Having not been in a tournament for a few months was more than happy to come back from the heart of the Black Country with a 3rd place in the mens B and thereby achieving my highest number of rankiing points in a single competition. A word first though on the venue and the organisation both of which were more than excellent. All the matches ran on time (if not early), very little queuing, superb facilities and very friendly David Lloyd staff. It also made a massive difference that all the courts were close by with no treks out to far flung sports halls, it all helped to create a good tournament atmosphere. All of the above contributed massively to a great British Championships……
So onto the matches and at this juncture I must apologise to my first round opponent Chris Kendall whom I beat on a dreaded “gumi arm” tiebreak. For those not in the know, a “gumi arm” is played when the scores after all 4 sports are tied. A single point is played at tennis, the person serving however has just one serve. After a terrible start in the table tennis (scoring just 3), I clawed back a few points in badminton and squash but needed the full 21 in tennis whilst Chris needed 9 to win. Fortunately I began to play somewhere approaching my best, and after some very tense rallies I got to 21 and Chris got to 8 – queue the dreaded “gumi” – I lost the toss and Chris did what any sane person should do and passed the serve to their opponent. With just one serve, going full tilt at the serve is not an option, and I was lucky enough to get enough depth and spin on the serve to cause the return to go out. A 1st round win by the skin of my teeth, having been behind the whole match – hence the apology.
British Racketlon Championships 2011, Dudley
The quarter final match was thankfully a less tense affair, and I managed to close out the game without going to tennis which left me in the semi finals. The semi brought another close match, this time with Resham Sagoo. Table tennis and badminton were close calls 20-22 and 21-19, I managed to open up a bit of lead at squash which left with 15 needed in the tennis but Resham’s tennis proved just that little bit too strong and he eaked out a deserved 76-74 win. It was by the far the best quality and closest match I have played in, and whilse it is always disappointing not to win a semi-final, I (almost) didn’t mind losing in such a good match.
Next up is is the Nottinghamshire Open, a much smaller event but as it is my hometown event no excuses not to play!
Full results from the British Champs can be found here….
