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Surrey Smashers reach Play-Off finals in style
SurreySmashers qualified for the end-of-season Play-Off finals in fine style on MatchNight 6, finishing top and underling their credentials as favourites to lift the inaugural NationalBadminton League (NBL) title.
Coachedby Hayley Adcock, the Smashers have been the form team since September'sopening fixture, a season which has seen a raft of innovative new features:first-to-nine scoring, Power Play points, time outs and in-play substitutions.
Inthe final Monday evening of the regular season, the Smashers denied Universityof Birmingham Sport a place in the play-offs thanks to a 4-1 win in front of acapacity 1,100 crowd at Surrey Sports Park.
Smasherswill face Loughborough Sport in the finals at the K2 in Crawley in June, liveon Sky Sports. Loughborough won their final two Match Night fixtures to edgeinto the Finals in fourth place, the latest coming after a resounding 4-1 winat home to bottom-placed Milton Keynes Badminton.
TeamDerby finished second in the league after dominating their local battle withUniversity of Nottingham 4-1. Both sides will now play each other in thePlay-Offs for a place in the Final.
Surrey Smashers 4-1 Birmingham Lions
GabbyAdcock and Eefje Muskens ensured the Smashers' passage to the final aftercoming from 7-5 down in the first to win 3-0. Victory also meant that Muskens,the Dutch world No 8 doubles player, finished unbeaten from her five leaguematches. Victory on the night was confirmed with a power-play winning shot as MattNottingham and Emily Westwood came from 2-0 down to win their mixed doubles'rubber in front of another raucous crowd in Guildford.
What they said:
SurreySmashers' Gabby Adcock : “Losing to Nottingham4-1 was tough, so we wanted to come out in front of our home crowd and win asit has seemed to work so well for us.”
WD- Gabby Adcock & Eefje Muskens 3-0 Heather Olver & Sarah Walker
WS - Soraya De Visch Eijbergen 0-3 Fontaine Chapman
MS - Carl Baxter 3-0 Ben Beckman
XD - Matt Nottingham & Emily Westwood 3-2 Nico Ruponen & Alyssa Lim
MD - Chris Langridge (captain) & Tom Wolfenden 3-0 James Lauder & Koen Ridder
Loughborough Sport 4-1 Milton KeynesBadminton
MiltonKeynes Badminton, needing a huge win to give themselves a chance of reachingJune's finals, got off to the best possible start thanks to a superbmixed doubles victory from Sean Vendy and Jess Pugh. But Loughborough Sportrallied brilliantly - Swede Henri Hurskainen kept up his sizzling form with a fourth NBL win - to deny the hosts and cement their last four place and keepahead of Birmingham Lions on the night, captain Peter Briggs and Harley Towleredging a 3-2 win in the final match of the evening.
What they said:
LoughboroughSport's Linda Zetchiri : “Ithink absolutely we have the team to win the title. I hope we can bring our 'A'game to the finals. I'm sure we can do it in June.”
Team Derby 4-1 University of Nottingham
TeamDerby, playing their second match at their new venue, were in commanding formas they cemented a play-off final spot against their local rivals. KieranMerrilees and Olga Konon, both previously unbeaten in four NBL matches forNottingham, both lost their singles' events as Rajiv Ouseph and Karin Schnaasewon contrasting matches to put Team Derby in the driving seat as the hosts' ground out a trio of straight-game event wins on the night.
What they said:
Team Derby coach DonnaKellogg after a comfortable 3-0 win:“We just wanted to come here and focus on our games and win as many rubbers aswe can. We had a fantastic start to be winning 3-0. The crowd have beenfantastic, it's great we are getting lots of spectators here in Derby, everyoneis working so hard and to get the crowd here makes a massive difference to theplayers.”
MS Rajiv Ouseph 3-0 Kieran Merrilees
WS Karin Schnaase 3-2 Olga Konon
WD Kate Robertshaw & Donna Kellogg 3-0 Alex Langley & EllenMahenthiralingam
XD Martin Campbell & Gail Emms 2-3 Adam Hall & Chloe Magee
MD Chris Coles & Andy Ellis 3-0 Chris Adcock & Robert Blair
Want to see the first ever NBLchampions crowned?
Tickets are now on sale for the Championship Finals Day on 7 June 2015. Prices from £7(child) and £12 (adult)
FinalsDay is at K2 Crawley in Sussex on 7 June 2015. The Championship Final will bebroadcast live on Sky Sports.
