Wednesday was the crunch match in Men’s Division 2 between our first team and Hunters. With Hunters benefitting from 2 conceded matches already this season, they were sat at the top of the table with an unbeaten record. However, the league was still in our hands if we beat Hunters so the lads were fired up for the match.
Our pairs for the night were:-
1) Andy and Tom
2) Alan and Kenny
3) Gary and Kevin
First up on court were Andy and Tom against the first pair from Hunters. It wasn’t a great start to the night with the guys taking time to settle in while Hunters came out of the blocks flying to take the game 13-21, 14-21.
On the next court Alan and Kenny were taking on the second pair from Hunters. Again, taking time to aclimatise to the venue, our lads got off to a slow start and gave the momentum to Hunters who took the first game 13-21. However, the second game was a lot closer with Hunters finally pinching it on the final point, 20-21 to go 0-2 up on the night.
Next up it was the turn of Gary and Kevin to stop Hunters running away with the match. The guys got off to a great start with a 21-15 win to start to turn the fixture around. However, Hunters were up for the battle and took the second game 17-21 to set up a decider. Gary and Kevin didn’t disappoint and stepped their game up to take it 21-16 and make it 1-2 on the night with all still to play for.
There was no rest for Alan and Kenny who were straight back on court against Hunters’ first pair. Unfortunately it seemed to take it’s toll on them with Alan still recovering from injury. The first game went to Hunters’ in a shocking 2-21 scoreline. Putting the result out of their minds, Alan and Kenny pulled back the second game and won 21-18 to take it to a decider. This time it was Hunters who upped their game to take it 14-21 and make it 1-3 on the night.
Gary and Kevin were straight back on as well against the second pair from Hunters. The first game was a tense game which ended close in favour of Hunters 19-21. Hunters then ran away with the second game as Gary and Kevin struggled to get into their rhythm and it finished 13-21 and Hunters secured a league point making it 1-4 on the night.
With a nice rest, it was the turn of Andy and Tom to take on Hunters’ third pair. The rest obviously did them a favour and they came out all guns blazing to romp to a 21-9, 21-12 victory to help close the gap to 2-4 on the night.
It was Gary and Kevin on again (no rest for them!) against the first pair from Hunters. This was going to be a tough one as Hunters’ first pair are a strong pair and very hard to beat. The first game went the way of Hunters in a 10-21 fashion to dent our hopes. But, not wanting to give in just yet, Gary and Kevin turned things around and came agonisingly close to taking it to a decider, narrowly missing out 20-21 to make it 2-5 on the night and meant that Hunters secured the match win and 2 league points.
Now, with just the league bonus point to play for, it was the turn of Andy and Tom to take to the court against Hunters’ second pair. This turned out to be an extremely close match! The first game went our way 21-19. Not wanting to end things there, Hunters came back and took the second game 17-21 to take it to the decider. The bonus point on offer was there to see in the deciding game which was close all of the way through. Our lads had the bit between their teeth and snatched it 21-20 to make it 3-5 on the night and still clinging on to the chance of a league point.
Time for Alan and Kenny to banish the losing blues and play the third pair from Hunters. This started well with our lads taking the first game by a comfortable margin, finishing 21-14. The second game was a lot closer but Alan and Kenny held out and took it 21-19 to secure the bonus league point and make the score 4-5 on the night.
This meant the league was still finely poised with Hunters, Ramgarhia 2 and Corinthians still in the running for the title. However, on Friday Hunters played their final league match of the season away to Ramgarhia 3. A win would mean the league could still be won by us or Ramgarhia 2. A bonus point would eliminate us from the running. Unfortunately for us, Hunters ran away victors by 2-7 to secure all three league points and take them 10 points clear of us with only 9 points available to us.
It’s been a good season so far lads. You have firmly established yourselves as a team to contend with in Division 2 and next season could be our turn to set the pace and win the title. We’ve still got 3 more matches to play but we are guaranteed to finish at least in third place.
Our next 2 fixtures are both against Ramgarhia 2 (first home then away) who are on the same amount of games played as us but are 1 point ahead of us. If we win both by 6-3 or better then we’ll finish in second place which would be an amazing achievement for our first season in Division 2. The final fixture is against Redbridge (who Ramgarhia 2 also have to play). Depending on the results we get against Ramgarhia 2, Redbridge could hold the key to who gets second place.
Let’s finish the season in style and secure second place!
