Oxfordshire 1sts played their first match of the season yesterday again Bedfordshire 1sts at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes yesterday....and what a little ripper it was!! I'll save the score for later.

Now I know that most of you are county badminton virgins. So here's how a match works.

There are around five men and five women in each county team (yes we like to mix - it makes it much more fun)!

The format of each match is below (by the way, a rubber is a single match within the context of the overall match - not something you use for bedroom activity - well maybe later but definitely not now).

 

Round One - 2 mens singles and 2 ladies singles rubbers

Round Two - 4 mens doubles rubbers (two pairs on either side play reverse matches against each other)

                   - 4 ladies doubles rubbers(two pairs on either side play reverse matches against each other)

Round Three - 3 mixed doubles rubbers

 

Each rubber is the best of 3 ends (or sets if you like) played to 15 points - only scoring on your own serve.

 

We were two rubbers a piece after the first round. Myself and my partner are Oxfordshire's first pair, and we took both of our mens doubles rubbers. Our second mens pair took one of the two rubbers leaving us with three out of four for the mens doubles. The ladies unfortunately could only manage one out of four rubbers, leaving the match score tied at six rubbers a piece going into the last round of mixed doubles.

The first and third pair went on first, I was playing second with Alison my partner. She had a slight ankle sprain so was getting a bit of treatment before we went on. By the time we started, the other two matches were well under way.

To cut to the chase, our first mixed pair lost in three close ends, but our third pair won in three not so close ends. As they came off - yes you guessed it we were still on with the match now tied at 7-7. As the crowd gathered close, we took the first end 15-8 reasonably comfortably. Our opponents took a small lead of 4-0 in the second end. Alison and I corrected our tactics and got the rhythm going again swooping into a a 10-8 lead. With the cheers ringing out, we finally took the match 15-9. The crowd went wild (well ours did) - we had won an epic encounter 8-7.