Seascale played Marchon at St Bees in the Men’s Badminton League when the home side were without one of their usual team members.
But Matthew Branthwaite stepped up for his one game of the season and he made his mark on the match right from the off.
He was first up with Graham Robinson against Richard Smith/Omal Jayawardena.
In fact Jayawardena was playing his first men’s game for Seascale, but the home side were too strong on this occasion and took the game 21-10, 21-13.
In the other game it was a slightly different affair, with Marchon’s Gary Park/Matthew O’Sullivan just taking the first end 25-23 against Seascale’s Andrew White/Jordan Martin.
The away pair fought back in the second end winning 21-17, and after a close game in the 3rd end, the away duo also took it 21-18 to win and take the match to one each.
The next set of games saw Robinson/Branthwaite stepping up again and they beat White/Martin 21-18, 21-17.
Park/O’Sullivan made amends for their loss in their first game, also wining in 2 straight ends, 21-15, 21-16 against Smith/Jayawardena.
It meant Marchon went into the swap over games 3-1 ahead and just needing one game out of the last two to take the victory.
O’Sullivan and Robinson came out all guns blazing and took the first end 21-7 against White/Smith.
That continued into the second end as well, which they won 21-12 to give Marchon the one game that was required to make the match now 4-1 to the home side with the final game left to play.
Branthwaite was going for three out of three wins in this last one, partnering with Park, taking on Jayawardena/Martin.
The first end was a close affair with the home side edging it 21-17 and then the second end was even closer with the away side putting up a valiant fight but just losing out 24-22, as Marchon claimed a 5-1 home victory.
Marchon 1 and Cockermouth was always going to be a close contest on paper.
It was last year’s Mixed 1 League winners and Peeney Cup winners, against a young hungry team from Cockermouth.
Indeed Cockermouth went into the game knowing they had a 140-point head start, meaning that they needed to get 9.5 points an end, an achievable score but definitely up against it, especially without their captain Max Statter who was on holiday.
However, the away side put up a valiant effort.
Marchon’s couple of Graham Robinson/Annie Ashburner found it hard going in the first end against Corey Stewart/Stacey Wilkinson, scraping the first end 21-18 but losing out in the second end, 21-20, which was aa great result for the Cockermouth pair.
Gary Park/Zoe Bettinson were up next for Marchon, and they overcome Michael Dodd/Olivia Harrison, 21-6, 21-13, just keeping the away side below the average score required to win the game per end.
In the next set of games, Robinson/Ashburner this time were up against Dodd/Harrison, with the home pair proving too strong winning 21-9, 21-10. However Cockermouth managed the required points they needed.
The other game was much closer though, Park/Bettinson taking on Stewart/Wilkinson with the home pair just edging the first game 21-19 before but the away pair fought back in the second end to win with the same 21-19 score-line.
This give Cockermouth a lot of extra points to go towards their total.
In the change-over games, Robinson/Bettinson just edged Stewart/Harrison, 21-17 in the first, but made light work of the second winning 21-7, but the away side had already done the damage by this point.
The remaining game was split once again, Park/Ashburner winning the first 21-16 against Dodd/Wilkinson, but the away pair fought back to win 21-19 in the final end, making the score Marchon 247, to Cockermouth’s 178, but with their handicap it made their score 318.
However, due to an administrative mistake from Cockermouth they played an ineligible player, meaning that all of that player’s games were given to the home side 21-0, 21-0.
It meant that unfortunately, Cockermouth lost out by 6 points in the end, with the final count back Marchon 249, Cockermouth 243.
It was still a great effort by the away side on the night playing some good badminton against a side who have been around the top of the Mixed 1 League for a number of years.
This has only happened roughly three times in the last 15-20 years where a result has had to change after being played, so not something that happens very often and hopefully doesn’t happen in the future either.
Cockermouth were also against Marchon in the Men’s League.
Marchon had some pay-back after their two defeats by Cockermouth last season in the Men’s League, but they knew it was going to be a tough ask against last year’s Men’s Champions.
In the first game, the home side of Max Statter/Corey Stewart were up against Marchon’s Graham Robinson/Gary Park.
The Cockermouth pair fought hard and they managed to take the first two ends 21-17, 21-15 to get Cockermouth on the scoreboard.
In the second game, Marchon’s John Le Jeune/Matthew O’Sullivan took the first end against Henry Taylor/Michael Dodd, 21-13, but the away duo come back fighting in the second to win 21-11, setting up an interesting third end.
Again the away pair managed to hold their nerves and take it 21-16, to level the overall score at 1-1.
The next set of games saw much the same. Cockermouth’s top pair of Statter/Stewart got a slight scare in the first end just winning 23-21 against Le Jeune/O’Sullivan.
But the home pair stepped it up in the second for a runaway 21-6.
The other game went a similar way to the first for Taylor/Dodd. This time round they took the first game against Robinson/Park, 21-17, but that must have triggered something in the away side, as they took the next two ends, 21-11, 21-12 meaning the match was now tied at 2-2 going into the last two games.
First on was Statter, this time playing with Taylor, up against Park/Le Jeune, and it was the home side once again proving too strong giving Statter a clean sweep of three out of three on the night, winning 21-7, 21-13, meaning they moved into a 3-2 lead with one game left to play.
Stewart/Dodd were up against Robinson/O’Sullivan, with the away pair needing to take the game in order to come away with a draw.
The first end was a close contest with the away side taking it 21-16, but the home duo fought back in the second, claiming it 21-14 so a third end was needed to decide the match result.
With some good badminton being played by both pairs, it was the away team who edged it just, 21-18, meaning that the match finished 3-3.
In Mixed 2 League Seascale 3 and Marchon 3 faced off against each other, mainly because they have the most teams in the leagues so always going to be playing each other most weeks.
Looking at the names on the scoresheet the eight match players had an average age of roughly 27 years old, which is great to see for the two clubs and also the sport in general.
First up was Seascale’s Omal Jayawardena/Liz Bostock, taking on the new pair of Connor Wright playing with Issy Ritchie, and after a close battle and some good badminton from both sides, it was the away duo who managed to come out on top, 21-17, 23-21.
However, in the next game the home side of James O’Hanlon/Rona Daniels took the first end comfortably 21-5 before Marchon fought back with another new pairing Oscar Ayress with Katie Ritchie, taking the second end 21-17.
The home pair played well in the final end, firing on all cylinders from the start and they won 21-7 to level the match.
In the second round of games, Jayawardena/Bostock came through victors in a three-ender, winning 14-21, 21-11, 21-12 against Ayress/K Ritchie, while O’Hanlon/Daniels narrowly edged out Wright/I. Ritchie in two very close ends that could have gone either way, 22-20, 21-18.
This meant that Seascale went into the final two change-over games with a lead of 3-1.
Jayawardena, this time playing with Daniels, lost out in their first end 16-21 against Marchon’s Wright and younger sister K Ritchie, but the home pair fought back in the second and third ends, claiming them 21-14, 21-16.
It meant Seascale had their fourth game under the belt to claim the match with only one game left to play.
O’Hanlon/Bostock looked to make it another win for the home side, against Ayress playing this time with the older sister of the two, I Ritchie, and they were not disappointed, claiming the last game 21-14, 21-16 to claim a 5-1 victory for Seascale 3.
