The Coventry 1^st Team were given a harsh welcome to the Coventry Mens 2^nd Division following promotion last year.

Following team struggles on both sides the match finally got underway and was played in great spirit.

Steve and Aseem seemed to struggle all night with keeping the shuttle in the court and over the net. More practice required… However, managed to keep just enough over and in to take David Lloyd’s first pair to a three game rubber, but fell a little short.

Shahid and Phil were a little slow on the up take but managed to take a rubber against the David Lloyd 3^rd pair. Not without a little controversy with confusion over a frame shot!

Jeremy and Isaac were up to their old tricks combining acrobatics and Badminton. Both diving for the same shot at one point! After a full on three game rubber they secured another win for the team over the David Lloyd 1^st pair.

Now all the cob webs have been knocked off it is very much a case of onwards and upwards. We now know the standard and have to become competitive at this new level. All of the opposition pairs were beatable and we look forward to the return match away at the end of the season.

David Lloyd Coventry BC won the match 7 – 2.

Hunters 2nds (Coventry league) opened their account with a home fixture against Aerotech Labs 3.

Some shuffling of players were needed due to injuries, but the team were up for the challenge.

Simon Piercy and David Pugh fought a tough match against Aerotech’s first (and strongest) pairing, needing three games to take the rubber for an initial lead. New pairing Pan Dhokia and Martin Toms played well but couldn’t quite edge past the second pairing, only conceding by a respectable 21-23, 17-21. Mark Currie and Andy Dunn made easier work of the third pairing winning comfortably in two.

Rubbers 4, 5 and 6 went a similar way with 2 wins and a loss for Hunters.

Pan and Martin then played the closest of matches, but couldn’t overcome Aerotech, in another close one (18-21, 20-22).

With the match score at 4-3, Hunters needed one more for a win. Andy and Mark took the first leg of their final rubber, meanwhile Simon and David on the next court has fingers crossed that the weight wouldn’t fall on their shoulders to win a decider. As the games progressed, Andy and Mark couldn’t make their efforts count, but Simon and David had a more comfortable game, winning 21-16, 21-16 to clinch the match.

Match result 5-4 win for Hunters 2.