Mixed 3 continued their winning start to the season with another resounding 8-1 win.

Tim and Debbie again cruised through their games only losing an amazing 8 points all evening. JJ and John also won all three but not quite so convincingly conceding a total of 38 points in the process. Tricia and last minute stand in Glyn started well with a comprehensive win over their third pair, were well in touch against the seconds before losing out and then rallied to overcome the first pair after going to three but winning the final game to 5.

An excellent start to the season but we now have a number of away fixtures plus the added delights of plastics to contend with.

Another good win but not as easy as recent home matches.

The pairings were not as intended as Fiona had managed to "overlook" the match in her busy social diary and was unable to get there until 07.50 fortunately Barkers decided not to claim any rubbers, they clearly expected to win ! With Daanish also struggling to find the venue despite internet mapping, sat-nav and the A-Z we were forced into making a start with Tricia and John as first pair ?. Unfortunately this novel ploy was not a great success and we were soon 0-1 down, Tim & Debbie fared rather better taking their first rubber 15-7, 15-6. The match continued whilst we awaited the "ceremonial arrival" of Fiona with Tim & Debbie winning against their third pair 15-6, 15-8 whilst Tricia & John took the lead against the second pair only to end up on the losing side. The score was 2-2 when Fiona swept in like an avenging angel and with Daanish taking control proceeded to despatch their third pair 15-1, 15-4 in double quick time. They swiftly went back on court to ease past Barkers second pair 15-7, 15-11.

At the same time what proved to be the key rubber was in progress with Tim & Debbie battling against a strong first pair, Barkers usual men such as Barry Veasey etc being "rested" as part of their rotation policy according to Barry !! After a long first game Tim & Debbie eased through 15-12 only to lose their first game of the season 15-10 to set up a crucial third game decider. They turned at 4-8 down but following a brief confrontation at the net and an eventual handshake Tim produced a superb display of  hitting to win to 12 and secure the fifth rubber and the WIN.

Fiona & Daanish then went on again and easily beat the first pair who appeared to have resigned themselves to losing 15-2, 15-12, either that or Fiona played a "blinder" you decide. The final act conclusively proved that Tricia and John may not be the best of pairings as they failed to beat the third pair losing 15-10, 15-5 and thus no "icing" on the proverbial.

Another win but rather too close for comfort.

Several interesting facts first, Daanish has learnt to read a map and was the first to arrive! Fiona was only 10 minutes late at the Balsall Common rendezvous, according to the very long explanation it was something to do with cars, children, baby sitting and petrol but I rather lost the thread of her resume. Debbie proved to be a good navigator as despite having been there before none of us really knew the way.

The tactical decision this time was to give Tricia & John time to warm up by being second pair before facing their thirds in the vain hope they might actually win the deciding rubber and for Tim & Debbie to play the possibly crucial final rubber. It soon became very apparent that trying to see white plastic shuttles against the lovely pale lemon walls had not improved since we last played there, despite this handicap we managed to go 2-1 up with Tim & Debbie and Daanish & Fiona both cruising through to win without losing a game, whereas Tricia & John soon discovered that their second pair was in fact the best of the Whitestone pairs and lost rather ignominiously.  The second trio of rubbers saw the match score level out at 3-3, Tim & Debbie again proved too strong for the opposition easily beating their first pair whilst D&F put up a brave fight against the strong second pair before losing in three. At this point the tactical move above was meant to allow T&J to beat the third pair unfortunately despite much cajoling from "team coach" Fiona and a brief debate over the legality of the oppositions serve they didn't.

With only two courts available Tricia took time out to refocus and disappeared outside to watch the premature celebratory fireworks, Fiona in stark contrast nervously hid from the nasty loud bangs. Brief interlude over it was back to the match with F&D convincingly despatching their third pair whilst T&J played rather better against the first pair but despite being 7-1 at one stage up failed to maintain the momentum and eventually lost.

The match was now poised at 4-4 as anticipated, Tim & Debbie also found the Whitestone second pair to be a good pairing particularly with home advantage and a very hard fought encounter began. It went to three as you knew it would with T&D still losing on points when the third rubber turned at 8, Tim then appeared go into overdrive with a succession of attacking shots from the back of the court he eventually wore down the opposition and closed the match out to the loud applause of both teams.

