Lanarkshire Senior County Team: Another impressive weekend!
By Lanarkshire Badminton
The Lanarkshire Senior County Team were put to the test at the weekend competing in the Badminton England Senior County Championships.
Now competing in the Championship Division, the team heading into the fixtures were fully aware of the challenge that lay ahead of them. It was a long trip down to the venue (around 300 miles) to the state of the art University of Worcester Arena which seats up 2000 spectators with views overlooking Britain’s longest river – the River Severn (apparently has featured in the video game Assassin’s Creed!).
It was another youthful yet experienced team with ten players (five male and five female) making up the group. This included Kirsten Berry, Toni Woods, Sophie Ford, Katrina Chan, Jennifer Lafferty, Robert Dunn, Jack MacGregor, Danny Robson, Anthony McGuire and Finlay Jack, who aimed to maintain the Championship winning form.
The Saturday morning saw the team face Cheshire 1. It was a tough start, with Lanarkshire finding themselves 3-0 down despite Robson and Ford battling hard taking their matches to 3 sets in the singles rubbers. Woods managed to get Lanarkshire a point on the board with an impressive victory over
Cheshire’s Ashleigh Mok 16-21, 21-11, 21-14.
Cheshire’s Men Doubles pairs proved to be too strong for Lanarkshire bringing the score to 5-1 in Cheshire’s favour and the tie looking out of reach. However a dominant display in the Women’s Doubles matches and a win in the Mixed Doubles 1 with experienced duo Berry & MacGregor (21-19, 21-18) made it all to play for heading into the remaining two rubbers. Although a commendable effort from Lanarkshire in the Mixed Doubles 2 & 3 fixtures, Cheshire took the final two matches and winning the fixture 7-4.
The team had to then dust themselves off to face Nottinghamshire 1 in the afternoon. Robson and F. Jack kicked off in the Singles respectively however fell short to their opponents with Robson involved in an epic three setter.
It was a clean sweep in the Women’s Singles with Ford and Woods pulling Lanarkshire level, which was then bolstered by a strong performance from the Dunn & MacGregor partnership in the Men’s Doubles 1. Heading into the Mixed Doubles, the score was at 4-4.
MacGregor and Berry managed to get the win to edge Lanarkshire in front and continue the 100% winning record in the XD1 rubber for this season so far – courtesy of the Tournament Software statistics!
It would be a nervy end to this fixture, however the combo of Woods & Dunn and Chan & McGuire manage to remain calm and deliver the wins for Lanarkshire. This time the score was 7-4 in Lanarkshire’s favour.
On Sunday, the team lineup remained fairly unchanged when taking on Essex. It was a clinical display by Lanarkshire winning 10-1. Lanarkshire are now sitting in second position in the Championships Division with the next set of fixtures taking place in March in Warwickshire.
Team Manager, Kirsten Berry reflected on the weekend:
‘‘It was a good weekend with some great results. Everyone gave it their all, and we’re still in a really strong position to fight for promotion with one more weekend to go!’’
Group Convenor, Jill Smith added:
“Delighted to hear of the good results achieved this weekend . Looking back on both November and January the team have only lost one match, winning five. Well done to our Lanarkshire County Team and good luck for the final weekend.’’
To view full results from this event click here
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