August 4, 2014, by Dan Tilley
The final two days at the Commonwealths
After the success of Isobel Pooley in the women’s high jump at Hampden Park on Friday night, attention turned to the business end of the squash, hockey and badminton tournaments.
Emma Beddoes and her partner Ali Waters had the bronze medal match in the doubles squash against Brown and Grinham of Australia. The English pair dominated throughout and eased to an 11-3 and 11-5 victory to secure the bronze medal.
England vs Australia men’s hockey
In the men’s hockey, England faced favourites Australia for a place in the final. I was lucky enough to be able to watch the game live which featured current Economics student Harry Martin, as well as alumni Nick Catlin and Goalkeeper George Pinner. England were slow out of the blocks and Australia stormed to an early two goal lead. England then matched their opponents for the rest of the half but couldn’t find a breakthrough with Harry Martin coming closest with a full length diving deflection.
The second half started brighter and Harry Martin looked to have given England hope scoring early in the second half. But England couldn’t find the equaliser and as they threw bodies forward to try and draw level, they were caught out on the break and eventually lost 4-1.
Highlights of the game are available to watch on the BBC Sport website.
The loss set up a Sunday bronze medal tie against New Zealand. The two sides effectively traded blows in a high tempo game, with each side scoring 3 goals in normal time. This took the match to a penalty shoot out. In goal, Pinner saved the second New Zealand penalty, which was followed by fellow alumni Catlin scoring his penalty. Pinner then forced a miss from the fourth New Zealand penalty and with England converting their next penalty they ran out 4-2 winners.
You can watch the highlights on the BBC website.
In the badminton, the University’s NBL players were battling it out for medals on the final day. Chris Adcock with his wife Gabby were playing their English team mates Olver and Langridge for the gold medal. The Adcocks proved too strong for their opponents and won in 2 games : 21-9 and 21-12.
In the bronze medal match of the mixed doubles the University’s NBL side had Robert Blair (with his partner Imogen Bankier) competing against Chan and Pei Jing of Malaysia. The Scottish pair proved too strong for their opponents winning 21-17 and 21-11.
There will be the opportunity to see Chris Adcock and Robert Blair playing for the University in the National Badminton League in Nottingham starting in October.
Many congratulations to all those connected with the University who won medals at the Games!
No comments yet, fill out a comment to be the first
Leave a Reply