[visiongallery set=72157631952964977]
Photos: David Hoffman
York men’s 1sts showed no real weakness despite only just managing to field a team, after it was thought injuries and commitments would mean a loss by default.
But some exceptional individual performances – and a great effort in particular from York’s Kelvin Elphick, playing his first badminton match for over a year – gave York a second successive BUCS win, topping the table in the process.
York came into the encounter off the back of a draw against Hull before a 5-3 triumph over Leeds.
And they continued that momentum as Baillie Watterson destroyed Durham’s Ryan Yung 21-11, 21-9 in a timely fashion. There were also wins in the doubles for York’s Andy Henderson and Tom Daintly, as well as Jin Glun Tang and Dan Hirst, who beat Males and Kneebone, and Lambert and Woodhall respectively, in straight games.
Durham managed to claw their way back into the contest after Phil Pereira and Ryan Yung both scraped past Kelvin Elphick – who was called into the team just hours before – but a terrific encounter between Watterson and Pereira was the best of the lot.
Some excellent disguised shots from the York man often set up smashing opportunities, which were finished with aplomb. And spectators were getting neck ache with a number of superb rallies going on for minutes at a time. But after facing a scare when the visiting Pereira managed to level the tie at 21-14, 21-23, Watterson responded professionally and completed the job 21-14.
Afterwards, he remarked: “We were really struggling to get a team together today but we’ve done well. We should be able to press on from this great start and think about winning the league, although it will be tough next at Sheffield, who have the under 19 Olympic silver medallist in their side.”
Influential figure James Davies had to sit out for York as he was suffering with “fingernail damage”, but overall this positive result adds to their excellent start to the season, as the side now top the Northern 2B division.