London: The University of Nottingham couldn’t make a winning start to their National Badminton League campaign.
Playing their first match in the UK’s first ever professional league at the city’s Albert Hall, Nottingham were beaten 3-2 by MK Badminton.
The home side started strong as Kieran Merrilees beat Milton Keynes’ Alex Lane 3-1 in the men’s singles, the opening match of the evening.
In the spirit of the night, the match looked like it could be a close affair when it went to one game all.
But with the home crowd behind him and an air of confidence, Merrilees sustained his form to finish off Lane and set a precedent for the UoN squad.
With the women’s doubles up next, Nottingham’s Serena Midha and Carissa Turner faced Jess Fletcher and Sophie Sankey, for the visitors.
The match went to a tie break, and it was the MK girls who edged it, tactfully utilising their PowerPlay point to win by achieving a clear three-point lead.
It was a disappointing result and it meant the pressure was on the mixed doubles pair, team captain Chris Adcock and partner Chloe Magee.
The duo got off to a slow start and found themselves two games down to the young MK pairing of Toby Penty and Jess Pugh.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Adcock and Magee then found their rhythm and pulled back the third game to make it 2-1.
It was Penty and Pugh, however, who kept their nerve to win a tense fourth game, 9-8, again by utilising their PowerPlay at a crucial time.
Nevertheless, University of Nottingham’s women’s singles player and 2008 Olympian Olga Konon managed to keep her team’s hopes alive. She convincingly beat MK’s Liz Cann in straight games, 3-0.
All eyes then turned to Konon’s team-mates Robert Blair and Kristian Roebuck in the final match of the evening, the men’s doubles.
A win against MK’s so far unbeaten NBL pair Peter Mills, from Southwell, and Paul Van Rietvelde was needed.
And they looked like they had all the momentum when they brought back the score to two games all.
However, it was once again the MK pair, familiar to the tie break system, who edged it in the fifth game to seal a 3-2 victory overall for the visitors.
“I am feeling very happy after that, as we came into this match with high hopes,” said Mills. “I think we had a good team and a good chance. The mixed doubles made a big difference to the day; we weren’t really expecting that so to come out with a win and a close one in the women’s doubles, the pressure was on us to try and seal the deal.”
