U13s Report. From Lynne.

 

This Saturday 21st November, Avon County Under 13's travelled to Bath University for the Team Challenge, which involved Avon playing against the top badminton players of Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.  2 of our boys had to cancel due to injury. The format required that 5 boys and 5 girls were required to be brought to the tournament but each match consisted of 2 boys singles, 2 girls singles, 1 boys doubles and 1 girls doubles.

 

In order to try and win games the players can be moved around in different combinations and not all the children could play in all the matches.

Dorset: Aidan won his singles and Elliot/James won their doubles but Dorset had a strong team and beat us 4-2

 

Devon: In a thrilling game, Sebastian SG won his singles in 3 and Megan won her singles comfortably. Elliot/James and Elise/Simone, narrowly lost their games in 3 - both exciting matches but Devon proved to be too strong for us.

 

Cornwall: We won 4-2! Aidan, Elliot, Megan and Kirby won their singles comfortably, Emily/Simone narrowly lost their doubles in 3 and James/Rishi fought hard but lost their doubles.

 

Somerset: On a roll we won 4-2! Aidan, Seb SG, Kirby and Megan all winning singles. Elliot/James and Elise/Simone lost narrowly in nail biting games by going to 3.

 

Hampshire: A strong team that beat us 4-2. Kirby and Megan both won their singles comfortably, Aidan came close to beating their No 1 boy and Elliot/Rishi and Elise/Emily played really well and lost in close battles.

 

It was an exciting day of badminton that Devon won, Hampshire came second, Dorset third and Avon 4th (out of 6).

Funny to reflect that we almost beat the winners!  Well done team and thanks to all the parents that came and supported.

 

 

U15s. 2nd place  

Team:

Sally Mortimer             Henley Ngan
Saskia Manson            Brendan Foreman
Anna Manley               Peter Wrigglesworth
Jess Hopton                Luke Joyner

On Saturday Avons u15's took part in the annual team challenge at Bath uni. This year the tournament was to be especially challenging as Hampshire had been added to the Bath draw.
The U15s would need to be on top form to come in the top 2 counties and qualify for the national final.

A large draw of eight counties meant the counties were split into two boxes. We had Hampshire first, a team which proved to be too experienced for Avon u15s despite some very close games 20/21 in Henleys singles Avon lost 0-7

Next Guernsey, Jess and Luke got us off to a flying start winning their mixed 21/7 Anna and Brendan won theirs 21/5 Henley and Jess winning their singles, Avon had won the match. 6/1 to Avon

We had to beat our next opponents, Wiltshire, to go into the playoff for places 1-4 and a chance to qualify for the final. Winning all three mixed games got us off to a great start. Brendan and Peter, Anna and Sally taking both the level doubles. 7/0 to Avon an excellent result.

We'd come 2nd in the box, on to play Dorset, who'd won the other half of the draw. This was to be the tester for Avon. We knew it would be close. If we won we were through to the final, with the team managers stressing over the selection, who to play who? What did we think Dorset would do? What if we got it wrong and let the children down!!!! In the end we changed the team around trying to bring the best out in each player and give the team the best chance of success

As Peter and Jess stepped up for the first mixed game everyone was tense, they could win it, but we knew it would be close. With Peter playing some of his best badminton of the day, excellent smashing and chasing down the shuttle, supporters cheering every point. Nothing was certain it was very close..........eventually they took the game 21/20 disappointment for Dorset.

Henley and Saskia played very well to take the 2nd mixed 21/15 Next up Brendan and Anna
they looked in total control right from the begin and won the game in a very comfortable 21/10. One more game and we were through to the final. With fingers crossed Jess and Henley stepped up for the singles. Sometimes it's hard to play well under pressure knowing everyone is expecting great things and Dorset are very good strong opposition.
Henley proved what a good player he is even if he doesn't always believe it, taking his singles 21/8 We were through to the final. Score 5/2 to Avon. Commiserations to Dorset and thanks for an excellent match.

The last match of the day Hampshire to decide who would go through in 1st place. Having beaten us 7/0 earlier in the day, we decided to change the team around slightly and just go with the flow. After some disputes over our mixed ranking, of which I'm still not sure what they were challenging !!!!

All the team were tired now but tried their best, Jess had a fantastic singles against Vicky Willams an excellent U15 England player jess took the game 21/17 this was to be the only game of the match. 1-6 to hampshire.

A excellent day for the u15s where the whole team put in an excellent effort to come 2nd overall and qualify for the team final. Well done to you all.