Great badminton, great people, great fun...
Simply Stunning!
East
Leake produced a series of sensational giant killing performances to
earn an historic first ever appearance in the Nottinghamshire Cup held
on 1st April. The East Leake squad swept aside Premier League and First
Division sides littered with county stars on their way to reaching the
final, including a stunning 5 - 1 semi-final victory over highly
fancied West Bridgford.
The final itself again saw East Leake battle out a valiant encounter against a mighty and star studded Byron team who have dominated Nottinghamshire badminton for the past few seasons. Byron ran out eventual 5 - 2 winners but not before East Leake had given the overwhelming favourites a scare by leading 2 - 0 after the first 2 mixed rubbers. Rising star, Martin Edwards, and partner Gill Rogerson, put on a high quality display to win the first mixed rubber and justify a widely held view that Martin is one of the most promising young talents in the county. This was followed up by another brilliant performance from Geoff Rogerson and Sally Medland who extended East Leake's lead further. East Leake continued to trouble the favourites, forcing a number of rubbers into a deciding third game, including a magnificent 3 game thriller featuring Andy Longton and Adrian Mateo against an England ranked pair. However, Byron did recover from the shock start and their class began to tell as they won the next 5 straight games to settle the contest.
Speaking after the match, East Leake Captain, Gill Rogerson, summarised the teams performance by remarking "This is a great night for East Leake Badminton Club. The team were absolutely awesome, everybody played their hearts out and have done themselves and the club proud". But perhaps the mood of the team was best summed up by Andy Longton who commented "I'm knackered, but I'm happy".
April 2008