Men’s Badminton 2’s vs UAE 1’s ends in painful 4-4 draw
A hotly contested series of badminton matches occurred at the Munrow on Wednesday, that would ultimately end with both the Birmingham Men’s Badminton 2’s and UAE 1’s taking 4 legs a piece. This was especially painful for Birmingham as they were 4-2 up at one stage.
Last time the two sides met in East Anglia it was also a 4-4 tie, but Birmingham would’ve hoped to have gotten the better of their opponents given the Lions higher place in the league table. It started out positively for Birmingham as Milo, the Lions number 1 singles player, brushed past UAE’s 2nd single player with ease defeating him handily 21-9 and 21-5.
In the other singles match between Tom and UAE’s 1st singles player, things were much more hotly contested, rallies went on for long stretches, the doubles match of the Lions 1st team which started after this game finished much earlier. However, Tom after giving quite a fight to his opponent ultimately lost 21-10 and 21-12, but the scores did not reflect the guts of this performance.
In the first round of doubles fixtures it was a similar tale, the Lions doubles 1st team brushed aside their opponents, defeating them easily in straight sets. On the other side, came arguably the best game of the day as the Birmingham doubles 2nd team pushed the UAE’s 1st in to a deciding 3rd set, agonisingly losing that final set 21-19.
At this point it looked good for the Lions as even though the score was 2-2 heading into the next round of fixtures, their 2nd teams looked far superior and gave much more of fight than that of the UAE’s 2nd team.
This good start would continue as both singles would win their matches. First of all Milo again showed his class outperforming his opponent and taking the game in straight sets of scores 21-11 and 21-10.
On the other court, Tom made it difficult for himself, after winning a contested first set, he then went on to lose the second set, even worse he picked up an injury midway through and it looked potentially bleak for the Lions. However, he pulled it back in the final set as the opposition player seemed exhausted and Tom played impressively to give the Lions a 4-2 lead.
Now the Lions looked in good shape to take the victory, however the UAE doubles teams had other plans. Although it started off positively for Birmingham as the 1st team took their first set and so even though the 2nd team struggled in their match and lost in straight sets, there was still confidence the Lions would win.
However, something changed with the UAE’s 1st double team and they took the second set, the Birmingham players were making mistakes that they weren’t earlier on in the day. It came down to a deciding set with everyone watching, and unfortunately the Lions players just couldn’t pull it together, momentum was with UAE and they won the final set 21-17.
