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Photos: Vivan Jayant
BOTH TEAMS knew they had their work cut out to beat the leading teams in their leagues and soon realised it wasn’t possible with the 1st team losing 5-3 and the 2nds 6-2
York’s Breare and Farrington got the York team off to a promising start, emphatically beating Leeds’ Wilkinson and Rae, 21-8, 21-16 and Sach and Brown 11-21, 21-16 and finally 21-9. Off to a great beginning, York were in the lead. However York’s Cowell and Kemp couldn’t bring in another win, losing 17-21, 15-21. Nevertheless, York’s Cowell and Kemp had no trouble beating the Leeds 2nd pair 2-11, 21-13.
Scores now stood at 3-1 putting York in the lead. However, on the horizon waited the Leeds England experienced singles players. With this in mind, it is no wonder, York’s Farsiani left court with only 2 points in the first end and 6 in the second against Lamour and again losing 21-5-21-5 against Lewczynska. Nontheless, she played impressively making what would seem a quick and easy game a very entertaining one with lengthy and intricate rallies.
With the score at 3-3 York pinned feeble hopes on Wilson who arrived a mere 5 minutes before she would have had to forfeit her games. Regardless of this, Wilson found herself powerless losing 21-2, 21-4 to Lewczynska and 21-3, 21-5 against Lamour.
All in all, an entertaining match was displayed, however nothing could have been done to overtake Leeds in the league leaving York more than hopeful to achieve second place in the coming weeks. This was reiterated by Captain Breare who commented, ‘I am very proud of the way my team played. They did excellently. It’s really a testament to the Leeds team that they’re the only team to beat us in BUCS this year’.
Over on the other side of the sports hall the 2nd’s also struggled to beat their opponents, Teesside 1sts.
York’s Brown and Parker took their first games quickly, comfortably winning 21-9 and 21-6 followed S’ari and Captain Rachel Barrett winning 21-14, 21-17 against the same Teesside pair.
Despite this solid start, the 1st York singles, Melgares struggled her way through three ends against Teesside’s Fran Allen. A flu stricken Melgares showed extreme commitment playing through her illness and managing scores of 11-21, 21-16 but losing eventually to 19-21.
York’s Thomas also had trouble beating Allen losing a harsh 9-21 and 16-21.
A repeat of this occurred in the second singles matches with Melgares losing to Teesside’s Conroy 16-21 and 11-21 and Thomas also losing to 11 and 17.
The best the York side could now hope for was a draw which relied up on the doubles matches. Unfortunately, S’ari and Barrett couldn’t quite steal a win, taking their game to three ends resulting in 17-21, 21-12 and finally losing 23-21 after an impressive comeback from 13.
Parker and Brown went into the final game with strong hopes taking the first end comfortably at 21-12. Despite the confidence boost however, after a switching of ends Brown and Parker couldn’t quite defeat the Teesside pair losing to 11 after a few arguments over close line calls and no shots. Finally, in a closely fought out battle the York pair lost 21-19 as Brown smashed just outside the line. Leaving the match with a 6-2 loss, captain Barrett said: ‘I’m proud but also disappointed for the team. The most crucial games went to 3 ends so it could have all turned out so differently’.