Last weekend another double encounter was scheduled. The first matches of the second half of the league! On Saturday a home match versus Berlin and on Sunday the away match versus Rosenheim. Both are tough opponents.
Again we didn’t have the strongest possible team formation as Marcus Ellis was playing the Welsh Open where he reached two finals and Johanna Goliszewski was more or less worn out in the German Army where she has been called for duty and where she is getting an average of 4 hours sleep per night. Still she was allowed to leave the Hannover barracks to play these matches.
On Saturday we started very energetically. Judith Meulendijks and Johanna won the ladies double and Dima Zavadsky and I defeated Robert Blair and Bin Shen Tan in an attractive and exciting 3 game match. The first men’s single was also a win but then the odds turned completely and the remaining three matches were won by Berlin. So just like the first encounter this one also ended with a draw and we were quite satisfied with that result.
After a quick shower we rushed off in our “team minibus” for the trip to Rosenheim. This city is located in the South of Germany quite near the Austrian border.  As the distance is 700 kilometres we made an overnight stop at an hotel somewhere in the middle of nowhere. After a solid sleep and a proper German breakfast we took all the time to drive the last 180 kilometres on Sunday morning.
Also in this competition we started very well. Again Dima and I won the men’s double and also the ladies double and ladies single were decided in favour of Mülheim. After these 3 points the Rosenheim team seemed to get wings when they won the second men’s single. The first men’s single between Dima Zavadsky and Tan Chun Seang was a magnificent match which was, after both players had gotten some matchpoints, finally decided in the third game and in favour of Rosenheim with a score of 25-23.
So it was up to Johanna and me to try and score the winning point in the mixed doubles. We succeeded to win the first game but in the second and third game our opponents were just a bit better. With 21-18, 19-21 and 19-21 we drew the shortest straw which meant that we had to settle for a draw again. Nevertheless, considering the circumstances, we should be happy with the 2 points and with the second place in the League at one point behind leader Berlin!
This week we only have 3 days of training because we leave for Ireland on Thursday where we will play the last tournament of this year. Tomorrow Samantha and I will perform in a youth sports TV show which will be recorded in the afternoon and after that I’ll have an intake interview for the level 4 Sports coach course which will start in January. So a nice week ahead of me! If you want to know how things develop you may have a look at my twitter account http://twitter.com/JorritdeRuiter
Tags: badminton, Bundesliga, jorrit de ruiter, MĂĽlheim, Papendal, Twitter