Kashmir have the upper hand on opening day

Bijoy John and Paul Clegg in action for Kingsway Phoenix 'A'

It was derby day in the opening round of fixtures in the new ORBL badminton league season.

In the First Division Kashmir 'A' and Oldham 'B' played at Kashmir's home venue of the Radclyffe School, Chadderton.

Both captains played well – Kashmir's Annees Rehman and Oldham 'B's Munanar Hussan, while there was a strong showing from Oldham 'B's third pairing of Anisur Rahman and Yusuf Kamali against Kashmir 'A's first pairing of Kamran Ramzan and Nabeel Rehman.

The final score of Kashmir 'A' 10 games against Oldham 'B's eight games could have gone either way, but probably the best team on the night won.

New club Kingsway Phoenix 'A' played Kashmir 'C'.

Although both sides played well, Kashmir 'C' cruised to a 16 points to two victory.

The score reflects the difference in standard, although most of the matches were well fought.

Kingsway Phoenix's wins came courtesy of Carl Davies and Tony Schofield beating Abdul Rehman and Rashid Hussain 21-16 and Bijoy John and Nathen Campbell beating Rashid Husain and Mohammed Alyas 21-16.

Kashmir's pair of M Mudasar Yasin and Sajid Mahmood won all their eight games.

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