Katie Scott shares the match highlights

The past two weeks have seen us battle against local youngsters Emerson Eagles – last week we hosted the matches at Dagenham Leisure Centre, while this week it was our turn to arrive at the Eagles’ home based in Emerson Park School. Fielding a full squad, we were intrigued to see what we could do against this growing club.

Results:

Home Match                                     Away Match

Janet and Gary:

19-21 / 13-21                                      20-21 / 19-21

13-21 / 13-21                                      14-21 / 15-21

19-21 / 14/21                                      14-21 / 19-21

Katie and Binu:

17-21 / 18-21                                      11-21 / 18-21

10-21 / 8-21                                        10-21 / 16-21

21-20 / 19-21 / 14-21                       6-21 / 15-21

Kay and Het:

16-21 / 16-21                                      10-21 / 15-21

9-21 / 13-21                                        15-21 / 14-21

20-21 / 13-21                                      7-21 / 10-21

Needless to say, the fresh faces of Emerson Eagles are all grown up now, and while the majority may still only be pushing 21, they are certainly showcasing some skills. Not that I’m bitter, or jealous in any way, shape or form… Although still displaying some childlike mannerisms when it comes to sportsmanship, you can’t doubt the sophistication of their play. The guys in particular rained down tidy jump smashes with ease while the ladies hit the nail on the head when it came to serving.

Binu and I tried a mix of tactics to try and steal as many points as we could, although this mainly only came into fruition during our last encounter against their first pair. We played front and back as a starting point and if that didn’t yield results, then we would switch to sides so that I could help Binu defend the bombardment of tram line smashes that were swiftly eating up his energy levels. I think it came down to the simple fact of most things we tried, they were just better at it than we were. We did have some starring moments however, with Binu delivering a few killer smashes of his own and I honestly think I played some of my closest net shots this evening.

Although the end of the season is usually in sight by now, we still have plenty of match action coming up, resuming with a ladies match next Wednesday. Our scores may be dwindling at the bottom of the league tables, but you can’t say we aren’t triers!