The 11th Schneider Tournament

In Shaw's end of season tournament, Kevin Walker failed in his mission of winning the prestigious Schneider Trophy for the third year in succession ... and worst of all for him, it was brother Tony that took the honours away from him.

Group A proved to be tightest group in the 11 year history of the competition - mere 11 points separated top from bottom. Mike Pembroke & Jackie Beaver were the on-form pair, or were until they met Rick Stone and Cate Poore. Despite losing this match, they still qualified as group leader by virtue of their other results. Thirteen year old Grant Lawrence guided Andy Norman home in 4th place ... at first glance they could not be separated from Keith Simms & Richard Ilsley at the bottom of the group - both pairs had the same number of points and won the same number of games. On count back on points against, Grant & Bod went through by virtue of fewer points conceded against them.

In the other group, Hugh & Jason were the pair that everyone feared. Hugh once again had saved his best badminton of the season until the championship and Jason rarely got a look in as Hugh charged about the court. They utterly demolished the pairing of Andrew & Karen 21-5, but if truth be told, they were unlucky not to win by a greater margin! Mel Chalker came to Andrew's rescue after he sacked his partner from the previous evening. However, even though they only dropped three points in their last two games, it was not enough to save Andrew from the embarrassment of playing for "The Bottoms Award". Paul Olive & Mandy Sainsbury were the only pair to go through to the quarter finals without conceding a game.

In the quarter finals, the matches were too close to call. Grant & Andy fought back bravely and somehow sneaked a 21-20 victory from Paul & Mandy. Rick & Cate snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, losing 21-18 after throwing away a 15-5 lead. Both Mike & Jackie and Pam & Tony came through 21-17 winners against Trevor & Becks and Jason & Hugh.

There was a sense of foreboding in both semi-finals ... you knew an all-Walker final was on the cards. Age was on the side of Kevin & Adrian in their semi - Kevin was still 5 years older than the combined age of his opposition!! However, they managed to put their zimmer frames and hearing aids to one side as Andy and Grant found no answers from the onslaught of smashes from Adrian & Kev. In the other semi, the game was certainly closer than the result may show - Jackie and Mike struggled at times with their serve and just couldn't get a good run of points to make up the difference and Tony & Pam got the revenge for the 21-12 group game defeat earlier in the competition!

Brotherly love was set to one side in the final and battle commenced. In the end, the coolness of Pam and Tony made certain of victory as Pam proved to be the thorn in Kevin & Adrian's side with her deft net play.

At the other end of the trophy scale, Andrew Nicholson was so very determined to avoid having his name on the Bottoms Award at all costs. Richard & Keith could not be bribed, so play commenced. With anyone else involved, the match would have gone on for hours ... Mel & Andrew's form continued into the final match and they narrowly avoided picking up the bottoms award by winning the game 21-19.

Results ...

* Karen Harrison (-8)

The Bottoms Award

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