Uphill Badminton Club’s A team kept their title hopes with a 6-3 victory over close rivals Clevedon Feathers.

THIS eagerly anticipated title challenging match between Uphill A against Clevedon Feathers A lived up to expectations with honours going to Uphill.

The mixed doubles saw Feathers take an early lead through the pairing of Nicola Wall and Jason Reading winning 2-0. This rubber was hugely significant in that Uphill’s Paul Edwards had remained undefeated in mixed doubles badminton ever since 2007.

Feathers’ Viv Armstrong and Rob Armstrong won their rubber 2-1 with Uphill’s Christy Langford and Matt Cole managing to push them to three games. Uphill’s mixed success came from Becky Halfpenny and Will Hollis winning 2-0.

Uphill’s ladies won all three of their rubbers, with Becky Halfpenny winning all three of her rubbers in the match.

The first two men’s rubbers were won by Uphill 2-0, with Paul Edwards and Matt Cole producing possibly their best-ever badminton in a near faultless display against the formidable Avon county pair of Jason Reading and Rob Armstrong.

The final men’s rubber began with a mammoth first game with Feathers’ Armstrong and Billy Mallet taking it 30-29. Uphill’s Cole and Hollis won the second game 21-15, to decide the rubber. The third game was taken by Feathers narrowly 22-20 to win 2-1.

The match was won by Uphill A team six rubbers to three.

Uphill B team played Pill A team in a one-sided match which was dominated by Uphill. It was unfortunate that Pill had a missing player through injury, so conceded three rubbers.

The Uphill team of Emily Page-Symonds, Becky Falswasser, Will Hollis, Robin Curry and Rob Morray played excellent badminton, winning the match by nine rubbers to nil. This maintains the B team unbeaten run this season.

Uphill had the D team in action playing Chew Valley A. Chew Valley won all their rubbers involving ladies in the mixed doubles and ladies’ doubles.

However, there was resistance from Uphill men in Luke Morgan, who narrowly lost both men’s doubles matches by only two points in every game played with good support from Rohan Weekes and Paul Wright. Chew Valley won by nine rubbers to nil.

Uphill men’s team played Winscombe A team in a close match where six games were were won by a narrow margin of two points by Winscombe. The final scoreline of 6-0 did not tell the story of how close this fixture was.

Uphill C team played away to Mendipway and lost by 7-2.

Uphill E team consists of juniors and won 6-3 with a creditable performance against Chew Valley C.