Mens Feathers 1 – 8 University Staff

Gavin B & Simon T | David W & John W | Calvin B & Nick F

Today’s excuse: John’s arm didn’t work.

In the last feathers match of the season, our three pairs had different fortunes.  Leading the way were Gavin and Simon, who put in a very good performance against their third pair, but still lost 18-21, 23-21, 13-21.  They went on from that to win their second game 21-19, 21-18, but their form dipped a little at the end and another tight three-set game again went the opposition’s way in their last game of the night.  But they can be happy enough to have got Oakbrook’s only game against the uni staff feathers team this year.

David and John’s evening was cut short after John’s arm decided it really was injured after all, and the pair had to pull out completely after losing their first game, thereby conceeding their others since we couldn’t convince left-handed John to play with his right hand like ‘normal’ people.  A disappointing end to a feathers season that hasn’t quite seen the pair match their success from last year.

Calvin and Nick, standing in for the missing Tipue and Simon O, had moments of “pretty good”, but also some “bad, verging on very bad” according to Calvin afterwards.  They found the uni staff pairs to be a little too strong, but still worked their way to double-figures most of the time, ending with 65-126 across their three games.  Thanks to both of them for stepping in to fill our vacancies.

We weren’t expecting a win, and weren’t necessarily expecting even to get a game at all, so avoiding a whitewash was pleasant.  Plenty of room for improvement next year though, since we remain second from bottom in the feathers league, ahead only of Abbeydale’s team of 12-year-olds.  As usual we’re not Oakbrook’s most successful team, but we give a good game most matches and do enjoy the chance to play with proper shuttles!