St Clements Badminton Club, Oxford

Our Mens A team also got their Division 3 campaign off to a winning start on Wednesday after a closely fought match against visitors Leys A. None of our pairs had any answer to Leys’ top pairing (Jack Bullivant and Adam Uberoi) but some consistent performances against the other two pairings saw the home side record a 5-4 win. Alex Cousins, making his Mens A debut, formed a new and impressive partnership with Josh Long in recording two victories from three rubbers. Steve Hurt and Dan Floris, a rather more longstanding partnership (!) also secured two wins. Their rubber against Leys’ second pair went to a deciding game that was resoundingly won by Dan and Steve 21-7. As the match drew to a conclusion the score stood at 4-4, with Nick Abitabile and Rohit Karwal needing to grab the vital winning rubber, which they did so with aplomb, dispatching Leys’ third string 21-15, 21-18.

Next it is the turn of our 3D team who, after gaining promotion last season, will be competing in Division 2. They start their campaign away to Abingdon C on Friday night and this is followed by a home match against Leys A on Wednesday 8th October.

St Clements Mixed A got our league season off to a flying start on Wednesday 24th September with a convincing 9-0 win over local rivals Oxford A. Alex Cousins, making his debut, showed his class together with partner Alexandra Park who secured three comfortable victories. Acting skipper, Steve Hurt and Catriona Morten started rather slowly and found themselves one game down in their first rubber before battling back to win 21-18 in the deciding game. They then took the confidence from this win into their other two rubbers to also secure 3 straight wins. Third pair, Nick Abitabile and Frances Down ensured the night finished with a maximum 12 league points by winning all their rubbers in straight games. Next up Mens A start their Division 3 campaign against Leys A at home on Wednesday 1st October.