The County’s Under 15 team played its second match in this season’s Shires League on Sunday.  The visitors had come up from Lincolnshire.  Read on for team manager Christine Railton’s report on the day.

Boys: Andrew Hogg, George Moran, Gabriel Rodda, Josh Dixon and Joshua Xu
Girls: Anna Railton, Rachel Bogan, Abby Grogan, Sarah Bambrick and Rebecca Oakley

Overall it was a very enjoyable but challenging match for the players. Northumberland produced some excellent badminton in some very tough games and the result hardly reflects how close some of the matches were. All the players were very competitive, worked hard for every point and had a fantastic team spirit: as always they were a credit to Northumberland.  Twenty rubbers were played, with 4 in each of the 5 disciplines, and the final result was 6 – 14 to our visitors Lincolnshire.
Mixed Doubles:
Rachel and Josh played confidently together, doing well to come back from losing the first end to win in 3 ends.
Sarah and Andrew played a tight match and also fought back to win an exciting second end. But Lincs made a good comeback and eventually took the rubber in the third end.
Boys Singles:
George played a very strong singles match winning in 2 ends. Josh Dixon had a more challenging singles match with some great rallies: he played very well coming through to win in 3 ends.
Andrew was unlucky not to win his singles after playing a very competitive singles against the recent winner of our BE Under 15 Silver tournament. He was unlucky to lose to 19 after a very exciting third end.
Gabriel played a tough singles match, playing some great shots including a point won after a tough rally including a through-the-legs trick shot from Gabriel. Sadly, it was not enough to win but an excellent match.
Girls Singles:
Sarah played a very tight singles match, just losing the first end to 20. The second end was also very close but Sarah was unlucky not to get the opportunity of a 3rd end. Well played Sarah!
Abby produced a great singles result – winning in 2 ends. The second end was very close but Abby came through 23-21. Excellent result Abby, well done!
Boys Doubles:
Joshua and Gabriel played a very fast paced doubles match with some great rallies and the score doesn’t reflect how hard they worked and they were unlucky not to get a win.
Andrew and George played well together in a very strong doubles match winning comfortably in 2 ends.
Girls Doubles:
Anna and Sarah played a fast paced match in their 2nd doubles match with some great rallies and points winning comfortably in 2 ends.
Northumberland welcomed newcomer Rebecca Oakley to the under 15 team playing with Rachel in their first girls doubles. They played very well and produced some great shots: although they lost both matches they put in a fine performance.

Many thanks to Christine and to the other supporting parents.