DIANE PARISH and Keith Sandiford were drawn to play together only on the day – and ended up as Huddersfield Badminton Tournament Veterans champions.
In the final – which didn’t finish until 11.10pm at Valley St James – it was extremely close against former champions from 2006-07, Sheila and Ron Mellor.
The Mellors were off scratch and Parish and Sandiford off plus one, so it took enormous energy and concentration from both partnerships to win every single point.
It eventually finished 21-19, 21-19 to Parish and Sandiford with spectators wishing it had gone to a third because of the quality of the competition.
Earlier, the semi-finals had been keenly fought, with the Mellors seeing off another partnership drawn together for the Tournament in Arthur Whitworth and Philippa Woodroffe, herself another former veterans champion, 21-17.
The other semi between Parish and Sandiford and Helen Fay and Jag Sodhi went to the death and beyond, with the result finally decided in overtime at 28-26 to the eventual Tournament winners.
The round robin phase of the competition had been well fought and played in good humour, with the semi-final line-up decided only following the last rubber – Whitworth and Woodroffe pinching the last place by a single point from Ken Boulton and Carole Moir.
