A COMBINED Horrabridge and BATs Badminton Club team recently played YMCA Kitto Badminton Club in a friendly summer match. Once again Horrabridge and BATs used the match to introduce young players to league badminton.

In the men's doubles rubbers Jonathon Freeman, Dominic Lovett and Colin Jones all played well but were up against three adult and more experienced players from the YMCA Kitto team.

The first men's doubles rubber saw Jonathon and Dominic improve as the rubber continued but in the end they lost the rubber 15-1, 15-7. The second rubber saw Jonathon and Colin play consistently but they found the Kitto players too strong for them and went down 15-6, 15-6. The third saw Dominic and Colin give the Kitto pair a close first game but unable to close it out in their favour. The Kitto pair took the rubber 15-11, 15-4 but had had to work hard.

The ladies' doubles rubbers saw three junior players take on

experienced YMCA Kitto players. In the first rubber Elizabeth Rae and Amy Maddaford found themselves outplayed by the YMCA Kitto league players but did well to gain back service repeatedly. They lost 15-6, 15-6. The second rubber saw Elizabeth Rae and Sarah Abbott take on another experienced Kitto pair. They shocked the Kitto pair by taking the first game 15-9 and soon took an early lead in the second game before the Kitto pair started to rally.

After a tense final few points the Kitto pair took the game 15-13 to send the rubber into a final deciding game. The Kitto pair then took the advantage early on in the third game and ran out the winners of the game and the rubber 15-2.

Having yet to take a rubber the combined Horrabridge and BAT's team were determined not to lose everything and entered the mixed doubles with new vigour. The first rubber saw Jonathon Freeman partner Amy Maddaford.

Having never played together

before it took a while for the pair to settle, but being up against two experienced league players from YMCA Kitto settling down was not easy.

After good play by Jonathon and Amy they lost the rubber 15-8, 15-2. The second rubber saw Dominic Lovett and Elizabeth Rae up against a more experienced YMCA Kitto pair.

After the early exchanges Dominic and Lizzie started to gain the upper hand and comfortably took the rubber 15 - 11, 15 - 10. The third mixed doubles rubber saw Colin Jones partner Sarah Abbott. With Colin and Sarah never having met before they found playing together difficult against more experienced players. Though they played well together, in the end the YMCA Kitto pair took the rubber 15-6, 15-7.

At the end of the evening the team had lost the match 8-1 but with five of the six Horrabridge and BATs players juniors, they were all able to come away with some pleasure at taking on much more experienced badminton players.