Blair and Bankier breathe sigh of relief

ANGLO-SCOTTISH duo Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier have scraped through the all-British clash with David Lindley and Suzanne Rayappan.

Seventh seeds Blair and Bankier were made to fight for their second round berth at the Yonex All England Championships, before they came through the marathon match 19-21 21-19 21-15.

And Bankier revealed she cannot wait to face some not so familiar opposition, having struggled against their Great Britain rivals.

"It's not the best playing against team-mates," she said. "I found it quite frustrating at times when they knew what I was going to do, so it's good to get a result, even if we had to win ugly.

"The All England is the highlight of the season, it's always nice playing at home.

"We are a bit relieved to say the least. It was a game we should have won but we were very close to going home."

Along with fourth seeds Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg, and England duo Gabby White and Chris Adcock, Banker and Blair are the third British couple in the second round.

And having drawn a favourable tie against Indonesia's Flandy Limpele and Russia's Anastasia Russkikh, Blair believes the pressure is off in round two. 

"Hopefully we can turn up tomorrow and push hard, and hopefully get a good result," he said.

 "We feel quite good about the next round, it's a better draw for us than meeting the Chinese

 "There's not really much pressure on us tomorrow - they are a new partnership.

 "If we play the way we know we can we should be able to get through tomorrow."

JO CARTER in Birmingham