Team: Steve B & Jo (3-0), Roy & Joan (3-0), Harry and Fiona (0-3)

The first match for mixed 2 started with confusion but ended with a tidy victory under our belts. Steve B was (un)lucky enough to be voted as Captain and had to quickly get to grips with never-ending duties & responsibilities. The first scare was whether we'd actually have a team since nobody had really done any phoning round but eventually Fiona turned up after mooching suspiciously in the car park for ten minutes!! With three courts all night, it was action packed with little time to sit back and recuperate.

Joanna and Steve B took the first rubber comfortably 15-7, 15-8 whilst Roy and Joan battled back from losing the first game 15-8 to winning the best of three 15-5, 15-5. The opposite seemed to happen with Harry and Fiona, who cruised the first game 15-3 but then were edged out 15-13 in the second. After this frustratingly close defeat, they seemed to lose the enthusiasm and went down 15-0 in the final game.

Overall a strong first performance from everyone and a good spirited, fun match. Thanks to everyone for helping me with the captaincy... I'll try and bring biscuits next time.

Our 2nd match, a close victory and thankfully, no roster shake ups or injuries so far (touch wood).  Upon setting foot in the hall, everyone commented on the quality with the floor being covered with dust/mud on one court and the floors & walls being white.  This led to inevitable frustration with timing and judgement against a team who put up a good fight.
 
Jo and Steve took the first rubber 15-4, 15-6 but Ernsford took an early lead by beating pairs 2 and 3 to make it 2-1 after the first round of play.  Jo dug deep and pulled out some excellent defensive play in the next game and we managed to take that to even things up at 2 rubbers each.  Roy and Joan took their game to 3 but never seemed to settle down with Roy eventually venting his frustration by smashing his racket!!!  Slap his wrists the next time you see him!  
 
Harry and Fiona played a fantastic 2nd match, taking it to 3 after losing the first but edging Ernsford out in the 2nd game 17-16 and then storming home with a 15-7 win in the deciding game to win the rubber.  This was a crucial victory from the 3rd pair and kept us in with a chance of taking the match.
 
All of a sudden, things looked more promising before Jo and Steve found themselves 14-4 down in the first game of their final crucial rubber.  Amazingly, with Jo on a 2nd serve, playing them very tight and Steve making some magic happen at the back, we managed to claw back with 9 consecutive points before losing the serve and then defending two game points to regain the serve.  The fun didn't stop there, as the serve went straight round no less than 3 times before Jo and Steve could score the winner.  A fantastic, if a little worrying game but the victory crushed the spirit of the opponents who subsequently caved in to a 15-5 victory and were gutted afterwards.
 
Finally, Roy and Joan, having been disappointed with their play all night, went into their 3rd game believing that the match was probably out of our hands but battled their way onto the scoreboard at last and produced the winning rubber, tipping the match in our favour 5-4!  Although I wont condone Roy's racket smashing earlier in the match, he did play better with his unsmashed one so I'll put it down to a tactical change just this once!!! 
 
The worst news all night was that the bar was shut cos the barman hadn't turned up!  So much for a victory!

Unfortunately our first loss of the season but it was fairly close and I think we can just blame Roy for pulling out at the last minute!!!  Luckily, Daanesh was able to fill in at very short notice (i.e.  a few hours!) and played well for us (after he eventually found the venue!)
 
Steve & Jo managed to take all 3 rubbers, only once allowing the opponents into double figures, although the games were still hard fought.  Jo struggled at times and looked a bit less energetic than usual but Steve kept himself permanently fired up and attacked pretty much everything that moved to keep the opposition on the back foot.
 
Due to us having to replace Roy, Steve decided to stick Daanesh with Fiona as she said she enjoyed playing with him and they've had some considerable practice together at club night recently.  This may have turned out to be a poor tactical decision as this meant Harry and Fiona's pairing was split, although it may have made little difference on the night.
 
Harry and Joan battled well but were faced with tough games.   Unfortunately, Harry sprained his ankle midway through a game, giving everybody a heart attack as it looked like he'd seriously broken it at the time!  With typical Scottish determination though, he continued the game with the help of Steve's ankle support but eventually lost the rubber.
 
Daanesh and Fiona played quite well but were plagued by unforced errors, dubious line calls and confrontation at the net, which no doubt affected them psychologically but they managed to win the final rubber of the evening to make the final scores a respectable 4-5.

The curse of the 5-4 is still upon us!   AT7 fielded a strong team with a big chap named Stuart who made the game look remarkably and sickeningly easy as well as two youngsters who were also quite strong.
 
Plastics didn't help and the wiliness of their 1st pair with evil plastics probably kept us from snatching a 5-4 victory ourselves (I officially hate people doing pathetic drop shots using plastics which just die and drop vertically!)
 
