Uphill Badminton Club lost the second leg of a friendly encounter with Clevedon Feathers.

LAST week saw the return encounters of the summer friendly matches between Uphill and Clevedon Feathers at Clevedon School.

In the first team match, Feathers ran out comfortable winners by nine rubbers to nil. Unfortunately Uphill experienced unavailability to several players, but still put up a good fight.

The team of Matt Cole, Becky Halfpenny, Robin Curry, Julie O’Sullivan, Rob Morray and Charlie Scott all had a good workout against a full team of Feathers’ Division 1 players.

The mixed rubbers saw several close games with Matt and Becky losing out to Rob Armstrong and Nicola Wall. This was followed by a competitive rubber with Phil Nicholls and Maria Lewis defeating Robin and Julie.

The third mixed was the closest rubber of the evening with Olly Powers and Emma Bailey winning in three sets against Rob and Charlie.

The ladies’ rubbers were all fairly one-sided affairs won in straight games with the highest score achieved of 13 points.

The men’s provided some good battles and many excellent rallies, with Matt and Robin losing out the closest men’s rubber 21-17, 21-14 against Rob and Phil. The remaining two men’s were both again taken by Clevedon in straight games to complete a comprehensive victory to avenge their first leg 6-3 defeat last month.

The second team match saw a similar outcome to the home leg with Uphill following up their 7-2 home victory with an 8-1 victory in this away leg. The team of Tom Higgins, Caroline Higgins, Andy Potts, Jess Hargrave, Clare Laney and Paul Wright all played well.

The first two mixed were shared with Tom and Caroline winning comfortably against father and daughter pairing of Brian and Lauren Rickwood. Clevedon’s sole success of the night came in the second rubber with Ian Coles and Abbie Rickwood beating Andy Potts and Jess Hargrave.

The final mixed went Uphill’s way with Paul and Clare beating Jack Rickwood (Uphill junior) and Jane Humphries.

The ladies were again a one-sided affair with all three rubbers being won by Uphill in straight games.

The men’s produced some competitive games, with Uphill taking the first two rubbers, with the closest match coming in the third rubber with Andy and Paul defeating Ian and Jack in three.

Thanks go to Olly Powers of Clevedon and Mark Edwards of Uphill for arranging these two sets of matches which have provided some good preparation for the coming league season.