Cornwall’s best badminton players took on Berkshire, who had made the long journey west, sitting at the top of the Division 3 league last Sunday.
This proved a tense, exciting clash of two talented sides battling for supremacy at the halfway stage of the season which kept the crowd enthralled throughout the afternoon.
Cornwall made a dominant start in the singles to make it 3-1, after Shane Maton, James Whetter and Jo Philp played superbly to see off their opponents, and Bronwen Wotton just losing to a mobile, tricky Berks player.
The Cornish men kept the winning theme going as the established pair of James and Guy Michell powered their way to 2 victories, and Tom Lyle and Ross Lashbrook winning one of their games in fine style before succumbing unluckily to the first mens pair.
The Duchy’s ladies were up against it, as Berkshire took 3 of the 4 games, although Jo and Emily James did extremely well to beat the first pair in 3 very close ends, and Bronwen and Vicki Thomas came agonisingly close to winning against the 2nd pair, in a nail-biting 3 ender.
So with the match score at 7-5, Cornwall needed just the one mixed doubles for victory. The watching crowd became more and more tense as Berkshire took 2 of the games to tie the score, and it came down to Cornwall’s top mixed pair, James and Jo to win for the team. This they did, of course, in 3 ends much to everyone’s relief and gratitude – a great win for Cornwall 8-7.
This outcome makes the teams tied on top of the Division going into the Christmas break, and makes the second half of the season a mouth-watering prospect.
Team – Shane Maton, James Whetter, Guy Michell, Tom Lyle, Ross Lashbrook, Jo Philp, Bronwen Wotton, Emily James, Vicki Thomas.
