Our Men’s 2 team travelled to Wychelm for a Division 3 match against Wychelm where we changed our pairings for this match as club night has shown we seem to play better in these pairs and are therefore a stronger team. Our lineup was:-
Andy / Ross
Darran / Leo
Ahmed / Sohail
Wychelm could only field 2 pairs so we were off to a 3-0 lead before walking on the court. First up were Andy and I against their first pair while on the other court, Darran and Leo took on their second pair.
As myself and Andy were trying to get used to the lighting again, it was slow going and the game was too close for comfort. We were leading most of the way through the game but then slipped up at the end and were 20-19 down. However, we pulled it back to 20-20 and with there being no setting permitted, we managed to nick it 21-20 to take the first game. The next game was more comfortable as we were on the “better side” of the hall where the lighting was better so ran out 21-15 winners to secure the bonus league point.
Meanwhile, on the other court, Darran and Leo had a similar situation where they won a close first game 21-18 then won more comfortably 21-10 in their second game to make it 5-0 on the night and secure the two league points.
As Darran and Leo went off for a rest, myself and Andy were back on against their second pair while Ahmed and Sohail took on the first pair from Wychelm.
Again, we chose the “dark side” of the hall to start on and it paid dividends. Despite another “too close for comfort” win of 21-19 in the first game, we played on our preferred side of the hall for the second and easily won 21-11 to make it 6-0 on the night and claim the 3 league points.
On the other court, Ahmed and Sohail decided to get some extra games in against Wychelm’s first pair and took their match to a decider, eventually winning 21-18, 18-21, 21-13 to make it 7-0 on the night.
After that, they were straight back on court against the second pair from Wychelm while Darran and Leo took on the first pair. A comfortable win for both with Ahmed and Sohail winning 21-12, 21-18 and Darran and Leo winning 21-15, 21-18 to make it 9-0 on the night and improve our game difference for the league table.
So, after 2 matches played, we’ve won one and lost one. However, despite a narrow defeat to Emerson Eagles 2 we secured the bonus league point in that one so we’re on 4 points out of a possible 6 and have a good game difference too.
Next up for us is an away match against Emerson Eagles 3 in a couple of weeks followed by our first home match against Wychelm a couple of weeks after that.
Well done lads – great result and well played everyone.
