The senior Isle of Man badminton team overcame their poor start to the 2017-18 county season with resounding 10-1 victories over both Northumberland 2 and Lothian 2 at the weekend.

The team that travelled to Huddersfield saw the return of several key players, including recently-selected Commonwealth Games athletes Ben and Jess Li.

The Northumberland match got off to a perfect start with Ben Li, Adam Colley and Fingal Watterson all winning their men’s singles comfortably in two sets.

Jess Li also had a routine win in her singles and the much-improved Philippa Li worked hard to win 21/15 21/16 against the second-ranked Northumberland woman.

In the men’s doubles Li/Colley and Neil Harding/Steven Quayle played well to record comfortable wins, 21/8 21/7 and 21/10 21/10 respectively.

In the women’s doubles Laura Beggs and Abi Li beat the top-ranked Northumberland pair 21/14 in the deciding game, but unfortunately Philippa Li and Emma Nicholson lost 10/21 16/21 to a strong Northumberland duo.

In the final two mixed doubles matches, experienced pairings of siblings Ben/Jess Li and Harding/Beggs were never troubled in their matches to complete a convincing final score of Isle of Man 10, Northumberland 1.

The match against Scottish side Lothian began in a similar fashion, with men’s singles players Li, Colley and Watterson all winning. Li was pushed all the way in his first set but showed his experience to win 24/22 21/5, and Watterson came through a tough match to win 21/16 in the third end.

In women’s singles Jess Li won in three sets and Philippa Li played exceptionally well to win 21/15 21/16, making a perfect 5-0 start for the Manx side.

In the men’s doubles both Li/Colley and Quayle/Watterson played some fine badminton to win convincingly in two sets.

The second women’s pairing of Nicholson/Philippa Li showed some great determination to win the match of the weekend 21/14 19/21 21/18, but unfortunately Beggs/Abigail Li lost out 15/21 19/21 to a strong first Lothian pair.

Isle of Man’s mixed doubles pairings of Li/Li and Harding/Beggs again showed their class to win comfortably in two sets and complete a 10-1 final score.

There were notable performances over the weekend from rising star Adam Colley, conceding less than 10 points per game, and much-improved Philippa Li, winning both her singles.

The Isle of Man team will be in Huddersfield again at the end of March to play Durham, Glasgow/North Strathclyde and Cheshire, where they will continue their fight for promotion.

The senior Isle of Man team wishes to thank the IoM Badminton Association for its continued support.

neil harding