latter stages, winning 21-15. In the second semi-final, Steve Matthew & Fiona Singleton were playing the tournament favourites Matt Cole & Ruth Harding. This was a very close game and at nineteen all could have gone either way, but finally Matt & Ruth served out to win 21-19.

The final produced some excellent badminton and long rallies, with Matt & Ruth pulling back their four point handicap disadvantage to level at 16 all, points were then swapped to 19 all, before Paul & Fiona pulled through to win 21-19.

The tournament was very competitive and a great success, with over one third of the game losses having scores of 18 or more points. Thanks were given to Eddie Prest (Club Chairman) and his committee and helpers who handicapped the players well and made sure everything ran smoothly

The photo below shows the semi- finalists and finalists. From L to R: -

Steve Matthew, Ruth Harding, Matt Cole, Fiona Singleton, Paul Edwards, Caroline Poole and Mark Edwards