Report by Simon Rowe
On Sunday November 6, Mid Glamorgan’s success continued as they took on the might of Worcestershire at St Cenydd Leisure Centre. After the previous week’s hammering, Worcestershire were out for some revenge and travelled with a strong outfit.
They weren’t quite able to convert their enthusiasm into points at the University of Glamorgan as Mid Glamorgan showed their superiority coming away with a comfortable 14-1 victory. There was a big crowd supporting and with Sam Warburton swapping the thrills of rugby for some exciting badminton action, Mid Glamorgan didn’t want to disappoint.
First up was the singles where Mid Glamorgan dominated. Richard Vaughan and Martyn Lewis represented the South Walian team and showed their superiority both winning comfortably in two sets. Vikki Jones was able to maintain her impressive form this season, absolutely dominating her opponent winning 21-1 21-11, rarely being troubled. It was one of Mid Glamorgan’s débutantes, Ellen Mahenthlalingham who had the toughest match as a few pre game nerves told in the first set, as Ellen took a little while to settle and couldn’t quite claw the game back losing it 21-18. However, she was able to show great maturity and composure, and her patience paid off as Ellen took the next two sets 21-13 and 21-8. Mid Glamorgan were leading 4-0 after the singles.
Again in the doubles, the men were able to assert their dominance, and the partnership of Martyn Lewis and Matthew Hughes was reignited, as they swapped competing against the best in the world to showing off their talents for Mid Glamorgan. It was Matthew Hughes’ début and he took full advantage of the opportunity as he and Martyn won both of their games, 21-16, 21-15 and 21-12, 21-5. Michael Lewis played with Richard Vaughan this week and after an easy first match, they took on Ivor Griffiths and Ben Witham who showed some resilience and fight-back, as they slaughtered their opponents in the first set winning 21-9. However, those same qualities shone through for the Mid Glamorgan pair as they managed to come back, taking the next two sets, 21-14, 21-16.
The ladies first pairing of Vikki and another débutante Kate Ridler enjoyed success but they had to work hard and it really paid off, as they took both of their games 22-20, 21-18 and 21-9, 21-14. Mid Glamorgan’s second ladies doubles were Kelly Blake and back from her recent injury, Rachel Thomas put the Mid Glam shirt on for the first time this season. The girls took their first game, 21-11, 21-17 but had an extremely tough second game. They pushed the Worcestershire pair all the way but they just came up short losing 21-18, 15-21, 21-18.
Mid Glamorgan had already secured the bonus point victory, but pride was at stake for the mixed doubles. Unfortunately for Worcestershire, Mid Glamorgan were not feeling very friendly and kept up their dominance with three very impressively comfortable victories. Nic Strange made his début for Mid Glam and fresh from his victory with Vikki Jones in Bournemouth Open the previous day, the pair carried on their form completing a comfortable victory winning 21-8, 21-16.
Mid Glamorgan have certainly put three very impressive performances together and are proving to be too hot to handle at the moment.
There have been no less than seven débutantes, which really shows the strength in depth they have at the moment. They have a short break now but will be very pleased to be at the top of the tree with three bonus point victories. Their next match is away against Gloucestershire on the November 20 and then a Christmas showdown with Wiltshire on December 18, so if you’re a badminton fan, come on down to show your support.
On behalf of Mid Glamorgan Badminton, I would like to thank John Walsh, Margaret Redfern and Steve Temple for umpiring the matches and hope they will available to do so in the future.