BADMINTON: Rugby teams keep up winning run in county tournament

Rugby's Under 18s team with their trophy and gold medals

The annual Warwickshire Junior Team Badminton Tournament was held on April 22, in Shottery, near Stratford, with eight teams from Stratford, Rugby and Coventry.

The teams from Rugby showed great determination and team spirit, and came away with both the Under 14 and Under 18 trophies.

The two separate titles were contested through a series of round robin matches. For both age groups this included individual boys and girls singles matches as well as a number of doubles (boys, girls and mixed) matches. County players above 11 years of age were excluded.

Rugby's Under 14s won the Warwickshire tournament for the fourth time

The U14s team won the trophy for the fourth time after some very close games.

Yifan He and Luigi Bayliss competed in the singles and boys doubles, Fangyi Lin and Shraya Mistry in the singles and girls doubles, Jujanna Deshpande and Samuel Lau in boys and mixed doubles, and Catriona Sirman and Keira Mistry in girls and mixed doubles.

It was a good all round team performance with everyone supporting each other to secure the medals. The team won two matches by 7 games to 3, winning 268 points out of a possible 300.

In the deciding match the team won 133 points out of 150, with the mixed doubles pairs winning both their games to secure a 6-4 win.

Not to be outdone by the success of the U14 team, the U18s squad brought home their trophy for the eighth consecutive year.

The team won 20 out of 27 games.

Matthew Sirman was unbeaten all afternoon, with Finlay Miles and Ellie Taylor dropping only one game each. The team faced their stiffest challenge in the last match against a strong team from Alveston (Stratford).

Three-one down after the singles games the team won both doubles games to pull level, with Anna Woodbridge and Beth Wordley holding their nerve to win their game 15-14. The match was then secured when Dylan

Mistry and Ellie Taylor won their mixed doubles game with a powerful performance.

Jonathan Tao won boys and mixed doubles games with partners Dylan and Anna to help the team to victory. A great team effort.

Coaching starts again in September.

For more details visit www.juniors.rugbybadminton.org.uk, or email [email protected].