Northumberland’s Under 15 Junior County team were involved in the Anglo-Scottish Tournament over the weekend at the Tyneside Badminton Centre.  The event, supported as usual by Yehlex, brings together teams from north and south of the border each year to play off for the trophy.  For some of the team it was the first time they had represented their County and the team were all proudly wearing their new Northumberland team tops.

The team, under the experienced management of Karen Davison and Joel Dodd was –
Amy Ward, Charlotte Graham, Ellen Davison, Eve Beechinor-Collins, Lucy Dodd, Merin Cherian, Dominic Wilson-Baker, Jack Tilbury, James Dodd, Kaleb Cannon, Matthew Short and Mark Walker.  Most unfortunately, we had lost our top boy, Tim Bodani, due to illness shortly before the weekend: this will definitely have affected our overall results. Continue reading →

Our Under 16s staged a really good recovery from their 5-15 loss to Cheshire back in October when the return took place on Sunday at Garforth.  Full details will be posted in due course but they came away with a 10-all draw.

And here is Team Manager Andrea Bogan’s report:- Continue reading →

Jamie Tinnion and Matty Jerdan went down to Teesside for the Durham U19 Silver and came back with a bronze medal in the men’s doubles.  A significant entry from four strong Scottish lads ensured that there was a good standard of play.  Our two got close to one of the Scottish pairs but could not quite force the match into a third end, losing the very tight second 23-25.  But two good wins in the group of five gave them the third place bronzes.

Both Jamie and Matty competed strongly in the singles, with Jamie defeating the top seed 20-22, 21-19, 21-6 but losing 15 and 16 to Calvin Chan of Scotland.  Matty won over Durham’s Dominic Barlow 21-12, 21-15 before losing to Dylan Holmes.

There was success at York on Saturday for Charlotte Graham and Tim Bodani.  The mixed doubles event was played as a knock-out and our pair scored two fine wins to reach the semi final stage.  Here they came up against number one seeds and event winners Grace Sherwin & Joe Howells: they succumbed 10-15, 5-15 but were delighted to take another medal together, this time a bronze to add to their recent successes.

In the boys’ doubles, Tim partnered Matthew Short.  In a very tough group, they were one of three pairs who won three matches but lost to each other: unfortunately, Tim and Matthew lost out on the count-back of ends won.  Tim was unlucky to face Howells again in his singles group and did not progress to the knock-out stage.

Sunday afternoon saw our Under 18 team record an excellent 17-3 win against Lancashire’s 2nds.  The visitors were unfortunately short of a girl, which meant that they had to concede four matches but our Natalie Ho gained valuable experience by agreeing to “sub” for Lancs, thus enabling all 20 matches to be played.  Northumberland’s team was:

Anna Railton, Libby Hall, Rachel Bogan, Sarah Bambrick, Arif Alam, George Moran, Jack Thorpe, Melvin Cherian & Matty Jerdan

We got off to a flying start with wins in all four mixed doubles and followed that up with wins in seven of the eight singles matches.  Four of these opening dozen matches went to a third end but we took them all.  The level doubles pairs were equally convincing with victories in six of the eight matches, giving Northumberland a very satisfying overall success.

The second round of junior age-group county championships took place in early December at Tyneside Badminton Centre.  Many thanks to county treasurer Julie Brown for giving up her time to run the events.

The younger age group featured several players who were new to an event of this type – players who had come through the Northumberland Futures route or via the Super Series: it was good to see some new faces.  The boys’ singles suffered two late drop-outs but was still played in two groups, which saw Ryan Cockett and Thomas Hewson move on to play each other in the final.  The trophy was taken by Ryan 21-9, 21-11.  The boys’ doubles was won by the Ponteland pairing of James and Luke Donnelly after a close win over the runners-up pairing of Ryan and Thomas Vicente.

Lucy Dodd, already successful on the national junior circuit, was not surprisingly the dominant player in the remaining events.  Lucy won all her singles matches convincingly, with Katrina Ho as runner-up.  The two of them then teamed up to take the girls’ doubles with a 21-10, 21-6 victory over Naomi Silva and Merin Cherian.  The two singles winners, Lucy and Ryan, then won the mixed doubles event with a 21-6, 21-8 win over Naomi and Cameron Twynholm.

The Under 17s featured a very competitive boys’ singles event, with two groups of six players producing a number of excellent tussles.  In group A, Neil Shi and Matthew Grant fought hard to score 4 and 3 wins respectively, but it was top seed Melvin Cherian who came through undefeated.  Group B was particularly tight.  Finlay Smith was especially unlucky, with three wins but two losses, both to 20 against Andrew Liang and Arif Alam.  In the end, Finlay, Arif and Vikram Nayyar all scored three wins but the group win was taken by the undefeated Andrew.  The final was a fine close match taken 21-19, 21-16 by Melvin.

