Canute secured the John Ford title on Friday night (4th April) at Holmes Chapel. Knutsford and Canute lined up with the following personnel: 

Knutsford - David Gittins, Tom Baston, Malcolm Gresty, Ian Brookhouse, Sarah Lawton and Lisa Osbourne

Canute - Phil Wall, James Stewart, Carl McGregor-Ogden, Rob Evans, Kara Robinson and Mie Wall

The handicappers all concluded that Canute were the likely winners, probably to 18 -0 but with some relatively close encounters. They elected to agree on a 128 point advantage to Knutsford

The match was really well contested. Some great Badminton was played by all concerned. The mens doubles were particularly fast and frenetic. It was in the mixed where the first 'surprise' came; Mie and Rob shared the spoils one game each with Malcolm and Sarah. All of the Knutsford's pairs great experience came out in the first game winning through 21-16. Rob and Mie restored the balance in the second game 21-13.

The second 'surprise' came in the mens doubles where Ian and Malcolm took on Phil and James. This encounter contained two upsets in that Phil and James won the first game 21-8 which was more of a hiding than any of us expected. Ian and Malcolm then pulled their socks up and took the second game 21-20 which shocked Phil and James somewhat, as well as the onlookers.

All of the other games went more or less to expectation. Canute therefore accumulated 372 points, not far short of the 378 maximum expected. Knutsford reached 235 points. Applying the handicap gave Knutsford 363 - an agonising 9 points short of target.

A final word for the handicappers who have done a great job over the season. It is not an easy task, and from the preliminary round onwards they came up with very fair evaluations and almost always achieved around a 2 point per game margin. In the final it was 0.5 points a game. What we have learned is that the more opinions we get the better the outcome. So please, again, let's have a few more offers of assistance. Anyone can do this so long as you have reasonable familiarity with the people we play with and against. There are also tools on the web site that calculate player league performances so you can see how they have done in the current and previous seasons.

Congratulations to Canute (photo attached) on a narrow but well deserved victory to go along with some already secured divisional titles. This is a good year for the club. Well done Knutsford for a terrific scrap in a season when they are in a battle to win a mens title as well.