Uphill Badminton Club’s men’s A team were whitewashed in their first match after promotion last year.

Uphill Badminton Club had two senior and two junior teams in action with mixed results.

The men’s A team opened their campaign with a home match against Clevedon Feathers. Following last year’s promotion to Division 1, a tough season was expected and the first match proved just that.

The team of Bill Ponting, (captain), Nigel Judge, Tony Wilsher-Day and Bobby John all put up a good fight, but lost out in all six rubbers in straight games. Next up is a long trip to Mendipway A, where another tough match is expected.

The men’s B team travelled to Wells in their second Division 2 match to take on Mendipway B. The team of Tom Miller, Raymond Lee, Rhys Davies and Craig Piper all played well and the match contained some thrilling games, the highlight of which saw Tom and Rhys winning 24-22 in the third.

With Rhys teaming up with Raymond and Craig to win his other two rubbers and Raymond and Craig combining to take the night’s last rubber, it gave Uphill a 4-2 victory.

Man of the match was Rhys, who won all his rubbers.

This second win leaves Uphill top of the table going into this week’s home match against the youngsters from Chew Valley B.

The Under-14s opening league match saw them travel to Bristol to take on a strong St Ursula’s line up. The team of Zion, Charlie, Shuo Shuo and Alana all gave 100 per cent and on a different day, the match score could have been closer.

The singles were a close affair, Zion lost the first, before Charlie won a tight match 15-14, 15-14. Shuo Shuo lost out 10-15, 9-15, before the closest rubber of the day saw Alana lose out 9-15, 15-14, 13-15.

The doubles were dominated by St Ursula’s winning the first five in two games. The final rubber was another thriller, seeing Shuo Shuo and Charlie edged out 15-13, 13-15, 13-15.

This left St Ursula’s as 9-1 winners on the day.

A fantastic first of an Under-10 fixture between St Ursula’s and Uphill, saw a line up of Aidan, Riley, Lin, Roman, Meggie and Phoebe all had a great time.

All were playing their first match as were all their counterparts from St Ursula’s. The match consisted of a massive 42 games, consisting of six singles rubbers and 15 doubles.

The six half court singles saw lots of close games, with Roman sharing his match 5-11, 11-8, and Meggie also splitting hers 5-11, 11-10. This left St Ursula’s 10-2 up after the singles.

The doubles again produced numerous close games and 13 of the 30 games had scores of 11-7 or higher.

St Ursula’s just held the edge in most pairings, Meggie and Roman both winning one game each with Aidan and Riley respectively, before teaming up together to share a rubber 11-10, 3-11.

With St Ursula’s taking the doubles element 27-3, this left the overall score of this friendly fixture 37-5 in St Ursula’s favour.

With 12 players in total from both sides getting a first taste of competitive play, junior badminton in Avon was the real winner. Thanks on the day go to Clive Wood and Billy Fear for their scoring help.