Sunday 17th Jan was another first for Granite City Badminton Club, with a Youth team from the club making their debut in the Crombie Cup, a team based competition for secondary age children from across Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray.

The team warmed with a friendly against Cults last week, and although getting beaten convincingly by an experienced Cults side, it was a useful exercise with the players getting some experience of what the competition entailed.  With the draw placing the Granite City team in Division 3, their opening fixtures at the Beach Leisure Centre saw them down to play Meadows 2 and the all female side from St Margarets.

The team started off well before even stepping on to court, with Meadows not being to field a team.  This meant that the team recieved a 6-0 scratch result, which gave the team confidence going into their other fixture against St Margarets.  The first singles match was a close match with Lewis narrowly beaten by the St Megs No. 1 21-18.  With Amie also getting beaten in the second rubber it was down to Kyle and David to get points on the board - and they duely did so, with two victories in the second two singles matches bringing the score back to 2-2.

This made the doubles matches crucial, and although Lewis and Amie lost the first doubles match, David and Kyle capped a fine performance by the team to win the last game and gain a deserved draw from the match.

So, with the team being unbeaten it was a good first day for the Granite City team - although they will face a tough second day against RGC 3s (including fellow club member Scott) and Kemnay 2s.  However, the team can take confidence from a positive debut in the competition!  The next set of matches take place at the Beach Leisure Centre on Sun 31st Jan.

Last weekend (6th - 7th Nov), the club competed in the annual "Club Doubles" tournament which is organised by the Aberdeen & District League committee.  This was definite landmark occasion for the club, as it was the first time that more than one pairing had been entered for this handicap competition - in fact the entered five different pairs across the mens and mixed events!

In the mens draw, Johnny Milne and John Polanski  played well and were unlucky to finish fourth in a very tight group, as all their matches went to three sets.  Mark Pain and Niall Macrae did slightly better in their group, finishing second after a moral boosting 2 set win over a young pair from Gordonians.  Although both GC BC pairs had high handicaps, the main benefit of the competition was to get more time playing together to benefit the Mens league team, and both pairs seemed happy with their performances.I

n the mixed competition, Granite City entered 3 pairs - Bryan Snelling & Kayleigh Marshall, John Purcell & Kirsten Oliver and Johnny Milne & Jayne Lloyd.  Despite having very little time to practice in their pairs (and facing opposition from Div 1 pairings), all the players enjoyed their "competitive" debuts despite finishing at the bottom of their respective groups.However, despite the results going against the mixed pairings, the fact the club managed to field those pairings bodes well for the future, with the possibility of entering a mixed team into the leagues now a real possibility!!!  Its great to see the club growing so much.

On Saturday night, The ladies made up for the disappointment of Friday, by winning the Granite City Wanderers Hockey Club Quiz Night at the Sportsmans Club.  Jayne, Kayleigh and Kirsten were joined by Bryan, and managed to sweep all before them with a very impressive display of trivia and general knowledge which swept all before them!  The club also fielded two other teams - Johnny and Mark joined forces with "newbie" Andy and his wife, and there was an entry from a Hume family team, and it was great to see so many players turn out for the first Granite City Badminton Club social gathering of the year.  Hopefully there will be plenty more to follow!

Finally, a busy week for GC BC was rounded off on Wednesday, with the Mens League team taking on the youngsters of North East at Harlaw Academy.  The team lost 6-3, and the benefit of the practice at the club doubles obviously paid dividends with Johnny and John winning all three of their games.  Unfortunately, the rest of the squad were unable to match their record with neither other of the pairings managing to register a win.  However, Bryan & Niall were unlucky not to win at least one game, and their was an impressive performance from youngster Lewis in his first competitive match of the season.

Just a reminder that the Victor Demo night will be taking place this weekend, so if any club member needs new equipment, feel free to pop along!