"I enjoyed that" he was heard to say as he left the court.

Played 4, won 4 but 10 more matches to go so plenty of scope yet...

No tactics this week, apart from resting/dropping? Fiona who had played for Mixed 2 the night before. As with previous weeks we did our best to make things hard for ourselves with our third pairing not quite managing to win a rubber despite going to three against their second pairing. As usual Tim & Debbie were imperious brushing aside the opposition to win their games with ease, definitely no imaginary tight games this week. The match rested on the outcome of the untested pairing of Daanish & Tricia, it didn't start well with Daanish overstretching very early on and twisting his ankle, fortunately a spot of "physician heal thyself" seemed to do the trick and he recovered to see off their second pair. They then started badly against WBC third pair losing the opening game comprehensively but battled back to win in three. With 6 rubbers played it was 4-2 to BCBC and confidence was high knowing that Tim & Debbie were left to play the WBC third pair, as it turned out we won 2 of the final rubbers with JJ & John also starting well against the first pair before fading away to another lost cause, c'est la vie or must try harder depending on your point of view.

Not a vintage week for BCBC, played 3 lost 3 and the first failure of the season for Mixed 3, unfortunately no excuses for us as unlike Mixed 1 and 2 we were not up against a particularly strong team and should have made the result closer. As usual Tim & Debbie won all 3 despite coming perilously close to losing their opening rubber against the best of the opposition pairs coming from a long way behind in the first game to snatch a 17-14 win followed by an equally close second game winning on a net chord 15-13. Both H&T and J&J had chances to win a rubber by going to three against the same pair but were never that close in the deciding games going down 15-4 and 15-7 respectively. T&D won their other rubbers as easily as the rest of us lost so I will not dwell on the details of our failure, I could mention plastic shuttles, yellow lights and asphalt flooring but it all adds up to the same end result, not good enough.

We have every confidence of winning the home tie but it does dent the old confidence after winning every match to date. Played 7 won 6 will probably still leave us top of the division at the Christmas break so we need to make sure we beat CHA away on the 12th.

The match itself was rather predictable with Debbie & Tim once again proving too strong for the opposition and easily winning their three rubbers only dropping 27 points in the process. The plan was then for our other two pairs to defeat their thirds, looked good on paper, Bob and Tricia did their bit and duly won but JJ and John decided to go for the sympathy vote and despite taking the requisite rubber to three, lost. Rather fortunately Bob had all his bits firmly strapped on and with Tricia using her Thursday night plastic skills they overcame the CHA first pair to leave us 4-2 up and virtually home and dry, well played both.

A New Year and somehow Mixed 3 continue to end up on the winning side, well played once again to the cornerstone pairing of Tim and Debbie, gave away rather more points than usual losing 42 overall but comfortably won all their rubbers to leave the rest of the team the task of conjuring up the two rubbers required. Should have been easy as the Barkers third pair were even by our standards very beatable, buoyed up by this assessment JJ and John proceeded to lose their first game against them. Desperate measures were called for such as playing properly, surprisingly this worked and the next two games were won to 7 and 4 and after three rubbers we were 2-1 up. The rest of the match was rather predictable with Bob and Tricia gamely losing their opening two rubbers and despite somehow coming from 7-0 down to win 15-7 in the opening game against their first pair JJ & J ended up losing what would have been the winning rubber. So it was all down to the last match with B & T striding onto court full of confidence, aggression and self belief, very short lived as it turned out, with the crowd behind them they quickly slumped to 0-8 in the opening game. With the crowd baying Bob and Tricia finally listened to their advice and with a combination of guile, cunning and luck, not necessarily in that order, somehow wore the opposition down to record a 15-10, 15-8 victory and a tumultuous round of relieved applause.

This weeks topical subject is "Climate Change and the Badminton Effect"

Only one of the team was properly acclimatised to the conditions, having just returned from his high altitude training camp in the French Alps, Tim was sporting all the necessary thermal wear but admitted that ski gloves were rather restricting his backhand drop shot, JJ was equally well prepared in a liberal covering of goose fat apparently a trick learnt from her Scandinavian Ice Speedway trips, and I was expecting Nigella's roast potatoes..

