5. Women's Doubles Badminton

Event: Women's Doubles Badminton
Date: 17th October 2012
Location: Colchester Leisure World
Cost: £10.00
Rules: Doubles matches are decided over the best of three games, with the first player to reach 21 points (by a margin of two clear points) winning each game. The whole court is in play. Players can only score from their own service. One player serves (alternating from left to right) until he/she loses a point and the serve passes to the opposition. When the serve is regained, the other player on the team becomes the server. When the score reaches 11 there is a 60 second break. Players change ends after each match or after the 60 second break in the third game.

 The Game:

London 2012 Winners: Tian Qing & Zhao Yunlei, China.

Score: Game One: C&S 21, E&S 15
            Game Two: C&S 21, E&S 16
           
Comments: Sarah: All things considered, the games were much closer than I had been expecting. Claire and Sarah are excellent badmintoners, and I think Ellie and I held our own pretty well. The games were really fast paced, with some deadly body-shots and smashes. Unfortunately, this marks the end of the badminton events for our challenge, but we're back on track with our 2.5 events per month.   
Ellie: No More Badminton for 4 years then. I'm slightly saddened by this as the games we've played recently have reminded me of my misspent youth. As Sarah says, the games last night were far more level than we'd expected - we look almost respectable.  

4. Mixed Doubles Badminton

Event: Mixed Doubles Badminton
Date: 13th October 2012

Location: University of Essex, Colchester
Cost: £18.50 (!)
Rules: Doubles matches are decided over the best of three games, with the first player to reach 21 points (by a margin of two clear points) winning each game. The whole court is in play. Players can only score from their own service. One player serves (alternating from left to right) until he/she loses a point and the serve passes to the opposition. When the serve is regained, the other player on the team becomes the server. When the score reaches 11 there is a 60 second break. Players change ends after each match or after the 60 second break in the third game.

The Game:

 

London 2012 Winners: Zhang Nan & Zhao Yunlei, China.

Scores:
Game One: E&R 21, G&S 8

Game Two: E&R 21, G&S 9
           
Comments:
Sarah: Greg and I were off the ball (or shuttlecock) today, with our second defeat of the afternoon. Despite the appearance of the score-sheet, the games were really fun and we all held our own in relation to the badminton qualifiers which were going on in the hall.
Ellie: To be honest, I am surprised that we weren't all asked to join the University Badminton team considering our display today. We were much more entertaining than the people trying out... mostly because of the elaborate swearing. The games were pretty equal and furiously paced and we did well to claim the win. Our biggest badminton challenge looms large on Wednesday however as the couple that we face are supreme players.

3. Mixed Doubles Tennis

Event: Mixed Doubles Tennis
Date: 13th October 2012
Location: University of Essex, Colchester
Cost: £9.00
Rules: Points are scored as: 0, 15, 30, 40, 45. A score of 40-40 is called deuce. From there a team must score two further points consecutively to win the game. A match consists of six sets. Each set is decided by the first to six games and must be won by at least two clear games (e.g 6-3, 7-5). When at six games all, in all but the final set, players contest a tie-break which decides the winner of the set. Matches are the best of three sets. In mixed doubles, the third set shall be played as a match tie-break (10 points).

The Game:

London 2012 Winners: Victoria Azarenka & Max Mirnyi, Belarus.

Score:  

Set One: Game 1: 45-15 (E&R), Game 2: 45-40 (E&R), Game 3: 45-15 (E&R), Game 4: 45-40 (E&R), Game 5: 45-0 (E&R), Game 6: 45-30 (E&R). Set 1 to Ellie & Rowen.
Set Two: Game 1: 45-40 (E&R), Game 2: 45-30 (E&R), Game 3: 45-30 (E&R), Game 4; 45-30 (E&R), Game 5: 45-15 (E&R), Game 6: 45-15 (E&R). Set 2 to Ellie & Rowen.
           
Comments: Sarah: As the observant of you will notice, Greg and I got supremely beaten in not only straight sets, but also straight games. It turns out that I'm truly awful at tennis! As we still have a singles and doubles match still to play, I'm hoping that I will get a bit better with practice. My personal highlight of the match was the Farrow's victory dance routine for their very deserved win.
Ellie: The victory dance is stolen from the Manchester United wonder winger Lee Sharpe. Rowen and I were ridiculously excited when we remembered it and practiced it in the kitchen this morning. As for the game; Tennis seems to make you feel like you are brilliant at it until you play it. Today, mostly due to the efforts of my teammate, I managed to bring home a win. The score does the Clementson/Kingcott team no justice at all as it was in no way as one-sided as it appears...