UNIVERSITY Students got their York Badminton League ladies' division one season off to the best possible start, with two 9-0 home wins over Market Weighton and Huntington.

The Weighton match saw Heather Turner and K Marchbank top score with three straight wins for 90-16, while the Huntington win saw K Marchbank and E Ramsden take the honours with a return of 90-19.

Huntington suffered a further 9-0 defeat when they visited Clifton. Karen Broster and J McIntosh were the pick of the home pairs with three straight wins for 90-10.

Fulfordgate opened their Ladies' Two season with a 6-3 away win over Pocklington. Yvonne Neave and Wendy Arnold took all three Pocklington wins for a total of 90-45, while Anita Wilkinson and Sue Jackson played well to take two points for the visitors.

Drax 'A' entertained Riverside in Men's One and scored a 7-2 win. Steve Parr and Phil Brunyard took three straight wins for a total of 92-41.

This return included a 3 and 5 win over Geoff Oxley and Kwai Mo, who took both Riverside wins.

Drax then entertained University Students 'A' and lost out 4-5.

James Croll and Manik Chakravarti were the Student match-winners with three wins for 92-38, including a 4 and 4 over Phil Brunyard and Steve Parr.

Riverside visited Shepherds in their second match and this time ran out 5-4 winners. Ian Eaton and Sean Ogley took two Shepherd wins in a good display.

However, they lost out 10 and 2 to Craig Dobson and Geoff Oxley, who went on to take all three rubbers for a total of 90-40.

Selby Jubilee 'A' scored a 9-0 home win over Knavesmire in Men's Two.

Neil Richardson and Pete Lund were the best home pair with three straight wins for 90-34. Paul Rogers and Dave Brogden played well for the visitors without success.

Fulfordgate suffered two Men's Three defeats recently, losing 1-8 at home to Railway Institute Tuesday/Thursday 'B' and then going down 2-7 away at Clifton 'B'.

Alan Roberts and Pete Wilkinson took the sole home win against the Institute after a 4-15 15-4 17-15 success over Barry Woodward and D Bramley.

Mark Screeton and Stuart Robertson top scored for Clifton 'B' with three straight wins for 90-34.

Knavesmire opened their Mixed Two account with a 7-2 home win over Sheriff Hutton.

Andy Limbert and Heather Richardson were the best home pairing with three wins for 97-45, while Jo Wade and Andy Daffern took both Sheriff points and lost out 14-17 15-5 5-15 to Limbert and Richardson.

YUSC 'A' scored a great 5-4 away win over Drax 'C' in Mixed Three.

Paul Waites and Zhang Li swung the match in the visitors' favour when, with the score at 4-4, they beat Alison Graham and John Prickett 17-16 12-15 15-5 to claim the overall win.

Tadcaster 86 entertained St John's in Mixed Four and won 7-2 after several close games.

Andrew Cooper and Lucy Astle took Tadcaster's only maximum for a return of 103-52, including a 15-0 13-15 15-12 over Lucy Smith and George Noble, who put in the best student display during the match.

Updated: 10:35 Wednesday, November 05, 2003