A wet and windy day brought Somerset to Polkyth Leisure Centre to take on Cornwall’s top badminton players, who were seeking to bounce back following a chastening defeat to Dorset a couple of weeks ago.

This time the Cornish singles players were in no mood to compromise and raced to a 4-0 match lead, with both Shane Maton and James Whetter winning easily, closely followed by the ladies, Rose Willis and Jo Philp who also won in straight sets, getting the team off to a fine start.

The men powered on in the doubles, James and Guy Michell particularly dynamic and overwhelming the Somerset opposition in both games, although Shane and Ross Lashbrook were disappointed to lose one of theirs to a pair of young players.

Somerset fought back in the ladies, taking all 4 games , despite both of our pairs going close with 3 ends against an experienced duo. Emily James and Vicki Thomas displayed great fighting spirit to narrowly win the second end after a heavy defeat in the first, but finally just lost out.

With the score at 7-5, the match was finally balanced going into the final 3 games of mixed – would Somerset win all 3 and gain an unlikely victory, or would the home team edge the one game they needed to clinch the match?

Any doubt quickly disappeared as number 1’s James and Jo continued their impressive form and won comfortably in 2 sets, showing great skill and reaction speed to outclass their opponents.
Shane and Vicki, followed suit, also winning well in two ends against a father and daughter pair who had also looked a potential threat.

The final game, saw Ross and Rose needing to win to give the team maximum points, and this turned into a nail-biting 3 ends with the Cornish pair losing the first end heavily. Thankfully they stormed back to take the next two, Ross’s power and Rose’s steady hand seeing the home side triumph, to win the match 10-5 overall.

The team’s next home match is on January 12th when Wiltshire come to take on the 1st team – all spectators welcome.

Team: Shane Maton, James Whetter, Guy Michell, Ross Lashbrook, Rose Willis, Jo Philp, Emily James, Vicki Thomas