UEL travelled to Gillingham to face the University of Medway in their latest match of the season as they continued their undefeated run with a 7-1 win. UEL were second in the table going into the game and now sit level on points with Kings College.
Team selection
With Azhar Syed unavailable till the new year, Sean Wilson and Tzr Voon Lim were placed as the singles players. Marco Eng and Josh Teoh, and Alvin Lee and Ali Chin, who took to the court after a six week knee injury, made up the doubles pairings.
Rocky start
Lim who returned to singles duty and the doubles pair of Lee and Chin got the matches underway for UEL. The pressure was on to get off to a good start, but unfortunately UEL suffered a slight setback when Lim lost his first match 21-10, 21-7.
Lee and Chin who haven’t played together since Chin’s injury took some time to sync up but again came up trumps winning their first set 21-16 and cruising to a comfortable win in the second set, 21-8.
Still in top form, Wilson eased to a 21-4, 21-5 win. Doubles, Teoh and Eng also won their games comfortably, 21-5 and 21-9. With UEL up 3-1 at the half way mark, they only needed two wins out of the next four matches to earn the victory.
Cruise Control
With most the hard work done, Lee and Chin won 21-14, 21-8 to earn Chin a successful return from injury. Wilson’s second round match was a little more intense, but he still won 21-14, 21-18 remaining undefeated this season.
With the score at 5-1 UEL had already taken the three points back to east London but it was important to gain as many matches as possible because UEL still trailed Kings College on game difference points. The final two games were relatively straight forward with Lim winning 21-7, 21-5 and Teoh and Eng winning 21-15, 21-18. UEL ended the day easing to a 7-1 victory.
Last week’s cancellation proved frustrating for the team due to only playing one home game this season, but the win against Medway made up for it as UEL now sit second with ten points and only a six game points difference behind Kings.
Next Match
Next week’s game against the University of Essex may have to be rescheduled due to many players from UEL being unavailable. If this is the last game UEL play before the Christmas break, UEL will be happy with their season so far in comparison to last season as they enter the new year level on points with Kings.
