By Luke Gardener — February 8, 2012 | ONLINE ONLY

UNIVERSITY OF YORK 3-5 LEEDS UNIVERSITY
BUCS Northern Conference 2B

Images: Philippa Grafton

York’s women badminton side pushed their Leeds opponents to the last, but eventually lost 5-3 to the league leaders.

With York second, they knew they needed to win to have any chance of winning the BUCS league but it wasn’t to be as Leeds proved to be the victors in a highly entertaining match.

The first two doubles matches kept the match square as York captain Clare Breare and doubles partner Rachael Farrington were successful in defeating Eleanor Sach and Alex Brown 21-8, 21-16.

At the same time, Georgia Lee and Leeds captain Gemma Wilkinson defeated Beth Cowell and Louise Kemp of York 21-17, 21-15 to level the match. Cowell and Kemp fought hard but were caught by the persistent drop shots of their opponents.

Next up was a singles match between Dani Farsiani of York and Rae Lamour of Leeds. The Leeds player dominated from the offset despite Farsiani playing well. The Leeds player had an answer for everything and won comfortably 21-5, 21-5.

York were waiting for their second singles player to arrive so instead a doubles match was played between the two winning teams in their respective first matches. This was a fine back and forth match with all players involved performing excellently. It was the quality of York which shone through and they completed an 11-21, 21-16, 21-19 victory.

The next doubles match saw York take the lead in the tie and make it 3-2. Cowell and Kemp were never troubled by their Leeds opponents Sach and Brown. 21-11, 21-13 was the final score.

With all of the doubles matches completed, Leeds were confident of overturning the deficit and they did, emphatically. They levelled the match when Helena Lewczynska defeated Farsiani 21-2, 21-6.

Just five minutes before York would have had to forfeit the remaining two matches their second singles competitor Katie Wilson arrived on the scene but she was powerless in facing Rae Lamour and Lewczynska.

Lamour defeated Wilson 21-3, 21-5 while Lewczynska won 21-2, 21-4. This meant that Leeds won the match 5-3 overall and it will now take some major shocks in the league to stop them from being champions.

York captain, Clare Breare was positive after the defeat stating that she was “very proud of the team” and knew that it was going to be a “very tough match” to win.

Overall, Leeds deserved their victory but York will make sure they stay close enough to Leeds to take the title if they were to slip up. York will be hoping to secure second place at the same time with Northumbria pushing them all the way.