Roy was on holiday so missed out on this one but Daanesh kindly filled in once again, this time playing with Joan, leaving Harry partnered back with Fiona.  In a repeat of the last match, Steve and Jo managed to squeeze out all 3 rubbers although they lost one game 15-2 before venting much frustration, taking the next game to set and then finally cruising to victory over an equally frustrated opposition.
 
Daanesh and Joan battled hard in their third and final rubber of the night to pull off a convincing single-figures victory after losing the first game 15-11.
 
That put the scores at 4-5 to AT7... better luck next time all!
 
ps.  blimey, when are we gonna get some home games!  I feel like a tourist

Started badly with Steve getting lost (t'internet was broken so had no directions) and arriving late.  Steve and Jo lost first game despite feeling fairly comfortable at the outset.  BW had a strong set of ladies with none of this net-shot rubbish which the whole team found difficult to adapt to.
 
Didn't see much of the other pair's games (as all 3 pairs were on court) but understand they went equally bad with deep flat play catching us off guard.
 
The evening was almost a complete whitewash until Steve and Jo battled back from 11-5 down in the final deciding game (of 3) to win their first and last rubber of the night!  Similarly, Roy and Joan got fed up of losing and finished with a win, making the final score 7-2.
 
BW were a very pleasant bunch (too nice, especially when you're losing) and their venue/shuttles were all very good so can't really complain too much.  They have a strong team and I think they were the team to come down from the division above...but they are definitely not unbeatable!

Next match is a home one, will need a lady to fill in for Jo but hopefully have the home advantage for the first time in 2 months!

With Jo and Roy unavailable, we enlisted the help of Matt and Penny to ensure we didn't get thrashed.  Quite the opposite happened with M+P picking up all 3 rubbers, despite going to 3 in two of them...come on guys, I thought you were premier standard! ;o)   A very convincing 15-4, 15-0 win in the final rubber really deflated the AT7 team.
 
Steve teamed up with Joan and won the first rubber convincingly, 15-4, 15-4.  However the first pair proved more difficult and despite having a game point or two, we couldn't convert any of these against the strong and huge man Stuart Gibb who plays sickeningly good along with Carol Caley.  The final score for the 2nd rubber was a close 14-17, 13-15.  Redemption swiftly followed though with S+J storming their final rubber 15-3, 15-3, showing a pretty strong performance for an unfamiliar pairing.
 
Harry and Fiona strutted out on court for their first rubber and played outstanding to take it 15-11, 17-14 which definitely eased the pressure for the team early on...well done!  The other two rubbers proved more of a struggle and both ended up being straight game defeats but with double figure scores in most games.

Once again with Jo sunning herself in Australia, we drafted in Penny to bolster the squad.  Joan was also injured and had to sit out after the last mixed match in which she pulled her achilles just before Xmas.  Debbie kindly filled in for us as a second stand-in.
 
Steve and Penny got off to a great start winning the first game 15-6 only to lose the second 15-9.  Despite some frustratingly bad play from Steve and many missed opportunities, we eventually grabbed the final game 15-12 but not without a tough battle.  Roy and Debbie had a similar first game, losing the first but then getting settled to win the next two games 15-8, 15-10 to make the score 2-nil
 
Harry and Fiona lost their first but came back strong in the second managing game-point at one stage but were unable to finish it off.  Bit of a heartbreaker for H+F being so close to grabbing a rubber but after watching those key points, I can say it was nothing more than bad luck.
 
Penny deserves an individual mention for our remaining two rubbers where she dominated single-handedly at the net and even overpowered the man with clears, smashes and kills.  In the first game of the 2nd rubber, we were up 13-0 with Steve serving and Penny doing pretty much everything else.  At about 10-nil up, I simply complained to Penny that I was bored!!!
 
Roy and Debbie took another rubber in straight games making the score 4-2 with confidence fairly high even though tempers were starting to flare with some contentious line calling.  Steve and Penny went on to wrap up the match by taking the deciding rubber also in straight games, again with superb play from Penny being aggressive and sharp...even going so far as whacking a shuttle into the lady at point blank range... ouch.... talk about adding injury to insult !
 
The final rubber was the longest of the evening with Roy and Debbie having a surprisingly tough battle, despite Ernsford knowing they'd already lost!!!  Roy probably wanted to get down the pub too so I guess that explains this one slipping away as a consolation rubber to EG!

Lost 4-5

Summary

Barkers Butts, everybody's favourite venue.
A return to our normal squad with Jo returning from Australia but unfortunately letting Barkers Butts get the better of us!
 
Specifics
 
Jo and Steve started well crushing the opponents 15-2 in their first, only to end up losing the rubber 15-5, 15-7.  Shocking, but credit to the chap Vic for slowing the game down incredibly, playing consistent and generally making the final two games a chore for us, rather than the fast explosive games our style suits.   That said, definitely not up to scratch from 1st pair. Some redemption followed with relatively convincing wins over the next two pairs ending 15-5, 15-4 etc.
 
