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Photos: David Hoffmann
York cruised to a 6-2 victory over bottom-of-the-table Leeds Met 3rds, to take another vital step towards promotion.
Top seed Baillie Watterson impressed in the singles, winning both his matches, and York picked up maximum points from all the doubles matches.
It was not such a good afternoon for Jinglun Tang, however, as the second seed lost both his matches, but this did not affect the outcome of the result.
The victory means York move into second place in the BUCS Northern 2B table and are therefore in an ideal position to strike in 2013.
York’s star performer Watterson got the ball rolling with an accomplished 21-15, 21-18 victory over opponent Kynan Clarke.
The early stages of the first set were tight and tense and the scores were locked at 10-10, but Watterson accelerated through the gears, winning several points on the bounce and claiming it 21-15.
Watterson turned on the style in the second set, producing more variety with fake shots and drop shots and roaring “Come on!” as he clinched the set 21-18.
Meanwhile, Tang claimed the first set of his match 21-17 against Mike Cross having never gone behind or looked in any sort of trouble. Everything was going to plan.
But then, it all sent horribly wrong. After losing a tight second set 21-17, Tang found himself behind in the decider at 16-19, just two points from defeat. After losing the 20th point, he smashed his racquet in spectacular fashion, leaving a mess on the floor, before eventually losing 21-17.
York were not distracted by the defeat and the doubles were hugely impressive in winning both subsequent matches.
First, Tom Dainty and Andy Henderson, more commonly known as “Chundersaurus Rex” according to his shirt, defeated Patel and Scott of Leeds Met 21-8 in one of the more comfortable matches of the afternoon. The pair displayed superior movement and toyed with their opponents in merciless fashion.
In the second set, they again raced to an early advantage, thanks in large part to their excellent tactic of smashing down the centre of the court, before wrapping it up 21-6.
It was not quite so easy on the opposite court, but York’s James Davies and captain Dan Hirst saw off Cole and Mantey in straight sets, 21-14 and 21-17 to give the home side a decent 3-1 advantage at the halfway stage.
Watterson then went on to win his second match of the day, the final result being 21-23, 21-8, 21-10. As the score suggests, the first set was extremely close with some quite brilliant rallies which Watterson was mostly winning. However, a few sloppy mistakes saw his opponent Clarke save a match point before claiming the first set.
York’s top seed predictably upped his game thereafter, storming to a huge lead in no time and claiming the second set by some distance. The job was complete as Watterson led 12-7 before winning nine of the next 13 points to claim it 21-10.
On the other court, Tang again claimed the first set but could not finish off the match against Cross, eventually going down 19-21, 21-11, 21-17. Again, the court coverage from both players was quite exceptional, and a couple of points here and there ultimately decided the result in Cross’ favour as Tang tired during the latter stages.
Leading 4-2, York knew they only required one win from the remaining two doubles matches to seal victory, and in the end they claimed both on offer.
Davies and Hirst dispatched Cole and Mantey 21-8, 21-8 while Dainty and Henderson swept aside the threat of Patel and Scott 21-9 and 21-14.
Afterwards, captain Dan Hirst told Vision: “We needed to beat this team today, and it was nice to win after the loss last week. Hull and Sheffield are our main rivals and we need to beat them to go up”.
One day will vision ask someone and actually get the players names correct?! Who is Jim…