Anyway despite the sub zero conditions the match eventually got underway with Tim & Debbie cruising through their opening encounter to win very easily 15-4, 15-1. At the same time JJ and John, who were for some reason promoted to second pair, won their first rubber against a frozen solid opposition, looked like they were playing ice statues, 15-7, 15-5. In an effort to keep warm JJ & J went straight back on against the Whitestone first pair and rather surprisingly won that too 15-12, 15-3 to leave us 3-0 up after no time at all. We then discovered the oppositions tactical switch with Tricia & Daanish losing to their strongest pairing posing as the thirds, despite a very positive start they eventually went down 12-15, 13-15.

The pressure was obviously telling as Tim went outside in true "Captain Oates" style but fortunately for us did not walk off into a blizzard, on his eventual return D&T quickly disposed of the oppositions third pair to leave us 4-1 up and with D&T also winning give us an unassailable 5-1 lead. The rest of the match went as expected apart from JJ&J failing to rouse themselves from their frozen torpor and losing the final dead rubber.

Anyway another good win, season to date played 9 won 8 but we have a few potentially tricky away games coming up with plastics so all is not yet secure.

Won  7-2

This weeks match report is sub-titled "The Masquerade Ball"

"Prince Tim" was unavailable for the match due to a more important fixture in the "royal" Leamington league so we had to resort to that well known court jester Bob. His thinly veiled disguise of spangled tights and codpiece was most fetching but it was difficult to tell whether he was a genuine "harlequin" or a throwback to some Birmingham Glam Rock Band, either way his legs were just not up to the costume!! As ever he was on the look out for harlots but had to make do with a stern schoolmistress as a partner, fortunately playing the part of a naughty schoolboy came easy .....

And so on with the match, Daanish & Tricia went on as first pair and made the most of the opposition getting used to feathers beating them convincingly to single figures, at the same time Bob & Debbie plus John & JJ dispatched the second and third pairs 15-3, 15-1 and 15-4, 15-4, first round of rubbers played and 3 love up. With 3 courts still free the match quickly moved on to the next set of rubbers where D&T and J&JJ found the opposition second and third pairs struggling to come to terms with feathers and both came away with easy wins to clinch the 5 rubbers needed to be certain of another win !! Meanwhile Bob & Debbie were finding the CHA first pair had acclimatised but with Bob straining every sinew under dire threats from Debbie they ground out a 17-14 result in the opening game. Despite a lengthy break taking on water, oxygen and other performance enhancing additives they were unable to repeat this success and eventually lost the rubber along with Debbie's "unbeaten all season" status, will Bob ever live it down?

With the match already won the final three rubbers went as expected with easy wins over the opposition second and third pairs but J&JJ found the first pair more of a challenge going down 15-11, 15-8.

Yet another win, now played 10 won 9, but with 4 matches left and three of them away fixtures nothing is certain.

Problems aplenty before the match with both Tim and Daanish being unavailable, were compounded when Mixed 3 were struck down by that well known pandemic "Relegation Fever". Mixed 2 inadvertently depriving us of the Captain's presence with Debbie, having been called up to save their season, finding herself with insufficient games left to finish the Mixed 3 season. With half the normal team missing we were indebted to Mixed 2 for releasing Roy and Joan plus the "free transfer" of Fiona.

The match itself started well with R&J easily outplaying the Ash Green first pair despite Joan having to rely on instinct in place of actually "seeing" the yellow plastic against the nice cream walls. In the third rubber B&T had a comprehensive win. We were quickly 2 love up.

In the meantime J&F were toiling to gain the upper hand against the second pair, not helped by Fiona needing counselling suffering as she was from deep depression following recent bad press. This probably explained her tendency to wander into the safe dark corners of the back court for much of the opening game. Despite rallying to take the middle game with some ease the uncertainties returned in the deciding game with the inevitable consequence.

3 rubbers played BCBC 2 Ash Green 1

The middle set of rubbers went according to the script with R&J proving all too experienced to let the Ash Green second pair gain any further advantage and won at a canter. Meanwhile J & F seemed to lose the plot against the weak third pair and allowed the score to reach 10 all before realising we actually needed to win, having woken up the opposition failed to bother the scorer again and we won the rubber 15-10, 15-0. B&T took their time over disposing the AG first pair but eventually worked on the oppositions' lack of mobility and pulled away to win in three.

