The Quarter Finals took place this week over two nights - Wednesday at Alsager and Thursday at Sandbach Boys School. As always there was some great Badminton. This is what happened:

On Wednesday Canute had been expected to play Goostrey however, Goostrey ran into difficulties with number of players away so had to concede unfortunately.

The first QF was therefore Cegelec v South Cheshire. As usual Cegelec were able to field a strong team of Ben Pepper, Andy Riley, Gary Whewall, Oscar Jackson, Jess Gentles and Jo Ray. In opposition was an very experienced outfit of Chris Slinn, Pawel Chlebowicz, Eddie Watkins, Francisco Da Conceicao, Sue Saunders and Aurelia Dakin. This looked like a ding ding on paper with the handicappers feeling that Cegelec had a significant edge, and so chose to award 106 points to SC. Most of the games turned out very much to predicted outcome. Cegelec won the match on conventional grounds 12-6 but of course in John Ford - Points make Prizes! At the end of the match Cegelec had won 356 points with SC compiling 259 in reply a difference of 97. With 106 points awarded that meant SC ran out winners by a mere 9 points - half a point per game. Handicappers - well done.

On Thursday a busy night at Sandbach Boys School saw two Crosses teams, Knutsford and Alsager competing.

Alsager played Crosses B. Craig Delury, Jamie Croucher, Simon Geary (Leeds fan - good man), Harish Venkatesan, Fiona Barlow and Anna Priestman represented Crosses up against: Guillaume Schneider, Nathan Barker-Chadwick, Vivek Nighot, Aadita Kandalkar, Jemma Fryer-Kelsey and Evie Geal. Crosses here being the senior team and Alsager with a strong element of youth. On paper the handicappers saw quite an evenly matched pairing. The consensus suggested that Alsager needed a little help, in the end choosing 26 points. There were predictably many close encounters, with a few in just the reverse of expectation. Evie and Gemma excelled in taking a ladies game off Fiona and Anna, likewise Guilluame and Jemma did very well in their mixed against Fiona and Craig. The scores on the doors were 338 to Crosses and 299 to Alsager before handicap. The difference of 39 could not be breached by the 26 points awarded meaning a Crosses victory by 13 points (less than 1 a game) so again the handicappers excelled.

The final match was Knutsford versus Crosses A. Here Praveen Seepathi, James Cross, Malcolm Gresty, Ian Brookhouse, Ruth Searle and Lisa Osbourne formed a strong Knutsford side. In reply Crosses fielded a no less experienced team of James Shatwell, Tony Marks, Karl Jones, Andrew Budden, Emma Brookes and Symone Dale. In this one the handicappers had mixed views about the outcome. Some favoured a slight victory for Knutsford and some the other way round. Whatever it would be - it should be close. This was reflected in the fact that Knutsford received a 6 point start. Emma and Symone got a double in the ladies just against expectation. James and Tony got an equally close reversal against Malcolm and Ian. The major reversal was Tony and James registering single figures against Praveen and James when a close game was expected. 

In the end Knutsford scored 333 points to Crosses 304 - a difference of 29 points. We also gave Knutsford a further 6 to make it a 35 point win. Still less than 2 points a game which we consider benchmark handicapping.

Congratulations then to Knutsford, South Cheshire and Crosses B who will join Canute in the semis on Friday 7th March at Holmes Chapel