Vale Badminton Club

The answer is YES, even though a few small cracks did appear in the Mixed B last night they still managed to pull off a 7-2 victory over Reardon Smith at Sophia Gardens.

Glyn (in half-term relaxed mode) & Helen went to 3 with the 1st pair again, and at 13 - 18 down in the 3rd thought it was all over ~ but they dug in their heels and pulled off a 21 - 18 win! Unfortunately, it had had its effect, and they were “pants” against the 2nd pairing and lost in 2. Luckily they got their act back together against the 3rds.

Sally & Len battled out a win over the 2nd pair, but all went a bit Pete Tong against the 3rds, losing in 3. And an easy victory against the 1st pair (we wont mention they gave us a bye due to injury).

3rd pairing of Chris & Martin (3rd pairing?) kept their cool in the intense heat (the hall was 10 deg hotter than Helen’s apartment in Spain in the middle of summer!) flying through all of their games in 2.

Good news was we didn’t need any hot recreation assistants ~ but maybe a referee should be on hand for Len & Sallys next encounter!

Another loss for Mixed A last night going down 5-4 to Cardiff Nomads. Chris and Jordan took their 3 games, Darius and Sarah took 1 (standing in for absentees Byron and Alison), Kinsey and Helen bringing up the rear with ‘nil point’.

Sunday nite was the 2nd game in 4 days for the Mixed B!  Home against Reardon Smith, but the  fatigue hasn’t started to show as yet!  It was a very convincing 9 - 0 win. Glyn & Helen getting their money’s worth as usual, Len & Sally making hard work of a couple, and 3rd pairing of Chris & Nathan! 3rd pair ???  making easy work of it .

Thanx to Nate for filling in for Martin ~  who had County Match commitments.

Bring on the return leg ~ Reardon Smith away Tuesday. 3rd game in 6 days ~ will the cracks start to show?  Can we make sure that there are some hot (male) recreation assistants on duty just in case please.

Mixed B travelled away to Ystrad Mynach last Thursday. It was a dreadful, rainy night, so half the team (Sally & Martin) decided to take Lens Luxury Coaches and arrive in style !

Like the weather, the venue was also dark and dismal, which gave 1st pair ~ Glyn & Helen their excuse for a shaky start! They manged to up the anti though and took all 3 of their games. New pairing for the nite Sal & Martin, (pampered on the journey up,) breezed through all 3 of their games.
Makeshift pairing of Len & Jayne ( filling in for Capt Chris ) did really well picking up 2, and only just missing out taking the 3rd against Ystrad 1st pair.

A well deserved 8 - 1 win, in the pub by 8.30 pm, and Sally & Martin were treated to a fast return journey via Helen Airways ! Result !

Have added a page of players who have ‘played up’.

http://www.valebadminton.co.uk/played-up/

Please can the team captains keep me informed so that the list is kept up to date. Thanks :)

A good start to the season with a 6-3 win against Heath. Well done to Sarah and Huw with 3 wins (shame about the 2 smashed racquets!) Myself and Allan Evans (yes he really is playing mixed!) after a shaky start managed to win 2 games and the new partnership of Kath and Matthew picked up one.

Keep up the good work.

Jayne

A nice win for Vale over Holm View, 7-2. Chris and Jordan, Kinsey and Helen both taking all 3 games. Byron and Alison just took the 1… but it was against the firsts!

We now have an extra court (alongside main hall) on Sundays and Tuesdays. This means two courts available to non-match players on a match night.

Thanks to Helen C for sorting this :)

We are top of the league…
We are top of the league…

The singing went on well into the night as the C team recorded back to back victories in successive nights, 7-2 away to Star B, and 6-3 at home to Holm View B.

Matt Obaid and Nathan Willcox scored a perfect six and our ‘Great Dane’ Per Kristofferson was also unbeaten on both nights, pairing first with Alan Dunn and then with Huw John.

Simon and Danny lost a sickener 30-28 in the third on Monday, but recorded one victory while Simon paired with Paul ‘Dobbo’ Dobson on Tuesday and had little luck as they lost three tight rubbers.

So a great start to the Division 4 campaign. No pressure on the B team then…

And we were singing, hymns and arias…

On Thursday Mixed A travelled to Splott (the back of beyond) for their first match of the season against Penarth. Sadly even having Per and Martin filling in for absentees Kinsey and Byron wasn’t enough to put the score in Vale’s favour. Chris and Jordan took all 3 of their games and Helen and Per took 1. Then, with the rest of the rubbers going to 3, including Martin and Alison’s, it could very easily have been a very different outcome. Vale finally lost 5-4.