With the match already won R&J made swift work of beating their final opposition and then sat back to metaphorically yawn their way through watching our other pairs both go to three before eventually adding the final two rubbers to complete a comprehensive 8-1 victory. A feat almost not achieved as Bob tried to bludgeon the shuttle over the net only to drive it straight into Tricia, fortunately the point blank blow to the head was cushioned by years of mind altering substances so permanent damage is not expected ! How's the headache Tricia ?

Buoyed up by this magnificent victory against the bottom team in the division Bob went into social secretary overdrive to organise the post match party, all apparently "arranged" he and I set off SATNAV in hand to the traditional after match venue. Congratulating ourselves on a swift journey back to the Tipperary we claimed the usual table, got the drinks in and waited.... and waited.... and waited. Mixed 1 sent their apologies from the Barkers Butts bar and I assume the rest of Mixed 3 saw the obvious folly in driving halfway across Warwickshire for one drink and did the sensible thing.... oh well the triumphant two had a quick shandy and put the world to rights.

Well played everyone, especially the refugees from Mixed 2.

Season to date played 11, won 10.

3 matches left but still not certain of that elusive division win.

Mixed 3 continued to struggle for players with Tim yet again unavailable, John recovering from a recurring back problem and Bob (Satnav in hand) somewhere between Birmingham and Aberdeen , in a bold tactical move Debbie also chose to stand down for this match. To make up the numbers we called once again on the services of Mixed 2 with Roy, Joan and Harry all selected for this crucial away fixture.

The evening threw up many interesting factoids before we even arrived, did you know for instance that Tricia is keen on water features, a real Charlie Dimmock by all accounts although whether she similarly lacked the trademark supporting garments was not revealed. Hopefully the Severn Trent bill will not be too excessive, still the new duckpond will be well worth the money and a real selling point. It was also revealed that following extensive investigation into family history that Joan is actually Tricia's long lost older sister, amazing what skeletons genealogy can turn up !

Anyhow back to the match, in a deliberate ploy R&J were selected as third pair thus ensuring they would play the final and possibly deciding rubber, this choice quickly came under scrutiny as D&T lost against the first pair and H&JJ despite winning the opening game went down in three following a change in tactics by the AT7 second pair. Not quite the start we had hoped for but this match was never going to be easy, R&J then gave us some much needed hope by dismissing their third pair despite trying to throw away a 10 love lead in the first before winning 15-10, 15-1.

At the same time D&T went on against the second pair and with some determined attacks took the first game 15-8, this clearly woke the opposition up and we were very quickly 10 love down in the second game. No problem said Tricia who produced a series of excellent serves for Daanish to put away winning hits and remarkably turned the game round to win the rubber 15-8, 15-10. Score now 2 all and confidence much improved. H&JJ went on against the weaker third pair looking to cement a winning position and convincingly beat them 15-4. 15-5 to set up Roy and Joan for the potentially winning rubber against the AT7 first pair. All was going swimmingly as they won the opening game 15-2 but AT7 were not ready to give in and helped by Roys excellent line calling, he was always right it was the lines in the wrong place, the AT7 first pair took the rubber to three. A titanic battle ensued before H&J finally pulled way to take the decider 15-10.

This left D&T with the opportunity to wrap the match up and having won the first game 15-1 they duly claimed the rubber but almost eased up too much before winning 15-12.

With the match won H&JJ took on the first pair losing the first game in a routine fashion but made a real effort in the second before going down 15-3, 15-10. The final rubber despite being of no consequence to the result was very hard fought R&J won the first game 15-12 AT7 took the second 15-10 and with Roy clutching his back and looking for a blonde shapely team trainer they eventually overcame the opposition to win 15-11.

An excellent away win that now sets us up nicely for the clash next Wednesday at home v Stockingford, the only team to have beaten us this season. The division title is still not absolutely ours, the champagne and brown ale remains on ice as Stockingford can mathematically overhaul us if they win next week, so all to play for.

Thanks again to Mixed 2 for the player loan and well gambled Debbie, what a Captain !!

