The Men’s Badminton 1st VI performed to beat KCL 6-2 in third week. Having only brought five players to begin with KCL were at an immediate disadvantage, conceding two single games before the match commenced. Despite this, the strength of the Oxford team led to a convincing victory.
Men’s captain Joe Skornia beat his singles opponent comfortably 21-14 21-16 whilst Alastair Reed beat the same KCL individual despite losing the first game, eventually triumphing 19-21 21-16 21-14.
The two doubles pairs fielded by KCL differed significantly in quality. Both Oxford doubles pairs lost to KCL’s stronger duo. Mike Senior and Chris Lim lost 21-7 16-21 16-21 and Matt Harris and George Heinemann lost 22-24 21-12 17-21. Both matches were extremely close and despite being unable to secure victory, the pairs performed admirably against strong opponents.
Both Oxford pairs responded well to beat KCL’s 2nd pair easily, with Senior and Lim playing exceptionally and dominating their opponents; winning 21-5 21-9, whilst Harris and Heinemann were winning 21-14 23-21.
This result leaves Oxford top of the Premier South BUCS division having already beaten Bristol 8-0 the previous week. The Oxford squad put their 100% record on the line in 4th week against a Bath team who are expected to pose a significant challenge.
Meanwhile, the Men’s 2nds continued their excellent unbeaten start to the season with a 5-3 win against University of East Anglia Men’s 1sts who were top of the division. UEA were unable to field a full team meaning two games were gifted to Oxford but the remaining 6 were closely contested and Oxford won 3 of the 4 doubles matches. Stephen Bedford and Alex Cloake won both of their matches and Josh Bappoo and Clinton Lau one of theirs to bring the score on the day to 3-3 and the two walkovers then ensured the victory.
