Orkney Badminton Association

The annual ‘B’ inter county against Shetland was played at Garson Hall Stromness on Saturday 21 April. With some regular players promoted to the A team to cover for players unavailable to travel to Shetland for the ‘A’ match the previous night it opened the door for some new faces to play against a strong and experienced squad from Shetland.

First up at 3rd mens was juniors Owen Reid and Liam Delday against Peter Hunter and John Lawrie Irvine. After narrowly losing the first set 17–21 Owen and Liam reversed the second set winning 21-17. There followed a very exciting third set when youth started to tell but on the brink of success a change of tactic by the Shetland pairing stole the set 22-20.

At the same time 3rdladies, Kathryn Sclater and Lindsay Anderton were having a hard match against Jane Park and Kathleen Johnston, eventually losing 14-21, 18-21.

2nd men Robbie Norquoy and Ronald Thomson had a disappointing 1st set, losing 12-21 to Andrew Hunter and Stanley Nesbit. However, they upped their game winning the second set 21-17 and the third 21-19 to give Orkney their first win of the day.

2nd Ladies saw another junior, Victoria Linklater team up with captain for the day, Kazia Watson. They pushed their opponents Sandra Petrie and Jackie Guthrie close but eventually lost out 18-21, 17-21.

Expectations were high for Calum Flett and Trevor Kinghorrn at 1st mens when they won the first set 21-6 against Michael Guthrie and Lewis Fraser. Unfortunately there was a big turn around when they lost the second and third sets 17-21, 16-21. To add to Orkney’s woes Trevor sustained an injury which enforced his withdrawal from the mixed.

At 1st ladies was another junior in Rhian Mackay partnering Karen Kent playing Anette Gear and Laura Guthrie. Both sets were close at 19-21, 19-21 but the result meant that after the level doubles, Shetland were holding a 5-1 lead.

In at 6th mixed Kathryn and Liam had a closely contested match taking the first set 22-20 against Kathleen and Lewis. Unfortunately they could not maintain this form and lost the 2nd and 3rd sets 17-21, 17-21.

At 5th mixed Lindsay and Owen as a new pairing played well but lost out to Jane and Peter 17-21 and 19-21.

4th mixed saw Kazia and Robbie take on Laura and Andrew play another close match but losing out 19-21, 15-21.

Shetland continued to dominate the mixed with 3rd mixed Victoria and Ronald going down 20-22 and 14-21 to Jackie and Stanley.

With Trevor unable to play at 2nd mixed it fell on Ronald to return to court to play with Rhian but to give him a rest the match was left until after the 1st mixed match was played. Karen and Calum fought a very closely contested three setter against Anette and Michael with Karen and Calum eventually taking the match 21-17, 19-21, 22-20.

The last match on then was Rhian and Ronald against Sandra and John Lawrie who took the first set 21-16. Showing plenty determination Rhian and Ronald were not to be beaten, taking a hard fought second set 25-23. Encouraged by this they maintained their momentum to win the third set 21-14.

Whilst the overall result, a win for Shetland 9-3 was a bit disappointing for the Orkney players there were a number of very good performances, especially from the juniors that must raise our hopes for the future.

The match was generously sponsored by Orkney Builders (Contractors) ltd and on their behalf Stephen Kemp presented the cup to Shetland captain Stanley Nesbit.