Balderstone win thriller

BADMINTON: BALDERSTONE clinched the Oldham and Rochdale Badminton League’s Open Division Handicap final, narrowly beating Hollingworth, at Lancashire Racquets.

Chris Novotny and David Golding got things going for Hollingworth with a 21-15 victory but Balderstone immediately replied with Brian Dearden and Andy Gilmartin winning 21-11.

The match continued in much the same way, one side winning before the other replied and, with one game to go, there was only a half point separating the two teams.

The final game saw Novotny and Carl Davies beat Tony Kelly and Dearden 21-13 to clinch victory. Aman Chowdhury and Ray Bibby were also part of the successful Balderstone’s side.

In the league, things remain extremely tight at the top of Division One. Alpha A travelled to Lydgate, hoping to maintain the pressure on Dons. They started well, winning the first five games before Richard Power and Matthew Cheetham got Lydgate on the scoreboard with a 21-18 win. Alpha continued to dominate, however, and wins from Lee Povey and Paul Shiel 21-16, 21-12 and 21-10 helped them record a 13-2 win.

Dons took on Tara and started well, winning four of the first five games, with fine wins for Nick Weston and Tony Mooney 21–14 and Neil Tuersley and Martin Spencer 21-15.

Tara took three close games in a row, with all three pairs winning 21-20.

Chris Cheetham and Tony Weston 21-14 and Colin Dunn and Mark Webster 21-14 won their games, helping to level at 7-7 with one to go. The final game saw Nick Weston and Pete Ramsden win the match for Dons with a 21-20 victory.

In Division Two, with MMCBC having wrapped up the title long ago, Hollingworth were looking to maintain second spot when they visited Spotland.

Hollingworth dominated from the start, winning 13 games without reply, the best results coming from Dave and Mark Golding, who won all three of their games together.

Two late consolation wins from Simon Jukes and Geoff Sladen 21-19 and Ian Wiener and Martin Noble 21-20 left the match score at 13-2 in Hollingworth’s favour.

Hollingworth managed to record the same scoreline when Alpha B were the visitors, with a fine contribution coming from Carl Davies and Flora Bradshaw, who won all three of their games together.