THE first round of the handicapped Plymouth and District Badminton League's Beckley Cup saw BATs Badminton Club take on Torpoint Badminton Club.
With BATs fielding five players from their division 5 team and Torpoint all of their division 4 team BATs were surprised when the handicapping went against them at the end of the match.
The first round of six games saw BATs hold an advantage of 14 points over Torpoint with four of the games going the way of BATs. Paul Bitton and Frances Ward did well to take the first game off the Torpoint number one pair before the Torpoint pair recovered to take the second game. Alan Berry and Elizabeth Rae took both of their games comfortably while Mike Ward and Tamsin Woodroffe lost the first game heavily then turned the tables and won comfortably.
The second round of six games saw Alan and Elizabeth lose to the Torpoint first pair. Paul and Frances then showed the BATs team how to beat the second Torpoint pair but Mike and Tamsin found the second Torpoint pair too strong for them.
After the second round of six games BATs held a ten-point lead overall.
The third round of six games saw Paul and Frances and Alan and Elizabeth comfortably beat the Torpoint number three pair and, after a difficult first game, Mike and Tamsin run the Torpoint number one pair close in the second. At the end of all 18 games BATs held a lead of 16 points over Torpoint.
With all games played, the 'handicapping envelope' was opened to reveal that Torpoint had a handicap of 36 points over BATs, giving Torpoint the win by 20 points even though they were fielding players from a higher division.