Last night (16th April) we held the final of this seasons John Ford at Sandbach Boys school. Canute and Goostrey faced each other. This was an interesting fixture given that the two clubs are very close in several ways. Some players have played at both clubs, some concurrently. Of course, we had the collaboration of the two ladies teams forming 'Seven Sisters' this season, the midpoint betweenthe two neighbouring venues. So all players knew each other well.

Canute captain Kara Robinson named her squad as John Hunter, Manbun Lee, Matt Webber,Christine Rotherham and Rebecca Bailey. Against them were ranged Jake Hartley (Canute Junior league stalwart), Carl McGregor-Ogden, Rob Evans, Louise Riley,Claire Hodgkinson and Pam Jeffs

The handicappers looked at the squads and recognised the two junior players in Goostrey ranks. Otherwise this was a battle of seasoned regulars. The range of handicaps from the individual member was quite large, so some honing and averaging meant in the end Goostrey had 114 in the envelope (which of course
they did not know).

Once again the standard of badminton was excellent. Canute the stronger team did win 17-1 on games unsurprisingly, but it is points that make the difference in John Ford. Jake and Louise got off to a good start bagging 17 points which was not
expected against Kara and Manbun. Carl and Claire halved against John and Christine, so Goostrey were ahead on expectation at this point. Rob and Pam then found Matt and Rebecca too much to handle with the balance swaying back to
Canute. Louise and Claire gave a very good account of themselves against a strong ladies partnership of Kara and Christine. Jake and Carl did likewise against John and Manbun. Louise and Pam then struggled against Kara and
Rebecca, as did Jake and Rob against Manbun and Matt. In both cases the junior player extending themselves mightily. Carl and Claire may have hoped forbetter against Matt and Rebecca. Rob and Pam likewise.

After 9 events then the scores were 217 to Goostrey and 375 to Canute. A difference of 158. Even adding the 114 Canute held sway by 44 points. That equates to 2.4 a game, which the handicappers feel is not too bad. Many congratulations to
Canute 2019 John Ford champions. Photo and scoresheet attached for interest.