Tuesday 13th December 2011

9-0

Simon O, Ed S | Nick F, Simon T | David W, John W

The University Staff are the second team to have entered the feathers league for the first time this year. After welcoming Abbeydale E team by beating them, we hoped to extend a similar welcome to the Uni Staff.

Simon O and Ed started off against their first pair, in one of the longest games we’ve had this year. The Staff’s first pair had an unusually good defence but weak attack, so many of the points were decided by whether or not Simon and Ed hit a winner, or hit it out. Eventually they managed to hit slightly more in than out, and won 21-19 19-21 21-17.

Nick and Simon T found it very similar when they played the first pair and had to maintain consistency to break the solid defence. By varying between excellent and dreadful play, they took it close, and despite looking down-and-out at numerous times, they came back from 17-20 in the final end to win 13-21 21-16 22-20. Hopefully that helped clear Nick’s cold!

Meanwhile we were finding the Staff’s second and third pairs an easier prospect with straight-set wins each time. Simon O and Ed made short work of their games, scoring at twice the speed of their opponents, with a total of 84-40 across both, while Nick and Simon notched up 84-53. David and John, substitutes for the feathers team once again (and therefore now actually our second most regular pairing despite not officially being in the team!) scored a similar 84-55.

For a historic first 9-0 win in the feathers league for at least half a decade, David and John needed to beat the Staff’s resilient first pair. But rather than taking it to three games and winning by a tiny margin, they decided to tease the official feathers team members by making it look easy, and winning 21-16 21-13.