Mens
2 skiied in from Courchevel, removed the bindings, skis and boards, did
a few stretches, applied a bucket load of deep heat, then tried to
remember how to play badminton for our critical match against Gosforth,
who with 1 win in 8 games are in deep trouble with the University at the
bottom of the table. A win here though for them and tables would be
turned.
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| Two of the boys still think they are on the slopes on their board and skis! |
Gosforth
are known to have a very strong first pair and captain Steve and
Alistair put themselves into bat first to see what they could do against
Al’s old club. Despite suffering from a lack of power until the sore
muscles warmed up, we won the first end, but some great play from
Gosforth turned it around, with our boys finally losing an end facing
the curtain (see Wisewood match report) and Gosforth squeezed out the
first rubber, to 18 in the third.
In
the absence of Deepak, who only declared his availability late on, Ben
stepped in to play with Clive and as the only non-ski pairing were right
at it, winning the rubber to 11 and 11. Rich and Rob had to wait but
when called upon against the third pair played some good stuff, and
despite trying their best to throw the second end away won 3-4 points on
the trot to win to 16 and 20. Two one to Ranmoor after the first
rubbers.
The
second round of matches saw Clive and Ben struggle against the top
pair, losing comfortably to 14 and 9. However, Rich and Rob continued
their good form with a win to 15 and 15 against the second pair and
Steve and Alistair despatched the third pair to 16 and 19 despite lazily
struggling to get over the line after a comfortable lead. Al’s smash
long when a yard off the net we agreed would go in the match report! It
was thus 4-2 to Ranmoor after the second round of matches – one more
rubber and our season would look very different!
Next
up was Rich and Rob playing the top pair and they looked like they
wanted the glory when they took the first end to 16, but again,
experience prevailed and Gosforth came back, winning the last two
rubbers to 19 and 18 to have a 100% record for the top pair and reduce
the deficit to 4-3. Things were looking tight.
With
Clive and Ben on last against the third pair who had got at least 16
points in each end so far, and were a threat, Steve and Alistair needed
to make sure of the match against the second pair. At 3-3 in points our
boys clicked into gear and won 17 successive points on Al’s serve. Good
short serving at the front from Al, and Steve at the back was
alternating drops and flicks into the back corners at every opportunity.
The tactic caused chaos. We won the game 21-4 and the second game
proceeded in a similar but less dramatic fashion. When we heard “what’s
the score, but it doesn’t really matter” from our opponents we knew the
game was up, and then eased through 21-12. With Clive and Ben then
winning the dead rubber to 17 and 14 in the final game it was victory to
Ranmoor!
It was a match played in good spirit with some generous let calls from both sides. That is what we like to see!
Stats
never lie so the usual man of the match award goes to Alistair, with
the best stats on the night despite not having played for a bit and not
having much sleep to boot!
Best
wishes to Gosforth for the remainder of the season and good luck to
Peter and the club with their hunt for more members so they can keep
this good club going. For Ranmoor, we have passed two teams now with 9
games to go and have Graves in our sights wanting revenge for the away
defeat at the start of the season. Roll on next Monday!