St Ives Badminton Club continued a proud tradition on Sunday, beating a University team to win the South Cambridgeshire League Bill Pink trophy for the ninth year in a row at Cambridge Regional College.
Neil Place lost his first end of mens singles, but renewed his effort and turned the game around to defeat Chin Kiat Tan in three ends. In the ladies, special recognition should go to up-and-coming club and County star Molly Carter, who showed real class and rampaged through her singles game to win 21-0, 21-2 against Sammy Jones.
The remaining team comprising Simon Woodhouse, Daniel Bates, Liz Salmon and Amanda Godfrey joined Neil and Molly to take on Sammy Jones, Qichao Zhao, Mary Wang and Jo Brant who represented the University.
Despite a number of other hard-fought games between the men and in the mixed disciplines, St Ives still ran out resounding winners with a 9-0 overall score. St Ives has now won the title 16 times in the 51 year history of the competition.
On the same day, the South Cambridgeshire League Mixed Handicap Final saw Hawks playing Ely Victoria Mixed II. Ely Victoria has just been promoted to the 1st division after a strong season losing only one match. Hawks finished mid-table in Division 3, making handicapping the tie a challenge for organisers.
The match was played in a competitive but friendly spirit and there were some great rallies, belying the apparent mismatch between the teams. While both teams played well, special mention must to go to Daniel Lay and Katherine Staden who had some very close games, losing with 19, 16 and 17 points.
The final scores were Hawks 172 v Ely Victoria 378, a difference of 206 points. The sealed handicap had previously been set at 225, so Hawks were winners by 19 points.