Ladies Matches 11/05/07  With Andover Sports having played their two outstanding matches against Waverley and Phoenix respectively the ladies Divisions of 6 and 4 seasons have now been completed leaving BH Pegasus as champions of the Division of 6 and Viking of the Division of 4.  In each of their last two matches Andover Sports had only two pairs.  Against Waverley the two pairs, Pauline Prior/Sandra McDonald and Liz Roberts/Sue Hartfield won their three rubbers to obtain a 6/3 victory while against visiting Phoenix who also had two pairs Pauline/Sandra and this time Liz Roberts playing with Ellen Dennett won two rubbers each to give a 4/0 result. 

Mens Matches 11/05/07   The last result card for the Mens Section gave Viking A a 5/4 victory over home side BH Pegasus A which was sufficient to ensure that the former secured the title once again.  Richard Whatley/James Bevis won their three rubbers for Viking A with Tiny Coombes/Chris Powell and Neil Hodges/Mike Fidge supplying one each to make up the five.  David Gough/Karthik Srinivasan won two rubbers for BH Pegasus A and both Kevin Harris/Dale Turpin  and Martin Davey/David Burrell chipped in with a rubber to complete the scoring.

Each of the three home pairs, David Ord/Mark Payne, Chris Puxley/Jeremy Browne and Dave Keep/Barry Egginton won one rubber when Hurts lost 6/3 to Andover Sports B in Mens Division 2.  Geriant Griffiths/Nick Gladwin and Andy Kinge/Peter Cowmeadow won maxima for the visitors to supply this win.  A few days later, in a postponed match, Andover Sports B beat visiting Aldermaston 7/2 to clinch the second promotion spot in the division only one point behind the leaders BH Pegasus B.  Peter Cowmeadow/Paul Williams won their three rubbers for the home side supported by two rubbers each from Geriant Griffiths/Nick Gladwin and Andy Kinge/Chris Liziak.  Steve Gaunt and Lawrence Sutton won the two visitor’s rubbers.

Mixed Matches 11/05/07 A 7/2 home win over Firefly in Mixed Division 2 was sufficient to give BH Pegasus B the top spot just 4 points ahead of second placed Viking B.  The victory was achieved by maxima from Prasanth Kumaran/Doreen Quilter and Martin Davey/Lesley Acheson supplemented by one rubber from Kevin Harris/Jenny Skilton.  Phil Pike/Rosemary Pomeroy and Steve Webb/Traicy Tait won one rubber each for Firefly.  

Having already taken the Division 3 title a two pair Viking C lost 6/3 to Beechdown C at John Hunt School.  Graeme Berry/Ruth Cairns won two of the three home rubbers and Neil Hodges/Sara Haddow won the other.  Tony Walker and Sara Deed won their two rubbers for Beechdown C with Nick Jones/Lynn Perrini getting the third.  A 6/3 victory over Aldermaston B at Aldermaston brought Phoenix A into third place in the table in the same division.  Paul Nightingale/Carolyn Neale won a treble for the winners supplemented by two rubbers from Greg Sudell/Alison Rendall and one from Tim Little/Sam Taylor   Paul Roper/Helen Apsey won two of the home side’s rubbers with Neil Hince/Pippa Dines supplying the third. 

Geriant Griffiths/Sue Hartfield and Chris Clarke/Liz Jones comprised the two pair Andover Sports B side which beat visiting LoddonSherpas B 6/3 to claim the first promotion spot in Division 4.  Both home pairs won their three rubbers.  They finished with a total of 87 points, 9 ahead of second placed Andover who just pipped Waverley B by 2 points.  Steve Gaunt/Linda Russell and Andrew Dance/Sheila Weston both won maxima supported by one rubber from Richard Dearman/Linda Childs when basing Cavaliers beat luckless Phoenix B 7/2.  John Shipman/Sam Taylor and Tim Pink/Wendy Mason won one rubber each for the losing visitors.

Basingstoke players Andrea Hill (Beechdown), Hayley McCall and Lesley Acheson (both B.H.Pegasus), Richard Whatley, James Bevis and Tim Cooper (all Viking) were drawn against last year’s winners Winchester.  Their team of Karen Hume, Hayley Tucknott, Alison Gerrett, Chris Sheppard, Dave Shirley, and Adam Turner won 5 of the games fairly easily but Hayley and Lesley won their ladies by one point and Andrea and Lesley won theirs by 11 points. Both Andrea/Richard and Lesley/James went down in their mixed games by just a few points.  Winchester won by 356 to 286 points.

Portsmouth and Havant played Aldershot and Camberley in the next round.  The Portsmouth and Havant team again were victorious; Aldershot and Camberley Men, Rob Wellard, Steve Sweby and Simon Goldsmith had some very close games but their Ladies, Stephanie Holden, Nicky Mitchell and Sue Wills struggled to gain points in their Ladies games, although they all did better in the Mixed games.  Portsmouth and Havant finished 369 to 258 points.

Basingstoke and Waterside contested the Plate.  This was a very closely fought match with only 2 points difference after the Mixed games.  Waterside took two of the Mens games, each by 6 points, and their Ladies also just edged ahead to give their team a 340/328 victory. 

The final between Portsmouth/ Havant and Winchester was led throughout by Portsmouth/Havant but by a very small margin.  They won 5 games to Winchester’s 3 with one game drawn.  The final score of 354/297 gave Portsmouth/Havant the trophy.  This was an enjoyable day with some fine competitive badminton.  The trophy and the plate will be presented at the Hampshire Badminton Association AGM in June.     Ruth Cairns,