Harry and Fiona started confidently but struggled to convert those important points so ended the night disappointed without a rubber.
 
Roy and Joan probably had the best night and despite losing one rubber (think it was the first), rallied to win the final 2, with the last rubber being against Barker's 1st pair ending 17-15, 17-16 in a thrilling end to the evening, albeit in vain as we'd already lost the match at that stage.  Well done Roy for obliterating the opposition's serves and Joan for clever cross court net shots which saw them through.
 
Conclusion
 
A real shame we lost.  The importance of that silly first rubber defeat by Steve and Jo was only made clear at the end of the night when Roy and Joan took their 2nd to make it 4-5... so desperately close to having the match tipped into our favour.  Thankfully though, Steve didn't twist his ankle and tear any ligaments this time (first game at Barkers since that harrowing day last season) so that's a positive I suppose.
 
Definitely need to work on tactics to suit slower, more touch-oriented wily opposition

Well it was Friday 13th so it had to be unlucky for somebody and fortunately it turned out to be BW!
 
BW arrived with more than just a scraped team (due to easter hols)...with their normal first pair, a decent 2nd and average 3rds with all the ladies being over 6ft which is quite scary.  Felt like we were playing a Danish squad.   Everyone watched them warm up nervously (bearing in mind, this team whooped us when we went to their place) and Tim kindly announced that one of the ladies had beaten him twice this season.   Cue brown trouser syndrome all round!
 
Steve and Jo squared up with BW's first pair and outplayed them from the start, winning 15-4, 15-10.   Roy, who was paired up with Louise as Joan was unavailable took a few points to get into it but eventually they blended well to take their first 15-13, 15-10.  Finally, Tim and Fiona were both just on fire winning theirs 15-7, 15-6 although according to Tim, Fiona deserved most of the credit in this one.   3-nil!
 
Things then went from good to great after that with everyone winning their remaining rubbers in straight games with the exception of Roy and Louise who quite hilariously managed to drop one game 15-0!!!  I'm sure if it was 15-1 or 15-2, Roy wouldn't have found it quite so funny but nevertheless it made no difference at all as Louise and Roy quickly returned to the court to win the remaining two games 15-8, 15-10 just to show who was boss.
 
All games were played in great spirit and credit to BW who were gracious losers, despite being thumped 15-1 by Jo and Steve in one game.
 
Hopefully this vital result should secure our stay in Division 2 so special thanks to Louise and Tim for standing in and the rest of the team for a superb final performance of the season!

Jubilee sent over a slightly weaker team than when we visited their place which gave us hope of getting some desperately needed revenge.  Their team this time consisted of both wiley old sods and fresh young county juniors which gave their games a real mixture of shots which everybody found difficult to adapt to.
 
Steve and Jo started slowly, feeling the pressure from the word go.  Jo managed to call the first superb shot by Jubilee out which set the tone :oP   Steve just left her to it and tried to avoid the scowls from Jubilee's first pair.  Steve had a complete mare of a game, breaking his strings in the first but eventually regaining composure with Jo demonstrating how it should be done.  1-nil, not a bad start!
 
Roy and Joan looked like they were on to a winner in the first but were edged out to 13 in two of their games!  R & J were undoubtedly stronger so were left feeling pretty disappointed with this silly loss.  Roy also managed to break his strings on two separate rackets, resulting in BCBC members rapidly edging away to avoid having to lend him their rackets! 
 
Dannish and Debbie had to face the young Jubilee pair first who were brimming with confidence and unfortunately it showed in the scores.  A better performance by D&D in their second and third games but were unable to squeeze out a rubber.  Bit of a steep learning curve with Daanish not having played much recently due to exams and also getting used to Debbie as a mixed partner.  Well played to both...Jubilee not the easiest team to play a first outing against.
 
S & J managed to take their remaining rubbers fairly convincingly once Steve borrowed a much nicer racket and both started to relax n enjoy the games a bit more.  However by far the best game of the night was the final rubber played by Roy and Joan.  Unfortunately, Jubilee had already managed 5 rubbers so this one was for the sake of pride!
 
It ended up going to three with the young Dave Moynghan (the son of the famous Brian Moynghan) shouts, screams and curses being heard 3 courts down which gave me a satisfactory grin to know that Roy and Joan were showing him how to play badminton properly and ended up taking a juicy rubber!
 
Eventually, the match ended with father and son at loggerheads and the younger storming out of the Sports Hall, never to be heard again!   The end.
 
Conclusion
 
A beatable opposition but typical mixed 2 luck, ended losing 5-4.  Very enjoyable though with Jubilee players all being pretty pleasant all round.  BW match remains now as our final game so hopefully we can take a home win to ensure our stay in division 2.