Handicap

Division 1 Champions and current leaders, Vikings A had the closest match in Round One of the Aubrey Hughes Handicap Shield competition. They had to claw back 260 points at Holton and made a slow start, with Brian Dobson extracting 20 points from Pavel Jaskolski and Sharon Curtis scoring 1-1 against Alex Schaefer, 21-20, 13-21. It was quite tough for Alex, making his debut in the Oxford League and facing such a big deficit, but from then on Jingyu Sun rose to the challenge, conceding only 27 points in his three matches. Pavel also improved, beating Sharon 21-7, 21-5.

After six matches the Handicapper was dead on target. Brian fought well against Alex in the last singles, losing 12-21, 18-21, but by now the balance had tipped Vikings' way and 21-9, 21-8 would have sufficed for the doubles' win; in fact it went 21-9, 21-5 to Jingyu and Pavel. Great credit goes to the Handicapper, as it was still spot on target half way through the doubles. For the record Vikings A won by 419 points to 415.

Sue Gokgor was the star for Gladiators B as they pulled off a tremendously exciting victory over Forum C. Gladiators had a 190 point start and the evening was drifting slowly in Forum's favour till the 7th singles where Clive Westbury scored heavily against Nick Langley, only losing 21-16, 21-18, to bring Gladiators right back into contention. Sue Gokgor then gave Gladiators a big lead by an amazing battle with Ross Henderson that ended 13-21, 21-14 with Sue finishing strongly. Chris Smith almost rescued Forum by beating Justin Roake 21-3, 21-6 to put Forum just 3 points behind with just the doubles to play, but it was Gladiators that rose to the occasion and extended their lead to a mere 7 points to book their place in round two.

Vikings C scrapped through a keenly contested match against Forum J, who were given a 180 point start. Forum's James Rowan provided an early shock by beating Geraint Lloyd 21-13 in the first leg before Lloyd regained his composure to take the next 21-8. Teisi Tamming also played very well to share the points in her match with Lloyd. Chloe Yau battled well and added to the pressure Forum exerted all evening, but Vikings won by just 11 points.

Lewis Sumner led the way as Bicester B beat Forum H by 21 points. Forum had a 130 point start, but Bicester got in front and stayed there.
Vikings B had to give 140 start to Haddenham A, but they pulled that back and ran out winners by 22 points.
Last years winners of this competition got over the first hurdle in defending their title. They beat Haddenham B by 30 points, slowly chipping away at Haddenham's 250 point lead.
Forum B cruised to a 33 point victory over Bicester E, who had been awarded 250 points start.
Vikings E beat Forum K, plus their 180 point handicap, by 38 points.
Vikings D beat Witney, plus their 140 point start, by exactly the same margin.
Forum I beat club-mates Forum L, plus 140 points, by 44 points.
Forum G were given a 130 point start against Begbroke, but made light work of it with some impressive scores that knocked Begbroke back and Forum ran away with it to the tune of 76 points.
Vikings H had a start of 180 points and beat Forum D by 122 points in a match that was effectively just two players on each side.
Vikings proved too strong for Forum F, winning by 128 points after being given 130 start.
Bicester C and Forum E progressed to round two as their opponents conceded, while Gladiators A, Vikings F, and Bicester D had a bye to round two.

ROUND ONE RESULTS
VIKINGS A beat HOLTON B(+260) by 4 points

GLADIATORS B(+190) beat FORUM C           by   7 points
VIKINGS C          beat FORUM J(+180)     by 11 points
BICESTER B         beat FORUM H(+130)     by 21 points
VIKINGS B          beat HADDENHAM A(+140) by 22 points
BICESTER A         beat HADDENHAM B(+250) by 30 points
FORUM B            beat BICESTER E(+250) by 33 points
VIKINGS E          beat FORUM K(+180)     by 38 points
VIKINGS D          beat WITNEY(+140)      by 38 points
FORUM I            beat FORUM L(+140)     by 44 points
FORUM G(+130)      beat BEGBROKE          by 76 points
VIKINGS H(+180)    beat FORUM D           by 122 points
VIKINGS G(+130)    beat FORUM F           by 128 points
BICESTER C(+210)   progressed        HOLTON A conceded
FORUM E(+140)      progressed        FORUM A conceded
Gladiators A       had a bye
Vikings F          had a bye
Bicester D         had a bye

Forum B booked their place in Round Three of the Aubrey Hughes Handicap Shield competition by beating Gladiators A by just 9 points. Gladiators: Kevin Giles, Paul Knight and Dave Gardner were given 120 points start and kept up the pressure throughout, but Forum's Jeremy Flint, Andrew Flint and Fraser Harris just had the edge. Andrew Flint was man of the match, pulling Forum back into it at every opportunity.

