The evening started with our team turning up at 6:45 as per the website and preceding to wait until 7:30 before anybody from Adders turned up..... not a great start!   Apparently it might have been an admin error but this remains to be seen!  Anyway, by the time the games started, most of us were bored and a bit miffed at having to leave work early etc. At least we got a decent warm up though I suppose!

Jo and Steve started out against a strong 1st pair fairly well, level pegging until very near the end, when a few silly errors cost us the game. No biggie though as the game still seemed winnable if we just settled a bit and played our usual intense game.  Unfortunately the opposite happened with the Adders lady serving to Olympic standards and earning herself 12 straight points....eeesh, better get used to those eh!   We battled and clawed back 13 points of our own but eventually succumbed with such a huge point deficit.   Argh, disappointing!

Steve D and Louise started more positively on the adjacent court, battling hard and taking the rubber in two games (I think....scorecard not with me sorry!)

With Tim recently picking up a knee injury, Matt kindly agreed to step in and built on his Mixed 2 win on Wednesday, again playing with Penny. They proceeded to play very well to take a rubber, with Matt using his excellent court coverage and reach to keep the rallies going and Penny intercepting well at the front.

Jo and Steve couldn't manage any consistency with unforced errors creeping in every part of their game making it difficult to build and maintain any momentum. Against the 2nd pair, we easily won the 1st game by locking down all areas of the court but then somehow managed to go incredibly passive for the next 2 games and eventually lose a rubber which should have been ours. On the plus side, Steve gave Jo a good spanking from a jump smash leaving an interesting friction burn on her arm!  Sorry partner! 

Steve D and Lou clocked up another rubber in style but were thwarted by the Adders 1st pair whilst Matt and Penny were similarly kept at bay, despite good determined play.

Finally, Steve and Jo salvaged some personal pride by winning the final rubber rather more convincingly in two games but unfortunately it was too little too late as Adders had already sealed their 5. 

Conclusion

Disappointment all round as this was definitely one of the winnable matches.   Hopefully Steve and Jo can find their form for the next one and clock up some more rubbers this time!   Thanks to Matt for playing.   Well done to Steve D and Louise for leaping out of the starting blocks!

After a nervy start in our first match, it was good to see everyone lifted their game and played pretty darn good against the quality opposition.  Jo decided to use her executive powers to put S & L as 1st pair with S & J as 2nds.......the crazy girl!

Unfortunately S & L had a tough first outing against the disciplined 1st pair losing out 18-21 15-21.   S & J gelled pretty well and traded point for point in a fantastic match against the 2nds, narrowly losing out in the first game 20-22.   After a quick tactical talk, we won the next two 21-14, 21-15 to claim our 1st rubber, wohoo!!    Score now 1-1

That's kinda where the good news ends and the glum begins...    Erm..score now....erm...well anyway...

L & P battled hard all night with great interception by Penny at the net and lovely deception by Leigh, but unfortunately the errors kept proving costly with all of the Monsoon pairs playing more consistently and being notoriously difficult to serve to the 2 chaps.   L & P took the Monsoon 2nds to 3 games, narrowly missing out 17-21, 21-18, 17-21, in another great match full of intensity and testosterone (Penny!!).......   NB. how the hell do you spell that?

S & L also played very well all night, especially with Louise's renewed sense of urgency after getting a chance to wallop a few shuttles at her former Regent partner Neil, now playing for Monsoon!  This almost turned out to be enough but eventually our side went down 18-21, 21-19, 13-21.  Unlucky!

S & J gave it their best but were unable to drag the remaining Monsoon pairings to a third game, missing out 22-20 against one pair and again 22-20 against another, both times the Monsoon winner coming from a lucky net cord!   Cue much stomping around from Steve B!   Alas, twas not to be!    Anyway, Neil from Monsoon explained he had a mega hangover from his birthday celebrations the night before, which kinda suggests we have a lot of ground to make up if we are to survive in the Premiership! :P

No more rubbers were won but the games were hard fought and no-one was outclassed, outgunned and out-manoevered.   Just out-pointed!

Conclusion

Considering Monsoon 1 finished 2nd last season, this could have been worse (slightly!)... it was good to see everyone playing better badminton to keep up with the opposition.  Hopefully this will rub off into our future games to give us the edge!   Cheers to Leigh for filling the space of Tim (matching his hairdo almost identically!) and playing a quality game.

My first attempt to distract the opposition with red hair failed miserably and this was a sign of things to come!   I then discovered during the warm up that my shoulder injury was still pretty bad.  Great.   Anyway Steve B and Debbie went on as 1st pair (Steve D was late, tsk!) and were quickly thrashed to 12 and 8.   Some impressive air-balls from both of us which added a bit of comedy value!    Tim & Penny faired much better by playing a stunning first game winning 21-13.   Steve D and Louise also went on and similarly started very positively with Steve D flying around the court and Louise cleaning up well at the front....and also won their 1st game 21-14.     Unfortunately, both pairs then seemed to lose their mojo and lost the next two games each and being quite mystified as to how this happened.

Score now 0-3

Conclusion