Our Under 15s put up a spirited performance against the Yorkshire 1st team before going down 8-12. The team, managed by Ian Bambrick, was:
Girls: Anna Railton, Sarah Bambrick, Rachel Bogan, Abby Grogan
Boys: Andrew Hogg, George Moran, Melvin Cherian, Andrew Liang
Ian’s report on the match follows:In what was always going to be a tough match, there were some excellent performances that should give the players encouragement for future matches. Due to an early morning illness, Yorkshire only had three girls, so had to concede four matches. Six of the remaining matches went to 3 ends but unfortunately only one of these went the way of Northumberland.
In the mixed doubles Rachel and Andrew L got off to a good start winning to 17 & 15. In what was probably the longest match of the day Anna & George put up a tremendous fight with some tight defence and excellent rallies but they eventually went down 27-25, 13-21, 22-24.
We lost all four of the boys’ singles but not without a fight. Melvin took his first end to 17 but was pegged back before losing the third to 17. Andrew L lost another close match 15-21 and 21-23.
In the girls’ singles, Rachel came through comfortably in the third end after losing the first end and taking a tight second to win 13-21, 22-20, 21-8. Anna and Sarah had a tough time against the top Yorkshire girls both losing in two ends but put up some great resistance.
In the boys’ doubles, there were some excellent battles with honours even at the end. Andrew H and George won their first match against the top Yorkshire pair 21-15, 24-22 with Melvin and Andrew L also winning to 15 and 17. However, in the reverse matches the tables were turned with both pairs losing, after having taken the first end. Andrew H and George were particularly unlucky, going down 21-12, 20-22 19-21. Melvin and Andrew L lost ther match 21-15, 18-21, 15-21.
Anna and Sarah pushed the top Yorkshire pair hard, taking the first end to 19 but losing out in the end to 17 and 11. Rachel and Abby found it hard going against the same pair losing in two ends.
Although the match was lost 8-12, it could have been the other way. The players should hopefully have gained from the experience and put themselves in good stead going forward.