KU’s badminton women coast to victory over Buckingham New University

Kingston’s women’s badminton team served up a perfect match against Buckingham New University winning all eight matches.

Lesley-Anne Morley

Kingston’s new doubles pair, Pieta Chan and Lily Simmons, was an unbeatable combination against Buckingham New University (Bucks) at Tiffin Sport Centre on Wednesday.

Even with Simmons’s late arrival and rushed warm-up, she was able to settle into a “natural rhythm” with new partner Chan and they easily won their matches against Bucks’ Nicola Neill/ Rebecca Lee and Maya Lodge/ Della Blackmore.

Chan said: “I found that we went really well with each other and we were serving exceptionally well tonight.  A lot of our points were right off the serve.”

No luck for Bucks

Kingston won all eight matches and managed to keep their opponents to single-digit scores all evening.

For rookie Bucks player, Hamsa Ganesan, this was her first competitive badminton match and the overall team has played relatively few games this year because of cancellations or forfeits.

Bucks captain Neill said: “Overall, with the games we have played this season, I’ve been pretty pleased.  All you can do is your best at the end of the day.”

Semi-final slump

Kingston remain undefeated in their league games, but they lost the South Eastern Conference semi-final match against Reading University on  March 20.

Despite hard play and pushing Reading to a full set of games in most matches, Kingston lost the night 0-8.

Bennet said: “It was a little disappointing, but we knew it was going to be hard.  It was the semi-final and they were a really good team, but we put up a good fight. 

The matches were close and most went to three games, but it just went their way in the end.”

With only two games remaining in the season, Bennet hopes to keep the team near the top of the charts so they can move up into a higher league next year.

The final home game of the season will be on March 13 at 8pm at the Kingston College Arena (KT1-2AQ) against the University of East London.

Full Results

Singles

Bennet (KU) vs Ganesan              (BNU)                   21-2, 21-4            Kingston Win

Clark (KU) vs Frandzis (BNU)                       21-4, 21-6            Kingston Win

Bennet (KU) vs Frandzis (BNU)                  21-6, 21-5            Kingston Win

Clark (KU) vs Ganesan (BNU)                      21-3, 21-2            Kingston Win

Doubles

Stavely-Taylor/ Yau (KU) vs Neill/ Lee (BNU)                       21-8, 21-6            Kingston Win

Chan/ Simmons (KU) vs Lodge/Blackmore (BNU)                              21-3, 21-7            Kingston Win

Stavely-Taylor/ Yau (KU) vs Lodge/ Blackmore (BNU)      21-4, 21-5            Kingston Win

Chan/ Simmons (KU) vs Neill/ Lee (BNU)                                              21-7, 21-9            Kingston Win