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Fixtures 2013-2014 Now Available

The fixtures for the coming season are now available. You can download them from the Calendar page or using the links below:

Oakbrook-Badminton-Fixtures-2013-2014-By-Date

Oakbrook-Badminton-Fixtures-2013-2014-By-Team

The first match of the new season is on Tuesday 1st October so please be aware there will only be 2-3 courts available for club play on that night.

Oakbrook Handicap Tournament 2013

Many thanks to everyone who turned up to play in the tournament; it’s always a headache when there’s a “no show”. There were lots of tight matches with 5 of them going to 20-20 before being decided. There were also plenty of matches decided by 5 points or less so I hope everyone felt they’d has a good competitive night. The handicappers (Dawn & myself) are very pleased with themselves as everyone involved won at least 2 games. Congratulations to Joan for winning the tournament and also to Xophie and Dan who won prizes. You can see the final results by clicking this link.

 

Tournament entries

Today is the last day to enter the tournament. I’ll be collecting the sign-up list from the noticeboard tonight before I leave. If you would like to play and haven’t yet informed me of your intentions, now is the time; either add your name to the list or drop me a mail. There will be no club night on Friday as the tournament will be taking all the courts for the duration of the night. If you are playing in the tournament then please remember that it starts at 7pm so you’ll need to be there at that time.

Smashing.

David

Mens Plastics 1 vs. Nomads, 8 March 2013

Mens Plastics 1 6 – 3 Nomads

Calvin B & Simon T | John W & David W | David P & Dave R

It’s always close with Nomads but we usually manage to edge it and so it was again tonight. None of our pairs did particularly well against their first pair but we all managed to take rubbers against the other two and we ran out 6-3 victors on the night. Calvin and Simon found their first pair too strong and succumbed to them in the first rubber. Dave & John meanwhile kept up their excellent form of late and secured the first point of the night against their second pair. I must say thanks to Dave & John for taking that horrible 2nd pair slot for this home game (I never fare well playing games 2, 4 and 9; especially if I have to play the decider).

With the match in the balance at 1-1, Dave R & myself took to the court for the last time this season. It’s been an up and down affair littered with silly mistakes of late but we managed to put that behind us and ran out fairly comfortable winners in two games. John & Dave also managed to secure their first rubber of the night (despite John complaining of a sore arm) and so we got in to a strong 3-1 position.

No rest for the wicked and it’s time for Dave R & myself to go straight back on court. My recent “choking” performances ringing in my head I was concerned when we went to 1 game each and a deciding game in the rubber. Fortunately we both managed to cut out the silly mistakes and ran out winners in 3 ends. A hug from me for Dave R as I was relieved to get past that “choking” tag. Simon and Calvin meanwhile were being put to the sword by their first pair and fared the same as everyone else on the night; going down in two straight games to a strong pair. 4-2 up after six and we’re looking in good shape with only one more rubber required.

Game 7 saw Dave and myself against their first pair and once again they proved too strong although we gave them a good run in the second game going down 21-18 with the final point of the game being a rather fortunate “off the net and dribble over” smash from the opposition. Simon and Calvin, however, were busy securing the match for us and managed to defeat their second pair in 2 ends thus securing a 5-3 scoreline and claiming the points on the night.

All that was left was for John and Dave to go through the formalities of beating their third pair. If only! With John still complaining of a sore arm and Dave smashing in to the net and hitting other shots out, they made a real meal of it. Eventually they prevailed in 3 ends but not without a scare or two. I did hear some mutterings about Walker Junior’s serve but I think they were unfounded. As usual when we run out winners at home, there are various comments about the venue, courts, lighting etc. Strange that we never hear it when the opposing team win. Have these teams *seen* some of the other venues?

So another season of mid-table mediocrity for Mens Plastics 1 but I believe we’re at the right level. Going up would see us getting beaten easily and going down would be less of a challenge. I think we’ve found our niche. Until next time my friends …

Fixture updates

Bad weather and unavailable teams have caused a number of postponements in the fixture lists. I’ve just uploaded new fixture lists:

Fixtures by date has been updated.

Fixtures by team has been re-vamped to show the venue (for Simon) and also the score for completed games; I hope to keep this up to date as the season progresses.

Enjoy! 🙂

Mens Plastics 1 vs Jaguar 2, 22 Jan 2013

Mens Plastics 1 9 – 0 Jaguar 2

Nick F & Simon T | David P & Aaron G | David W & John W

With a 7-2 victory over Jaguar 2 quite recently, we expected to be at least in with a chance with our home advantage; that’s exactly how it turned out. Our opening pairs had little difficulty in securing a 2-0 lead before sacrificing the extra court to a surprisingly busy club night on a cold January evening. The Walker family then did what we have come to expect of them and wrapped up the third rubber with little difficulty. At this point there were mumblings about the “blue lines” but we’ve come to expect that when playing at home (especially if we’re winning). Consider it a “home advantage” since we have no crowd as such to get behind us.

From there it was reasonably plain sailing although there were some close games to be had and the Walkers even had to go to three ends to rack up their third rubber. In the end, Oakbrook ran out comfortable winners and it’s good to see the team back on track. Having lost the first three games of the season, we’re now on a four match winning streak which has seen us climb back up the table and once again aiming squarely at mid-table mediocrity. God forbid that we should get promotion to Division 1!

Fixture Update and Team Selections

The team selections for this year are currently posted on the notice board on club night. In addition, you should already have received a mail notifying you of the teams. There may be a couple of “tweaks” required but I expect most teams to stay “as-is”; the exceptions are Mixed and Ladies where the selection committee need to do some juggling.

The fixture list for this year has been updated. I made a small error when scheduling a fixture against Phoenix for the Mixed team. Please replace your fixture list with a new one which can be downloaded from the Calendar page on this site. Team captains will also be getting individual fixture lists tomorrow night along with their captains packs.

2012/2013 Fixtures

I’ve uploaded the fixture lists for the 2012/2013 season. You can download them from the Calendar page.

2012/2013 Season

The 2012/2013 season starts on Tuesday 4th September at 19:00. We look forward to seeing you all there. We’re hoping that some of the visitors who were attracted by the summer badminton will come along too and join us for the new season. Members from last season will be getting an e-mail from me shortly to ask about preferences for teams.

No badminton Tuesday 12th June

The school have advised that the hall will not be available on Tuesday 12th June. We’ll contact Interserve to get an alternative date and we’ll let everyone know if we manage to arrange some badminton for another night. Summer badminton will resume on Tuesday 19th June.