Editorial
13-12-2021
Last Saturday, the first team of VELO Badminton was allowed to participate in their first match of the championship pool, against the neighbors of Dunlop DKC in The Hague. VELO Badminton deservedly took the win 5-3, but couldn’t look back on the evening completely satisfied: there certainly could have been more players.
Regular women’s doubles Myke Halkema/Milou Lugters and Marlies Baan/Manon Sibbald were allowed to kick off. Unfortunately, Myke and Milou did not enter the match and lost in two sets to the ladies of DKC. In the men’s doubles, Russell Muns and Jim Middelburg needed three sets to put Gijs Duijs and Michiel Kruijt aside. With smart and varied play, especially Russell made the difference in this match.
The following men’s singles were prey for VELO. Nick Fransman had an easy win against DKC talent Andy Buijk with two 21-10 matches. Dion Rovers played a very solid pot and could easily win the match against Tom Blinde in two sets. Fredrika Lagerstedt and Hanna Couwenhoven fought in their singles for what they were worth, but both lost out in three sets against a strong fighting Marlies and a calm Manon respectively.
With a 3-3 score, the decisions would fall in the mixed doubles. VELO veterans, Jim and Myke, gave Gijs, together with partner Charissa Kuiper, little chance to get into the match and could easily take the win. Due to an injury, Michiel was unable to play in his mix with Kiona van der Werf, which meant that Kiona and Tom could compete against Russell and Milou. Where the first set went easily to Russell and Milou, the Wateringers had to step up to take the second set. After a good offensive run in the second half of the second set, they came alongside and won 21-15.
This resulted in a final score of 5-3 for VELO Badminton. All in all, a pretty good start for coach Franklin Telwin’s team, but “a win with a sour edge”, according to Franklin. This week the team will have to work hard in practice to make the most of the sour and sweet edge, as a tough double weekend is on the agenda. Saturday, December 18, 2021 at 7:00 PM, the team from Wateringen will play against the first team of BC Duinwijck in Haarlem and on Sunday, December 19, 2021 they will receive Avi Air Almere at 2:00 PM in the VELO hall. Just like last weekend, live streams will be available for these matches.