Vikings B quickly joined Forum B in Round Three, at Bicester D's expense. Rob Williams, Nigel Taylor and Roel Dullens were able to overcome the 190 points handicap and ease themselves to a victory by 22 points. Robert Moore, Andy Crofts and Dave Badham put up a good fight for Bicester with the highlight of Badham taking one leg 21-20.

Forum E beat Vikings F, and Forum I beat Vikings E, both by 23 points.
Forum E, with Tim Massey, Brian Jermyn and Bob Hallett, had to give Vikings F's Max Jackson, Lianne Fisher and Ken Rae a start of 130. Vikings' challenge finally faltered, but not before Rae took a leg off Jermyn and Hallett, and Fisher threatened to do the same to Massey.
Forum I, with Guy Plowman, Cameron Patterson and Andrew Legge, were given a start of 135 points and had to face Eamonn Deeley, Anne Borrowdale and Paul Borrowdale of Vikings E. Plowman led the charge for Forum, and beating Anne in the final singles proved decisive.

Vikings G had 75 points start against Gladiators B and won by 44 points. Huw Morgan made a substitutes appearance to join Tatiana Bachkirova and John Tremayne in Vikings G, and proved to be a super-sub. Clive Westbury, Sue Gokgor and Imaad Saba battled well for Gladiators, but Vikings were able to defend their lead and run out winners.

Vikings A proved too good for Vikings C. Simon Cox, Mike Aistrop and Geraint Lloyd were given 160 points start against the Division 1 leaders and defending champions and fell 45 points short. Jingyu Sun, Pavel Jaskolski and Alan Cherry were firing on all cylinders and only Lloyd could make an impression on them. Not on Cherry, though, who remained as difficult and impenetrable as ever. Lloyd only lost by 21-15, 21-14 to Sun and 21-17, 21-15 to Jaskolski, thanks to an impressive display of smashes that just kept on coming to the amazement of all. All Vikings C had to do was for Cox and Aistrop to match Lloyd and they might have pulled off a giant-killing act of no mean proportion.

Bicester C claimed the final place in Round Three of the Aubrey Hughes Handicap Shield competition by beating Vikings H by 33 points.

    ROUND TWO RESULTS
FORUM B            beat GLADIATORS A(+120)by   9 points
VIKINGS B          beat BICESTER D(+190) by 22 points
FORUM E            beat VIKINGS F(+130)   by 23 points
FORUM I(+135)      beat VIKINGS E         by 23 points
VIKINGS G(+75)     beat GLADIATORS B      by 44 points
VIKINGS A          beat VIKINGS C(+160)   by 45 points
BICESTER C         beat VIKINGS H(+130)   by 33 points
BICESTER A         progressed       VIKINGS D conceded

FORUM G progressed BICESTER B conceded

Vikings B booked their place in Round Four of the Aubrey Hughes Handicap Shield competition by beating Forum E by just 14 points. Forum's Tim Massey, Anthony Howgego and Brian Jermyn were given 130 points start and made Viking's Rob Williams, Nigel Taylor and Roel Dullens work hard throughout the match. Jermyn was Forum's main threat, actually taking a leg off Taylor, but Vikings proved just too strong in the end.

Bicester A eased past clubmates Bicester C to win by 25 points. Jack Shardlow, Tom and Joe Marrs had a 180 point start, but they faced a particularly strong A team of Tony Gorman, Jason Tustain and Jeff Rigby.

Forum I provided the biggest upset of the round by beating the current Division 1 leaders Vikings A. Vikings were missing Jingyu Sun due to illness, so Pavel Jaskolski and Alan Cherry were joined by Julian Lawton Smith as substitute. Forum I were given 240 points start and Andrew Legge, Guy Plowman, Cameron Patterson all put in outstanding performances. Plowman set the trend for Forum with a very impressive opening singles against Lawton Smith that put Vikings on the back foot, and Forum went on to win by 48 points.

Vikings G beat Forum G by 68 points. Viking's Geoff Tickner, Tatiana Bachkirova and John Tremayne were given a start of 130 points against Terry Ruane, Alasdair McPherson and Matthew Simmonds for Forum. Things looked grim for Vikings as Ruane ripped into Tickner in the first of the singles to give all the momentum to Forum, but this seemed to inspire Vikings rather than Forum and it was one-way traffic from then on with many good results going to Vikings.

    ROUND THREE RESULTS
VIKINGS B          beat FORUM E(+130)     by 14 points
BICESTER A         beat BICESTER C(+180) by 25 points
FORUM I(+240)      beat VIKINGS A         by 48 points
VIKINGS G(+130)    beat FORUM G           by 68 points
FORUM B            had a bye