NORTHWICH’S Greg Mairs admits stupid errors cost Loughborough in a bid for overall success at the National Badminton League Finals Day.

Sunday saw the culmination of the first-ever NBL season with four teams, including Mairs’ Loughborough Sport, battling it out at K2 Crawley.

Mairs teamed up with Peter Briggs in the men’s doubles to beat experienced duo Chris Langridge and Tom Wolfenden of Surrey Smashers – setting Loughborough Sport on the way to a 5-0 play-off win.

Next up would be Team Derby in the final, where Mairs and Briggs came up against sterner opposition in the form of Andy Ellis and Chris Coles.

That loss and other results not going their way saw Loughborough Sport miss out on the overall win.

“We had a really good performance in the play-offs against Surrey and played well, and didn’t really make many mistakes,” he said.

“But we were just off it against Team Derby. Credit to them, they came out quick and it forced us into a few uncharacteristic mistakes which we shouldn’t be doing.

“It was annoying. We were hoping the team could come back though and take the overall win.

“The nature of this format, it just goes from side to side so quickly. It was hard to get back up for it after the semi-final.”

However, Mairs and Loughborough Sport took heart from a battling to the final after a slow start to the season.

“We expected to beat Surrey,” he added.

“When we played them before it was so close to being 4-1 to us. We pulled it around. Every one that we just lost we managed to win this time.

“We had a bad start to the season, but we pulled it around to get fourth place and make the play-offs. The team came together and that’s credit to the players and whole team.”

For NBL Finals Day reaction, photos and video visit nationalbadmintonleague.co.uk.