There was an excellent entry from our Under 17s for the Northumberland round on the BE Bronze Junior Circuit and further success for several of our players in the tournament held last Sunday at the Tyneside Badminton Centre.

Tim Bodani has reached the later stages of several events recently and he achieved this again, winning all three of his group games, followed by a 21-14 quarter-final victory over the seeded Matthew Evison.  A semi-final win over the top seed, Yorkshire’s Jacob Earles, proved to be one step too many and he lost 14-21 to take a bronze medal.  Earles won the final against team mate Joe Firth by 25-23.  There were several good performances by our boys in the group rounds with both James Dodd and Finlay Smith winning two of their three matches.   James then teamed up with Matthew Grant in the level doubles, winning three of their four matches and gaining a bronze medal.  Finlay went one better, making it to the final in partnership with Cumbria’s Alex Dalton but then succumbing to the Pooley brothers from Yorkshire 17-21.  So it was a silver for Finlay.

Amy Ward and Charlotte Graham have had several successes already this season in the girls’ doubles and they were on top form again.  But it took a nail-biting 21-20 win over the top seeds, Lucy Walker and Rachel Crabb, to preserve their one hundred percent record and gain them the gold medals.  In the singles, Walker was dominant and took the final with a 21-13 win over Crabb.  In the group rounds, Amy and Ellen Davison had several good wins and Lucy Dodd narrowly failed to win her group, losing 20-21 to Crabb.

The regular mixed pairing of Charlotte and Tim have had a good season so far and looked ready to maintain their momentum, winning their first three matches.  That brought them into a decider with the Yorkshire pair of Walker and Finley Richardson, who were also undefeated: but they fell off the pace a little and lost 16-21.  Nevertheless, they had won the silver medals, giving Northumberland a really satisfying haul overall.