Newbury show no mercy in race for title

THE final shape of the Newbury Badminton League is beginning to emerge as teams enter the home straight of the 2021-2022 season.

In Open Division 3, Newbury B pulled no punches against Bucklebury B.

Matt Lorrimore and Gareth Lewis came closest to preventing Bucklebury recording a duck, but it was not to be.

With the result 9-0 in Newbury’s favour, the division is now a twohorse race between Newbury and St Mary’s B – the upcoming match between those two teams will be crucial.

The remaining matches this week were in the Mixed competition.

Bucklebury A hosted Kennet A in a tightly-fought match which would decide their relative positions at the end of the season.

The teams swapped a one-rubber advantage until rubber eight when Bucklebury converted that advantage – Olivia May and Andy McDonald held off a resurgent Katherine Cope and Matt Haines who narrowly missed out on taking the rubber to a third end.

Sue Haines and Warren Johnson took the final rubber for Kennet, resulting in a 5-4 win to Bucklebury.

Shaw A took on a St Mary’s A side who are playing a long game, chipping away at the points difference between themselves and Newbury A in their campaign to win the competition.

There were some difficult rubbers for Shaw, who had to field a substitute team at short notice to avoid rescheduling.

However, the match was closer than the result suggests – with one three-ender and several setting games that could have caused those rubbers to go the same way.

Clare Beavis and Simon West spared Shaw’s blushes by taking a consolation rubber by the skin of their teeth, 23-21, 21-19.

The chess match that is playing out between St Mary’s A and Newbury A was also affected by the last match of the week.

St Mary’s B hosted Newbury A in an intense battle that featured five three-enders and a sixth rubber that could have easily gone the same way (21-19, 21-18).

The bottom line is that Newbury won 6-3.

St Mary’s B were already safe in third position, but by limiting Newbury to just three points, they put their A team in reach of claiming top spot.