Rob: I think Dobbie is referring to the way that you play league games when you are the “home” team. The 1st pair play matches 1, 6 and 8. The 2nd pair play matches 2, 4 and 9. The 3rd pair (Darren's favourite) play 3, 5 and 7. Hence, if you are at home, and play as third pair, you finish quickest, and have the smallest gap between games.

Personally, I do not like playing as 2nd pair, because I don't like to finish last (or rather, I prefer not to be playing the last match). The reason for this is I like to sit and watch the games, without having to go back on again in a minute. I would normally play as the first pair.

Getting there late and having to go straight on is fine. I don't care. Getting there and being given a random partner is fine, as long as they are able to play reasonable badminton. I do not like slow partners who play useless shots. Grrr.

When on the way to a match, I have my “energetic” music on to hopefully get my legs ready to go. However, I don't really think about anything. I just want to get there and get a reasonable warm up 🙂

Hi Dobbie! You and I have different opinions of what it takes to be a good player! You represent your club in league games, you win some of those matches, and you work hard to improve. In my book, thats great 🙂

I understand what you mean. It can be very frustrating, especially on something as simple as a serve. The bad part is, once you miss a few (your partner misses a few serves), it only gets worse!

I played a match recently, on a sunday evening, where I turned up to be paired with the worst player in my club. I was disappointed because I wasn't told that he would be my partner. There was no chance of us winning our games, and, given my 1 hour journey to the venue, I was pretty angry. I felt it was a waste of my time. I have a lot that I need to fix regarding my temperament in order to handle these situations better. My attitude didn't help my partner, as you could imagine. I felt angry, and helpless. No matter how much I tried, I felt I couldn't do anything to win the games or even be competitive. Taking matches easy is not something that I am used to, and I am not really friendly with the guy I partnered, so I felt I couldn't just try to enjoy it. I still don't know what I should have done!

Thanks Paul: to clarify, I did not turn up, see him, and despair. I turned up, tried really really hard for 2 matches, and then started to lose hope. I tried some of those things – serving well, trying to finish the half chances etc. But my partner had no attack, no defence, a mid court lift, and was not able to lift it cross court in the heat of the moment. However, I will endeavour to follow your advice as best I can!