THE FINAL stage of badminton's Basingstoke and District knock-out cup saw Viking regain the trophy at Basingstoke Sports Centre.

The eventual winners were given a bye into the semi-finals because of the late withdrawal of Waynflete, leaving only seven teams.

In the three remaining first-round matches, Andover Sports beat St Mary's by 139 points to 125, despite losing Sandra McDonald early on with a severe ankle injury. Andover won all three men's doubles and the two mixed by a sufficient margin to compensate for the forfeited points in the women's and the one mixed.

Winning all nine rubbers, Beechdown beat Aldermaston 189-79 while BH Pegasus, last year's plate winners, took eight of the nine rubbers to beat Phoenix 181-79.

The only Phoenix success came when Scott Wilkins and Neil Hodges beat Andy Lang/Martin Davey 21-13. In the other rubbers no Phoenix pair managed to reach double figures.

The semi-finals saw Viking take on Andover Sports, who had Val Raper as a substitute for the injured McDonald, and BH Pegasus face Beechdown.

Steve and Gill Christmas, playing the top mixed doubles, managed to win the solitary Andover rubber in a 174-97 defeat by the Viking team of Adam Byford, Tim Cooper, James Beavis, Heather Prior, Juliet McAskill and Alison Foy.

Meanwhile the Beechdown team of Neil Marie, Daniel Shepperd, Mark Bayliss, Alison Parker, Madge Cummings and Sandra Smith proved too strong for BH Pegasus, who lost the other semi-final 180-127.

The losers won the B/C women's rubber and the top two mixed but not by a sufficient margin to make up the deficit from their other defeats.

In the final, Viking won five of the six level doubles, losing only the A/B women's and that by only four points. This gave them an almost unbeatable lead going into the three mixed rubbers.

They also won these to regain the trophy with a 185-83 points victory.

In one plate semi-final, the Phoenix team of Scott Wilkins, Neil Hodges, Ian Shoard, Carolyn Neale, Gill Trimmer and Alison Rendall beat Aldermaston 163-116.

Phoenix won all three men's rubbers, one of the women's and the top two mixed to progress to a final against St Mary's. These teams had already met in the final of the preliminary stage of the competition. On that occasion St Mary's were the winners and they went on to complete the double.

The only success for Phoenix came in the A/B men's where Scott Wilkins/Ian Shoard beat Keith Vincent and Philip Debois.

In the final, St Mary's, represented by Vincent, Debois, Tony Glinos, Janine Fisher, Suzanne Allen and Su Craig took the plate by 183 points to 109.

Basingstoke will contest the county inter-district competition at Basingstoke Sports Centre this coming Sunday.