Five pairs contested the boys’ doubles which went to Arif and Melvin, who were undefeated.  The runners-up were Andrew and Neil.  The mixed doubles produced what was probably a surprising result with Charlotte Graham and Finlay Smith scoring a 21-17, 24-22 win over Rachel Bogan and Vikram Nayyar.  Rachel took the girls singles by 21-8, 21-13 over Charlotte.

Very well done to them all.

The first two age group events in Northumberland’s junior restricted county championships took place recently at the Tyneside Badminton Centre.  A shortage of available girls at the Under 19 level meant that the girls’ singles and level doubles were not played but there were three pairs to contest the mixed doubles.  This was won by Anna Railton & Ashraf Alam, the key result being their 15-5, 15-6 win over Rachel Bogan & Jamie Tinnion.  The boys’ singles was played in a large group of seven and ultimately came down to the match between Ash and Jamie.  The latter pushed his opponent hard, only losing the first end by a single point, but it was Ash who triumphed 15-14, 15-11 to take the trophy.  The two of them then teamed up to take the level doubles, with George Moran and Tom Cox as the runners-up.

In the Under 15 age group events, there were two triple winners – Charlotte Graham and Tim Bodani.  The girls’ singles was played in a group of five and ultimately came down to the match between Charlotte and Amy Ward, which was taken 21-13 by the former.  Amy had earlier defended strongly against the relentless attack of Lucy Dodd, eventually winning that match 21-16 to take the runner-up spot.  The girls’ doubles was won by Charlotte & Amy after a 15-8, 12-15, 15-11 win over Lucy & Ellen Davison.  Charlotte & Tim took the mixed doubles, with Lucy & James Dodd as runners-up.

The boys’ singles had a good entry of 12, with the initial round played in two groups.  Matthew Short, Jack Tilbury, Ollie Edmondson and Hugh Twelves all scored at least three wins but James and Tim were both undefeated moving on to play each other in the final.  This was a strangely uneven contest, with James getting off to a strong start before Tim powered through to win 12-15, 15-11, 15-1.  The boys’ doubles was taken by Tim & Matthew, who overcame James & Jack in a very competitive final 8-15, 15-11, 15-11.

The Anglo-Scottish team tournament for the youngest age group took place last weekend at the TBC.  Putting out a team of 6 girls and 6 boys seems to get ever-harder but we made it this year – just.  But what a good weekend they all seem to have had.  And for many of them, it was the very first experience of a team event like this.  An experience which, we hope, will leave them wanting more. Continue reading →

The last few weeks have seen several of our young players spreading their wings to play in a number of the age group events run for Cumbria and Tees Valley.  Pride of place should go to Melvin Cherian who overcame a 28-strong field to win the boys singles at the Tees Valley Under 17.  He took the gold medal with an excellent 21-19 victory over Yorkshire’s Thomas King.  Our pair of Finlay Smith and Jai Nayyar took bronze medals in the boys doubles.

Melvin’s success followed his recent win in partnership with Arif Alam to take the level doubles title in the Cumbria Under 17 event.  The scoreline was another 21-19, this time over Adam Ashraf (Lancashire) and Oliver Stapleton (Yorkshire), and came after Arif and Melvin had stormed through their group winning all five matches.  In the singles competition, they had both reached the semi-finals but suffered the same 16-21 losses.

At the younger age group of Under 15 over in Cumbria, Tim Bodani had performed strongly to reach two finals.  He lost the singles final to number one seed Karthik Ajith of Lancashire.  He then partnered Matthew Short making it through to the boys doubles final but then came up against Ajith again, losing 17-21.  But that experience obviously stood Tim in good stead in preparation for our own Under 17 tournament.

Finally, another mention must go to Lucy Dodd who took the title in the Tees Valley Under 13 tournament.  The final was a tough match but Lucy held her nerve to take the gold medal with a 22-20 win over Cheshire’s Anushka Acharya.

The first two restricted county championships took place on Saturday.  Fuller report to follow but our new county champions are –

at U15: girls singles – Charlotte Graham; boys singles – Tim Bodani; girls doubles – Amy Ward & Charlotte Graham; boys doubles – Tim Bodani & Matthew Short; mixed doubles – Charlotte Graham & Tim Bodani.
Particularly well done to the two triple champions.

at u19: boys singles – Ashraf Alam; boys doubles – Ashraf Alam & Jamie Tinnion; mixed doubles – Ashraf Alam & Anna Railton.
The girls singles and doubles were not contested.