Uphill Badminton Club hold a successful men’s handicap doubles tournament.

UPHILL C and D teams have been in league action and there has also been a club men’s handicap tournament.

The men’s handicap tournament saw 22 players split into two boxes for a round robin followed by the four top pairs from each box going through to quarter-finals, semi-final and a final.

The handicaps ranged from +5 to –8 and the games throughout the evening were close and hard fought.

In the quarter-finals, Paul Edwards and Neil Sandifer beat Neil Burstow and Dennis Tsang, Robin Curry and Dave Holtby beat Carl Harrison and Simon Jolliff, Clive Wood and Luke Morgan beat Sourish Ganapathi and Callum Grayson and Brian Hadley and Ian Gilmore beat Billy Fear and Bill Ponting.

In the semi-finals, Paul and Neil beat Robin and Dave 21-10 and Ian and Brian beat Clive and Luke 21-15. The final was very close with Paul and Neil trying to pull back an eight point deficit in the handicap.

It was a good match to finish the evening with some excellent rallies and with Paul and Neil serving at 18-19 and looking likely to win the game, the service went over to Brian and Ian and they won 21-18 to complete an enjoyable evening’s badminton.

The C team were away to Wyvern C and won by five rubbers to four. The team consisted of Glyn Davis, Julie O’Sullivan, Matthew Valentine, Maureen Matthews, Neil Burstow and captain Fiona Singleton.

To start with Wyvern held the upper hand in this local derby as they won the first two mixed, before Neil and Fiona won the third mixed for Uphill.

Julie Stainer and Stella Ponting then followed this up by winning the third ladies for Wyvern and Clive Wood and Mike Heinemans beat Glyn Davis and Matt Valentine to go 4-1 up.

From this point on the Uphill players took control with Julie and Maureen beating Eve Lockwood and Stella Ponting 18-21, 21-8, 21-13. Julie and Fiona followed this up by beating Eve Lockwood and Julie Stainer. Neil and Glyn then beat Clive Wood and Chris Loud to bring the match to four rubbers each.

With all to play for in the last men’s Neil and Matt won the first game 21-17 and then in a nail biting second game won 22-20 to win the match.

Julie O’Sullivan performed superbly at this level in the ladies doubles and the only player to win all their rubbers was Neil Burstow from Uphill. For Wyvern Clive Wood played well and gave 100 per cent.

The D team were away to Nailsea & Yatton B and won a closely contended match by seven rubbers to two. The team of Ellen Davis, Carl Harrison, Emily Look, Sourish Ganapathi, Caroline Higgins and Billy Fear had to work hard to overcome a more experienced team.

The evening started with Uphill losing the first mixed in straight games, but Emily and Sourish won the next mixed, followed by Caroline and Billy winning the last mixed to give Uphill the upper hand.

The next three ladies rubbers all went to three games, with Ellen and Emily winning the first and Emily and Caroline winning the third. Nailsea & Yatton pair Alison Storm and Wendy Griggs won the second ladies. The Uphill men then won all three men’s rubbers to wrap up a 7-2 victory.

The only players to win all their rubbers were Sourish and Billy from Uphill.

Men’s semi finalists (left to right): Neil and Paul, Brian and Ian, Robin and Dave and Clive and Luke.