Tournament's tight finishes

The Letchworth and District Badminton League's annual pairs tournament took place in Baldock.

A packed hall at the Knights Templar Sports Centre on Sunday saw 30 men and 16 ladies competing for the medals in the two events.

The ladies' group looked hard to predict with several evenly balanced pairs.

The first game was typical of the games to follow, with Elaine Drury/Chaya McLaren beating Jo Drury/Charlotte Gawley Green 21-20 on the sudden death point.

At the halfway stage, these pairs had lost just one game each and they were joined at the top of the group by Ali Worsley/Jenny Milne with the same record and only two points separated the three pairs.

However, with two games left Elaine/Chaya were one win ahead of Jo/Charlotte, who had to beat Ali/Jenny in their last game to finish with the same number of wins.

They played a superb game, winning 21-10. In the resulting points countback, Elaine/Chaya took the silver with 145 points and Jo/Charlotte took the gold with just a point more.

The men were split into two tables and both proved tightly contested, with several games needing a sudden death point.

In Group A, with the last game on court, any of three pairs could have won the group.

Frank Ibrahim/Adrian Yuem had to win the game to force a three-way tie and a points countback. They did so, and with the points added up, Louie Ho/Howard Fisher and Lee John/Steve Kemp both had 137 points.

But Frank/Adrian edged ahead and into the final with 142 points.

In Group B, two pairs were unbeaten and they met in the penultimate game where something had to give.

Gabor Otyehel/Chris Otyehel beat Rob Wade/Graham Boar 21-20 to go into the final.

The final lived up to the group deciders with some long rallies and players literally diving around the court to retrieve shots.

It went to another sudden death, with father and son Gabor and Chris holding their nerve to win the deciding rally and the golds.