Badminton take on Oxford in BUCS Trophy

This year’s BUCS Trophy has proven to be a good one for Imperial’s Ladies team.

After a bye in the first and a win against Glamorgan in the second round, we found ourselves in the quarter finals against Oxford last Wednesday. Although it was technically a home fixture, somehow Badminton seems to have been banished from Ethos lately and we were sent to play at Burlington Danes Academy near White City.

We soon realised that this was not a place that was very accommodating to Badminton players. Two of the poles were about two inches too high for Badminton nets, and one court just had volleyball poles which only left two courts to play on (the men’s second team was supposed to have a match at the same time but luckily their opposition didn’t turn up, otherwise it would have been only one). All this wasn’t helped by the fact that a fan was operating in the hall that was strong enough to make our hair blow in the wind. I mean really, Sport Imperial?

The actual match turned out to be the most exciting one all season. The doubles games were very close, with three our of four going to three sets, but unfortunately we managed to win only one of them.

As our second singles player won one out of her two matches, it was up to our first singles to secure two wins to save the day. As we’d hoped, she won her first game with ease, but after having a quick look at the score sheet it soon became clear that another high two-set victory was needed so secure a 4–4 win by point difference. Trying to be clever and save myself from adding up all the scores, I inevitably made a mistake figuring out the required points difference which led the whole team to believe that a very tall order of 21–5, 21–4 was needed to win the match. Oxford, on the other hand, just dutifully added up all the points without any attempted arithmetic shortcuts and thus congratulated us after a 2–10, 21–6 win. After some initial confusion, we finally realised that we had actually won (By 365–350 points after 4–4 in games and 10–10 in sets) and we’re in the semi-finals where we will face Bath’s second team.

Luckily the next round will be an away match; I couldn’t have faced inviting Bath, with their amazing sports village, to play at Burlington Danes. When we arrive there later on today, they might still think Imperial is taking Badminton just as seriously as they do. At least until they realise that we love the sport mainly for the cakes we have after the games. Which doesn’t mean that we won’t try our best to win. So if you want to know how we got on tonight, come back tomorrow and read the report.