Hey guys, Sorry for the lack of posts in the last week I've been really busy with college exams and badminton trips. Anyway, I thought I would post a progress post as the badminton season draws to a close.
It's been an eventful few weeks for me after my ankle sprain four weeks ago, when I thought my season was pretty much over. However, my rehab went better than planned and I got back out on the court... just about. Being competitive and wanting to help my teams, of course I wanted to play. My ankle wasn't 100%, but I managed to get through the last two weeks of the season. It's now time for me to rest up properly and allow my ankle to heal.
My first weekend, was a trip to Milton Keynes with the Leinster Senior team where we were in the division one play-offs, with the top two teams being promoted to the English premiership. It was my third year to be a part of this team and it was also our third year in a row to be in the play-offs. We really wanted to go up. Third times a charm am I right? Throughout the season, the team played some brilliant badminton and there were some key performances involved in us securing the place in the play-offs. Losing only one match all season, to Herfordshire, meant we finished second in our group. As a result, we would go head to head with Hertfordshire once more in the play-offs as well as with the top two teams from the other group, Wawrickshire and Nottingham, both of whom had come down from the top tier last season. It was always going to be an exciting weekend of badminton!
We flew over on the Friday night before playing our first match on the Saturday morning against Wawrickshire. We were all pumped up and ready to go. It's always good to get off to a flying start as team morale is boosted. This is exactly what we did as we stormed to an emphatic 10-1 win over Wawrickshire. We couldn't have asked for a better start to the day. With each game counting towards our overall points tally every game was important. A 10-1 win meant we had 10 points and Wawrickshire only had 1. Next up, we played Nottingham. This was always going to be a close game and so it proved to be as we won it 6-5. So, that left us with 2 wins from 2 on day 1 and we were in a commanding position going into our final match of the weekend against Herts, knowing that 4 games would secure promotion for us. In our previous meeting we had lost out to the strong Herts team 8-3, but this time we were out for revenge and were up for the challenge in store. This was probably the most highly anticipated encounter of the weekend. Leinster got off to a flying start going 4-1 up after the singles games. At this point in time we knew we had secured promotion but now we were playing for the title of being Division 1 champions. A star-filled Herts team, with Olympic silver medalist Gail Emms and Joe Goode MBE, fought back from behind to snatch the tie 6-5. Leinster had their chances to win the match, losing some close three-set games but it wasn't to be on the day. We had to settle for second place, losing out to a deserving Herts team by a mere point. But, it was an extremely successful weekend for us and we can happily say we are back in the Premier division for the first time in 17 years.
It is a great honour getting to represent Leinster at senior level and I am looking forward to playing in the Premier division next year. Onwards and upwards.
Also, on Friday the 11th of May I played in the Badminton Premier League final with my club the Pembroke Panthers. We took on the South Dublin Spartans which was a highly anticipated match and it certainly didn't disappoint. With the quick scoring system of best of 5 games to 11 points as well as the use of the 'Powerplay' shuttle it was all to play for. After the two singles, the match was tied at 1-1. Spartans' Tony Stephenson went the full 5 sets with Panther Sam McKay while I played Megan Bredin and got the point for my team in 3 sets. The first Men's and Ladies doubles then took to the court and much to our delight we took both of these games. Myself and Lauren Au played the experienced pairing of Sinead Chambers and Jennie King. Jennie and Sinead are 6 time national champions and we knew it was always going to be a challenge. Lauren and myself, however, won the game by a scoreline of 3-1. The lads on the other court, Sam McKay and Dan Magee beat Ryan Stewart and Declan Bennett. The Panthers now led 3-1 with the second two doubles games to go on. The Spartans pounced back at us taking both of these game to level the tie at 3-3 with the three mixed games still to be played. Dan Magee and Lauren Au managed to scrape past Spartans Ryan Stewart and Jennie King in a five-game thriller, which was a crunch tie. Mark Topping, the head Spartan and Sinead Chambers took the second mixed against Eddie Cousins and Lucie Corcoran meaning the tie was levelled once more at 4-4 and would be decided by the final mixed. Panthers David Walsh and Catriona Farrell took on Declan Bennett and Vicki Pesti of the Spartans. The spectators 'ooed' and 'ahhed' in anticipation during this match. On the night it was the Panthers who took this game 3-0 and the tie 5-4, a brilliant result for the Panthers. Time to celebrate! For my team anyway, not for me thanks to whoever invented Saturday exams...
Big thanks to my team the Pembroke Panthers for a great season and also to the Spartans for giving us some great games and an enthralling final for all spectators! And not to forget the BPL committee who put so much hard work into making these nights and this league a success in Ireland!
Hope to post more frequently over the coming weeks once my exams are over! Talk soon!
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