OAKGATE A beat Hawkshaw A 10-8 to move to within a point of their rivals in the Bolton Badminton League Section A.
Steph Dawid-Palugh and Matt Green played first for second-placed Hawkshaw at Radcliffe Leisure Centre and shared the spoils in the opening games, winning the first 21-15 before Anna Wiza and Martin Sykes-Jones claimed the second 21-15.
Third-placed Oakgate’s second couple, Katrina McKinley and Abdul Malik, then shared their games against Claire Edmondson and Olly Gregory, the former winning the first 21-19 and losing the second 22-20.
The third couples' encounter continued in a similar vein as they shared their games, Nicola Duerden and Nathan Whitehead taking the first comfortably for Hawkshaw 21-12, and Laura Woodburn and Simon Froude hitting back in the second with a 21-18 victory.
Oakgate seized the initiative with victories in the following four games of mixed doubles, McKinley and Malik beating Dawid-Paulugh and Matt Green 21-19, 21-19 when the first couples met.
Oakgate also claimed both games when the second couples played, Wiza and Sykes-Jones winning 21-13, 21-13 against Edmondson and Gregory.
After the mixed games Oakgate were 7-3 ahead but Hawkshaw’s ladies were eager to stage a fightback and Hawkshaw's Duerden and Dawid-Paulgh claimed the first pair of ladies' games 21-18, 21-18 against Woodburn and McKinley.
Hawkshaw's Whitehead and Green claimed the first of the men’s games 21-18 but a determined Froude and Malik held their nerve to take the second 23-21.
Oakgate’s Woodburn and Wiza then won both the second pair of ladies' games comfortably, 21-12, 21-10, against Duerden and Edmondson.
Although Whitehead and Gregory won both the final games of the match 21-18, 21-13, against Froude and Sykes-Jones, Oakgate were already victors in a match that could have gone either way.
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