England vs Germany

Posted 12:48 01 May 2007 in Milton Keynes / Home

Thursday 22nd February

It was the England v Germany match today at Preston.  Ed was staying with me at the time and managed to get him to come and watch!  I used the “you haven’t watched me play for ages” line, which is actually true as the last time he came to a badminton match was at the All England in Jan 2006.  But I think I managed to persuade him with the fact that BBC were filming and this could be his chance to get on TV!  He is such a fame wannabe!  And I even managed to get him to drive as well!  Yippee!  It was the first time I had let him drive the new mini and I was a bit nervous to start with and probably annoyed him for 3 hours with reminding him about the buttons and stuff!

I was the 1st and 5th match on and it kicked off with the ladies doubles – Donna and I against Grether and Schenk.  It was a repeat of the European final last year and Donna and I won again 21-14, 21-13. it was pretty comfortable all the way through and gave England a good start to the match.  We lost the ladies singles (Liz Cann lost to Xu) and the mens singles (Raj Ouseph lost to Joppien) but we won the mens doubles easy (Rob and Clarky beat Hopp and Fuchs) so it left the match evenly tied at 2-2. 

Perfect set-up for TV and good job as BBC were filming and it was all down to the mixed doubles, specifically Nathan and I, to get the win for England which of course we did in style!  We won 21-14, 21-11 against Hopp and Schenk.  Job done and the trophy went to England!   The crowd was really good and seemed like they were enjoying themselves! There were also lots of kids which is encouraging to see at badminton matches and hopefully they were inspired to carry on playing badminton.