It wasn’t the start they expected, but UEL’s men’s badminton only have themselves to blame for a match that saw them play out-of-sorts against Imperial university.
Speaking after the game Jamaican international Sean Wilson admitted that he hadn’t put the time in off the court, “I haven’t prepared as much as I would have liked to” he said.
Wilson has been focusing more on his general fitness, “I’m hitting the gym quite a lot right now, doing some fitness training but I don’t think I’m fully ready for the season.”
New Tactics
The game started slowly for the 2020 Olympic hopeful, but his quality quickly picked up the pace as he sailed past his opponent, beating him 21-15 in the first set.
However Wilson lost his edge slightly and saw him scrape a narrow 24-22 win in the second set.
Fellow singles player, Hasnat couldn’t follow suit as many errors allowed his opponent to pick up easy points in the rallies.
With loose shots by the UEL singles player the set ended 21-11 to Imperial.
A more closely contested second set saw him lose 21-19.
Ali Chin and Josh Teoh were on the wrong end of a tight first set losing, 25-23.
Despite a valiant attempt to try new tactics there was confusion between the pair, which allowed Imperial to take advantage and the second set, 21-17.
George Geaves and Sajat Rai were also comprehensively swept aside losing, 21-7 and 21-11 in a one-sided match.
Home support
At the half way point, Imperial lead 3-1 with the second set of matches to follow.
Jamaican International, Wilson won again, 21-19 and breezed past his opponent in the second set, 21-11, to pull back the match score.
Wilson used his new found strength to dominate the game jump-smashing his way to a win.
But again, Hasnat could not take advantage of Wilson’s good work which saw a one sided 21-4, 21-8 loss with again.
Double Trouble
Chin and Teoh managed to ward off the opposition with a 21-19 win in the first set, reverting to their old tactics.
However, serving errors from the UEL pair enabled the opposition to gain easy points and win the set 17-21, taking the match to third set.
After letting their guard down in the second set. A cheering home crowd gave Chin and Teoh the confidence to play their best badminton with two trick shots coming from Chin in the final stages to seal a 21-17 win in the third set.
Rai and Geaves failed to repeat Chin and Teoh’s success, as the pair were unable to keep pace with their Imperial opponents, losing 7-21, 11-21 as they look to go back to the drawing board.
UEL will next face Kingston University 2nd at the SportsDock in the South-Eastern Conference Cup.
Team
Sean Wilson and Hasnat played as singles one and two. (Hasnat replaced Shahed Ali on singles duty).
Doubles Pair One: Ali Chin and Josh Teoh
Doubles Pair Two: Sajat Rai and George Geaves were doubles pair two.
