Mens 2 continued their busy week with a rearranged Friday
home match against Phoenix, who according to the league table will be on the
brink of promotion if they win. It didn’t start well for Phoenix as they had
only 2 pairs giving Ranmoor a 3-0 lead, but we failed to win an end at their
place so they would still be confident.
The confidence wasn’t misplaced and Phoenix got all the points with a 6-3 win. No matter who Phoenix put
in you are faced with wily opponents who make hardly any errors and wait for
the opposition mistake.
Steve put Ian and Clive together, using the logic that this
is fighting fire and fire and playing a pair with similar playing styles to
Phoenix, but on our home turf giving us an advantage. This nearly worked – the first
match being a real see saw with Ranmoor taking the first end easily, then
losing the second also heavily, before being edged in a nip and tuck third.
Their second match was even closer, with Ranmoor getting at least 19 points in
every one of three ends, before being unluckily edged 22-20 in the decider!
Nathan and Ben had looked a good pair in Club so this was a
good chance to look at them in action. Beaten to 13 and 14 in their first game,
they then took an end off the other pair conceding very few points, but lost in three. Playing an aggressive game,
this aggression probably cost them as the opponents defended most of it and
waited for the errors.
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| Clive - Man of the Match 1 |
Rich played with Steve who despite the bad ankle could now
run on it, which is progress! This pair avoided any of the heavy losses in any
end, scoring 15 or more in each, but far too many mistakes meant no ends won.
25% less errors and each end could have been comfortably won, which felt
painful over the après match beers later!
Steve’s lack of ends won led to him being in the weakest
pair on the night for the first time in 10 matches, elevating Nathan, in 7
matches, to be the only player in the squad never to be in the weakest scoring
pair! This stat will determine the Mens 2 Player of the Season award, with
trophy and prize, so Nath is in pole position to seize it at the moment, though
2 or 3 players are on his tail! What a loss he will be next season! Being a
statistician and accountant, it wouldn’t be right for Steve to make this award
in any other way!
Men of the Match (because they can’t be separated) goes to
Ian and Clive. Some fantastic drops and pushes meant Phoenix only just managed
to squeeze past them, and they nearly got Ranmoor the points. They look like
they could be a good pairing for the future.
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| Ian - Man of the Match 2! |
More great experience for Ranmoor in this season of
consolidation, with the plan being to stay up with all members of the 13 strong
squad to play at least 2 matches and get a feel for what the style of badminton
is like in this Division compared to the more swashbuckling Division 4! The
plan is on track! Next season we will push on and be better for the experience!
Next up University on Monday!