William Ponsonby, Melinda Sun secure team’s honour in 2012 Ede Clendinnen Shield tournament
Mixed Doubles partners William Ponsonby and Melinda Sun displayed their classy badminton skills and thrashed Brent Munday-Abigail (Abbie) Rothery in Ede Clendinnen Shield Sydney on August 28, 2012.
This 41-minute encounter was first Mixed Doubles tie of a match between Tasmania and The Territories and both teams tested each other’s skills until the last moment.
They put all in their possession to read the final figures of 25-27, 21-19 and 12-21 after three exhausting sets.
William and Melinda, who were playing for The Territories, locked the honour by prevailing in opening and closing games whereas the opposing shuttlers could prove their point only in the middle of the battle.
Both contenders showed their intentions straight away in the first set as they made this a memorable contest by putting a breath-taking performance.
They kept the audience intact by chasing each other all the way to game point situation and this neck-and-neck race ended when William-Melinda served notice of their supremacy.
Though, they were bit cautious in the beginning and remained at the lower end until mid-game break but then couple of nonstop rallies helped them to establish a slight edge in third quarter of the set.
They continued with an effective counter-attack strategy and managed to finish the opening game with a favourable result of 27-25.
However, this first set loss did not harm their competitors who stormed back with a strong reply and avoided a straight-set defeat.
The twosome of Brent and Abigail played with the right approach to make amends and hit the mark with distinction.
This time they did not wait for the right moment and struck hard immediately after a few opening rallies. They maintained this pace also in the later part of the game and raised their lead on the points table.
At this stage, The Territories’ shuttlers made swift progress with a couple of successive points but they had to give up this futile chase after reading 19-21 score on the board.
With such an abrupt development, William and Melinda were standing equal to their challengers but they performed extremely well while hanging by a thread to stay alive.
They maintained a nine-point difference and swept the table with an overwhelming margin of 21-12.
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