Uphill Badminton Club started its winter season with a pre-season handicap tournament.

UPHILL Badminton Club has started its winter season and has seven teams in the North Somerset Badminton League.

They have two mixed teams in the first division, which the A team have won for the past nine years, two mixed teams in the third division and a junior team in the fifth division, together with two teams in the men’s league. A further men’s team is in Division 1 of the Bristol League.

The club plays on Tuesday and Thursday nights and has home matches on Saturdays at the Hans Price Sports Centre. The club also runs a junior section on Saturdays with three hourly coaching sessions for children from five to 18 of differing abilities from 2.30-5.30pm.

Anyone interested in joining the club should contact Caroline Poole on 01934 418120 for juniors or Paul Edwards by email - predwards@hotmail.com for seniors

The club has just held their pre-season men’s and ladies’ handicap tournaments to get the winter season up and running.

The ladies’ tournament had an entry of five pairs. All pairs played each other in one box with the top four pairs making up the semi-finals. There were some hotly-contested games and the handicapping on the whole worked out well.

The semi-final line up saw Helen Woodfin and Bethan Dunning (+7) beat Becky Falwasser and Ellen Davis (+3) 21-13, and Teresa Davison (Lloyd) and Fiona Singleton (-3) beat Emily Page Symonds and Jess Hargrave (-5) 21-18.

The final was another close affair with Fiona and Teresa coming out winners 21-18.

The men’s tournament had an entry of 10 pairs, being split into two boxes of five with the top two pairs from each box making the semi-finals.

In the first box, Paul Edwards and Ian Gilmore (-7) ran out comfortable winners with a maximum 84 points, with Mark Edwards and Brian Hadley (-6) coming second with 74.

In the second box, there were several close games with pairs beating each other. Group winners were Grant Kelly and Nigel Judge (+4) with 76 points, with runners-up Anjam Ajif and Carl Harrison (-7) with 68.

In the first semi, Paul and Ian defeated Anjam and Carl 21-20, and not to be beaten for excitement, the second semi-final saw Grant and Nigel defeat Mark and Brian also by 21-20.

The final was another tight affair with Paul and Ian slowly reducing their initial 11-point deficit to draw level at 13-13, they then edged ahead and came through as the nights winners by 21-18.

Thanks must go to Robin Curry for the organisation of both events and to the three handicappers who did an excellent job.