The long awaited chance to avenge our only defeat of the season finally arrived, we had hoped for a better crowd but those who did turn up were not so much disappointed by the spectacle as aghast at the lack of skill on display. Fortunately the pre match pyrotechnics were very impressive, I particularly liked the Catherine wheel made up of Dr Matts broken racquets, very colourful and presumably expensive but then his wallet is always full of £50 notes. Not sure where the helicopter landed with the Division Cup, must have tried to use Bob's satnav, still not long until the presentation evening.

The evening hardly started auspiciously with Tim arriving suffering from the ravages of IT and driving and claiming he had "bleary eyes" at least that's what I think he said, with my faculties it could well have been "beery eyes" that I do understand !! Either way he apparently couldn't see what racquet to choose, sounds like a good pre-emptive strike to me just in case the unexpected happened. To compound our problems Daanish was missing and despite Tricia to try and contact him all was to no avail, "he was ok when I spoke to him last" she said.... well she does have a thing for "real" doctors. Fortunately salvation arrived in the unlikely shape of Roy who turned up to watch and was quickly pressed ganged into service without even getting the King's shilling.

The match itself was meant to show our superiority with feathers and to despatch Stockingford with disdain, so much for that idea. Tim & Debbie opened proceedings with a rapid 15-5 win but then realised they still had to win the second game before finally clutching victory 17-16, at the same time J&JJ went on as second pair whilst Roy rushed home to prepare himself. They rather underestimated the opposition and rather than coasting to an easy win found themselves losing the opening game 15-1 in double quick time, a titanic struggle ensued as they attempted to work out how to play properly, eventually wearing down the second pair to record an unlikely win 1-15, 15-11, 15-9. Helped by this delaying tactic Roy returned suitable attired and with Tricia convincingly beat the third pair.

3 rubbers played, 3-0 up

J&JJ went on again against the first pair and despite some very impressive rallies with the shuttle flying from corner to corner (no down the line stuff for Mixed 3, cross court everything !!) they eventually lost 10-15, 9-15. R&T meanwhile took their time but successfully overcame the second pair 15-7, 15-13 to put us 4-1 up with T&D already on court and ahead against the third pair. As expected they duly won this encounter to give us the 5th rubber and victory 15-5, 15-7.

The final rubbers all went our way even though both R&T and J&JJ had to resort to going to three before claiming wins 15-8 and 15-7 respectively in the deciding games. As ever T&D went on their imperious way in straight sets.

An eventual comprehensive win to salvage our pride and make amends for losing to Stockingford away back in December.

Season to date Played 13 Won 12 - Last match v WBC away on 16 April

Many thanks to Roy for the last minute call to arms.

Not the result to end the season with but at least the division title is safely claimed. With Daanish busy administering to the sick and JJ in Ayia Napa smashing plates at a Greek Wedding we borrowed the former Mixed 2 pairing of Harry & Fiona to make up the numbers. The usual plan of T&D winning them all continued to work despite Debbie's unconventional attire, not sure if the pink divers helmet and lead boots aided her mobility but the scubapro divers knife certainly worried the opposition, personally I thought Tim was miscast as Lloyd Bridges. The match itself barely got out of first gear as apart from T&D the rest of us failed to cope with the plastic shuttles and meekly surrendered game after game, hardly a division winners display.

The result at least means that T&D remain unbeaten all season with the impressive stats of :
 
Rubbers         played 33 won 33
Games   played 67 won 66

Well played both, amazingly this is Tim's only division win in over 20 years of trying !!

Other news of note :
Tricia has apparently now played her final match for BCBC as her on/off house move is finally going through, although there is an ugly rumour that she will still be turning up for Thursday night club?  In a glowing speech she thanked anyone who cared to listen for their indulgence over the past 18 seasons and in an emotional farewell admitted this is the first trophy she has ever won since being deprived of the infants egg and spoon gold medal for illegal use of double sided tape. As part of her celebrations she sets off down the Road to Damascus later this week, quite whether she is expecting a Paul of Tarsus conversion or a walk on part as a latter day Dorothy Lamour is unclear.

Season over, phew thanks goodness for that I was running out of rubbish to pad out the match report.

Final tally     Played 14       Won 12     Lost 2

Thanks to the cast of thousands for turning out and making the season both entertaining and successful.