For the first match of their season the Men’s badminton team went head to head with Warwick University in the new £50 million sports centre. Having come 2nd in the BUCS Premier North League last year by one point Birmingham was playing to win and secure those all-important points to help them move into the top spot of the league table. Despite the one-sided final score line of 7-1 to the Lions all eight matches were hard fought with three of the matches going to three sets.
The evenings games opened with the singles matches, where Birmingham’s Jordan Trebert dominated his first games against a competitive Warwick opponent. In a high octane performance he secured victory in two games of 21-13 to give UoB its first win of the season.
At the same time, his singles teammate Henry Smith was battling it out with Warwicks Henry Jones in ‘The battle of the Henrys’. Unfortunately, he was not able to secure Birmingham its second win, loosing two of his three games to Warwick despite some brilliantly tactical shots.
Next up were the doubles teams where UoB’s team captain Peter Clegg and his partner Tim Badbury stormed to victory, out-playing Warwick in two very tactical and fast paced games to secure their first win of the season.
The Lions second doubles pair of Chris Vaz and Chan Jun Hoe manage to repeat their teammates performance, producing a nail biting two games where they won 21-12 and 21-9. This brought the scoreline up to 3-1 to Birmingham, providing a good starting point for the next round of matches.
Next up was the second round of singles games where Trebert maintained his winning streak in a brilliant performance, beating his opponent 21-14 and 21-15. His teammate Henry Smith was able to secure his first win of the season with a change of tactics mid-way through the second game. Starting off with high shots to try and push his opponent back he soon realised his competitors height was giving him and advantage resulting Henry loosing his first match 13-21. Having realised this Smith changed to drop and corner shots, forcing his opponent to move across the court and resulting in a lot of missed shots, giving Smith his 21-14 and 21-19 victories.
The next doubles matches were equally as successful with Clegg and Bradbury and Vaz an Hoe winning in emphatic style to give Birmingham their overall win of 7-1, putting them into the second spot in the league. A brilliant start to the season.
