We held the John Ford semi finals last week (7th March) at Holmes Chapel. Another great night's badminton. This was the outcome:

Canute played South Cheshire. They put out a very strong side of Carl McGregor-Ogden, Rob Evans, Phil Wall, James Stewart, Kara Robinson and Alice Cooper. Arrayed against them for South Cheshire were: Chris Slinn, Jeff Whitham, Eddie Watkins, Wren Wang, Sue Saunders and Aurelia Dakin. On paper this seemed a mountain to climb for South Cheshire so the handicappers went for a 163 advantage.  

The mens doubles presented a problem for SC. In five of the eight games they scored fewer than might have been expected.  There was one remarkable event in that Carl and Rob took the first game to 5 points, way above their expectation, however, Jeff and Chris shook themselves down and won the second game to 15. In the mixed Aurelia and Wren had the unenviable task of dealing with Phil and Kara. First game 21-1! In the second they hit the heights and gained 5 points. Taking all that into account the teams ended on Canute 372 to SC 177 - a difference of 195. Adding the handicap left SC short by 32 points (just under 2 per game) - a valiant effort, but Canute progress.

The other semi saw Knutsford take on Crosses. Knutsford fielded: Praveen Seepathi, James Cross, Malcolm Gresty, Ian Brookhouse, Sarah Lawton and Lisa Osbourne. Crosses had: Jordan Kelly, Jamie Croucher, Simon Geary, Harish Venkatesan, Anna Priestman and Helen Bagnall.  The handicappers felt this was a fairly close encounter. Most went for a small advantage to Crosses, where one went for a small advantage the other way.

The mixed went mostly the way of Knutsford with no real surprises, maybe Crosses would have hoped for a bit more. Ditto the Ladies. The mens saw Crosses again not register the points they may have hoped for. 

The outcome was that Knutsford gained 354 to Crosses 251 a deficit of 103 points. The handicappers came out at 19 for Crosses so in fact the final shortfall was 84 points ( a disappointing 4.6 a game) 

Canute and Knutsford will now contest a Knutsford derby in the final (both teams from the same venue and town)