With even more thanks to Davd Graham, here is a brief report on our very successful Junior Silver tournament held at the start of March ….. Northumberland was very well represented in all events, with all our juniors gaining valuable competitive experience against tough opposition, including from higher ranked players from many other counties and in particular from north of the border.
In the boys’ singles, Tim Bodani came second in his group, losing only to Scotland’s Finlay Sheriff in a close encounter, 17-15, 13-15, 16-14. A couple of points the other way would have taken Tim into the semis. We had six pairs in the boys’ doubles, which in itself was very satisfying. Our pairs did find the going tough, but Finlay Smith and Jai Nayyar almost come through their group, having defeated their Northumberland teammates James Dodd & Matthew Grant, 15-10, 15-7.
In the mixed doubles, excellent Silver medals were earned by Northumberland’s Tim Bodani and Lucy Dodd (both of whom are underage players). They came through a tough group, including victory over the No.2 seeds from Yorkshire and narrowly lost 10-15, 14-16 in the final to the No.1 seeds from Scotland, Sheriff & Swan.
The weekend’s highlight result for Northumberland came in the girls’ doubles. In the single group of five pairs, Charlotte Graham & Amy Ward started reasonably slowly with a close three-end defeat against a good pair from Yorkshire. However, they recovered extremely well with victory over Northumberland’s Ellen Davison & Lucy Dodd – another very close encounter 15-12, 19-21, 17-15 – and followed this up with a good two-end win over another Yorkshire pair. They then claimed the gold medals against the previously undefeated No.1 seeds from Scotland, Swan & Meldrum, winning 15-8, 15-13. This rounded off an excellent BE Circuit campaign for Charlotte & Amy, this gold medal being their fifth together as a doubles pair this season, and was also Charlotte’s 27th BE Circuit medal since September 2018.
Well done everyone! Can’t believe that the season is nearly over. There is still our last Anglo-Scottish event to come next weekend, plus the Nationals and the Under 18 ICT – and we will be planning next season very soon now.