UCLan’s badminton teams kicked off their season on Wednesday with mixed results.

The stand out result of the day’s play was the 8-0 win by the men’s 2nd team over recently relegated Keele. Chris Dillon, captain of the 2nd team, showed the way winning his two singles matches comfortably. Losing just 14 points in his opening match, he was backed up by fellow singles player Graham Hollingsworth who also won with ease.

In the doubles, Jon Parry and Andy Luthbury beat both of their opponents without too much difficulty and Vincent Wu and Adam Spence also won completing the whitewash for UCLan’s 2nd team.

A delighted Chris Dillon said after the match: “The whole team did very well as Keele have just come down from the league above so we didn’t know what to expect.”

“The first game is always tough as there are new players coming into the team, but everyone played well,” he added.

The men’s 1st team suffered a frustrating afternoon against Leeds, losing 5-3 overall.

Despite losing his first match, Kevin Liu managed to bounce back from a game down in his second match to claim victory, playing with a knee injury which restricted his movement.

In the doubles, captain Geoff Carter and Martin Southgate claimed victory in their second match also with a performance that pleased the skipper. Daniel Roberts and Alex Byrne also recorded a victory in a team performance which improved in their second matches.

“The doubles didn’t perform in their first matches,” Carter said afterwards. “However we can go on to better things and I have a better feeling about the season now.”

In the women’s team the highlight was the debut of Becky White who won her two matches against her opponent from Bangor without much trouble, losing just seven points in her second match.

There was frustration in the doubles though with neither side being able to claim a victory, which captain Makayla Holmes put down to neither doubles teams having played together before.

Team coach Andrew Davies was confident the team will improve over the season. “The doubles struggled today but the singles shone. There are positives to take, we have a good squad to choose from and we should get better.”

Despite that the girls won three of their eight matches against Bangor, another side who were relegated at the end of last season.