Boro break their duck

LITTLEBOROUGH celebrated their first win of the season in Open Division One of the Oldham and Rochdale Badminton League as they overcame Balderstone.

They started with wins from Dave Golding and Carl Davis (15-5) and Chris Novotny and Phillip Worthington (15-10). Before too long Littleborough had taken an impressive 6-1 lead with only Rod Collins and Andy Gilmartin (15-11) registering a win for the home team.

Balderstone continued to struggle and only recorded one more victory in the entire match as impressive wins from Carl Davis and Chris Novotny (15-3 & 15-5) led Littleborough to a 13-2 victory.

Littleborough were in action again at Lydgate and this time it was the home side who made an excellent start, taking the first five games without reply, Ali Grimshaw and Graham Hobbs (15-5) the pick of the bunch.

The visitors eventually began to haul themselves back into the match, Mike Davis and Mark Golding (15-2) epitomising the fightback.

But the pair of Ali Grimshaw and Richard Power proved to be decisive as the Lydgate duo won all three of their games to help their team to a 9-6 victory.

Despite not playing, Dons retain top spot and their unbeaten run keeps them ahead of the likes of Lancashire Racquets ‘A’ and Tara.

In Division 2, Saddleworth ‘B’ and Springhill played out one of the closest matches of the season to date, Saddleworth eventually running out 8-7 winners.

Both teams decided to play sides comprising mainly of junior talent. The first game set the tone for the match as Brad Heap and Dan Mounsey got Saddleworth off to a winning start with an epic 15-13 victory.

With the advantage shifting almost on a game-to-game basis it would have been impossible to predict a winner, but in the end it was Saddleworth ‘B’ who took the spoils.
Lancashire Racquets ‘B’ sit at the top of the division but Saddleworth ‘A’ are close behind and have two games in hand.