A fine win for the women’s badminton firsts has started the eagerly anticipated new season in style.
A close game at times, the thrilling encounter ended up in York’s favour after a tense showing. At one point the scores were level at 3-3, but York pulled ahead with a dominant display in the doubles matches, winning every point on offer to walk away happy with a 5-3 victory.
The first two singles matches left the score at 1-1, after Alison Cannon was defeated by an impressive Afrodite, Northumbria’s best player of the night. Some excellent smashes from Afrodite meant the two sets ended 21-9 and 21-5, but Rachael Farrington, York’s captain, quickly balanced the scores in her match, winning 21-11 and 21-18. Farrington displayed some flashes of brilliance and showed why she is our captain with an all-round solid display that was too much for Pearl Lai, her opponent, to handle.
The first 2 doubles games came next, with York showing great teamwork to easily overcome their opponents and take the scores to 3-1 in their favour. Charlie Parker and Dani Farsiani came up against Emily Stone and Katy Hawkins and, despite looking shaky at times, held their nerve and dispatched some loose shots from the Northumbria pair to win in two sets: 21-13 and 21-10.
The other doubles game also underlined York’s supremacy in the doubles matches, with Cass Brown and Beth Cowell pouncing on unforced errors in a ruthless display with great communication and movement on the court which saw them win the first set 21-12 and at one point lead 11-4 in the second set. Despite the efforts of Sarah Myne and Sarah Trelfa, York were too good and wrapped up the second set 21-15.
Northumbria began a fight-back, which saw them win the next two singles matches to bring the scores to 3-3. Lai played some good badminton to edge past York’s Cannon in an unconvincing victory for Northumbria, finishing up with scores of 21-12, 21-18.
Meanwhile, Afrodite and Farrington lit up the court in a marvellous display for the spectator, York starting slowly, but coming into the game more and more as Farrington showed some serious skill to narrowly lose the first set 21-18. Afrodite hit some fine cross-court shots to pen back Farrington, who eventually lost the second set 21-14.
This threw the game wide open, and left the final two doubles games as the deciders. York overwhelmed Northumbria in an impressive showing, with Beth Cowell and Cass Brown smashing Stone and Hawkins 21-11 and 21-7. At 4-3 Northumbria might have hoped to get a draw, but York were having none of it with another crushing victory in the doubles, Farsiani and Parker dispatching the two Sarahs 21-16, 21-10.
York have every right to be proud after a fantastic start to the season, leaving Farrington pleased with the performance, stating, “It was fantastic! I’m so proud of all the girls!” York’s captain also noted, “There are a few new people in the team so we weren’t sure how it would go, but I’m so happy with the way everyone played today.”