Hertfordshire Junior Badminton Association

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To view the archived news pages from previous seasons please click HERE for 2007 or HERE for 2008.

The weekend of January 16/17th 2010 and the U17 team set off on the train for RIO. Not as exotic as it may sound, it’s a weekend invitation team tournament held at the Railway Institute in York. The train left Stevenage on time with even Emily arriving at the station in plenty of time, breaking with true Westwood tradition.

We arrived in York ready for the first match against Lancashire which proved to be an exciting start to the tournament with Herts winning by a very close 8 games to 7. While Elliott as always changed his shirt in the middle of the hall rather than a short walk to freshen up in the changing rooms, the Herts team prepared to play Warwickshire. This time we achieved a convincing 13-2 win. The third match of the day was against Surrey and Claire was now playing through the pain of her blisters to take her singles to 3 ends for the 3rd time that day. The result was another convincing win for Herts of 10-5.

A short walk to the hotel and it was time for dinner where Alex enjoyed the apple and spider pie for dessert. The evening was spent in the disco.

Sunday morning bright and early and the Herts team were on court ready to play Lothian at 9.30. Unfortunately the opposition proved a little too strong and the result was 8-7 to Lothian with the match costing Howard a new racket. Lunch followed and then a change into the orange team shirts for the last match against the mighty Yorkshire. Congratulations to the mixed pair of Dan and Georgia, and the doubles pair Emily and Isabelle, who managed to win our only 2 games, the result being 13-2 to Yorks.

So a 3rd place position for Herts, with Lothian 2nd (oh, that was so close!) and Yorks way out in front in 1st position.

The award ceremony followed and I would like to congratulate Emily, Alex, Claire, Ryan and Howard who all received nominations from the other teams for good sportsmanship. Ryan was the boys overall winner of this award. The Herts team received the ‘Style’ team trophy for the orange shirts, aided and abetted by Howard and Elliott’s choice of shorts. Apologies to Ashaway for the organisers’ description of the colour!

Tony was congratulated on his 20 years at RIO with the Herts team and while Tony said 2010 is to be his last he was invited by Yorkshire to come back any time for a chat or to spectate.

The awards and congratulations over, the Herts team waited for last one out of the shower, Andrei, while Tom swept the girls around the floor. The train journey home on Sunday evening and Heather impressively spread her study notes out on the table in front of her, and then settled down for a sleep. Some of the team provided entertainment with charades (what’s that word, Andrei?), truth or dare, and phone a joke. I’m sure they will explain if you would like more information.

Tony and I would like to thank Ryan and Emily for the excellent job they did as captains with their support for the whole team. And player of the tournament? No doubt about it, we had 12 of them.

Emily Westwood, Isabelle Sadler, Alex English, Georgia Pittson, Claire Widdicombe, Heather Myers
Ryan McCarthy, Andrei Donko, Elliott Miles, Dan Hatt, Howard Stobo, Tom Dion-Fehily.

Hertfordshire selected Players
Boys: Conor Bambrick, Oliver White, Lyall Daniels.
Girls: Alex English, Anna Collis, Georgia Pittson and Hannah McLaren.
Mascot: Leon the mighty Dragon.

Eastern Regional Round for Under 15’s Team Challenge Hertfordshire Qualify for National Finals which will take place on Saturday/ Sunday 27th / 28th of February at sports Village HSV in Hatfield.

Finally the organizers decided with the help of the other team managers that the games will be best of three games. Three mixed doubles in rank order, one boy and girl singles and one boys and girls doubles for each player will get two games in a match. In total there would be seven games.

First we were up against Norfolk and easy win 7 games to nil.

Next we had to play Suffolk who had very strong Boys, in the mixed matches all the games very close our first pair had the win, second pair lost and the third pair had a good fight for three close games and lost. The other singles and doubles games were shared by each county so we lost 3 to 4.

The final game to Essex must win scenario for Herts. All the Herts squad players were ready to take the challenge on and performed very well I was surprised with talent our players have. So we won over Essex 5 games to 2.

The final crunch came as who was going to go through as Suffolk got beaten by Essex. The Hertfordshire took first place with more games won and Essex came second.

Herts, Beds, Essex, Suffolk, Cambs

Team Herts
Girls Cayleigh Bambrick, Anna Collis, Libby Jennings, Ying Cen Te

The competition involved all counties playing each other in a round robin with each match consisting of 7 rubbers (1 Boys and Girls singles, 3 Mixed and 1 each of Girls and Boys Doubles. Only a maximum of 3 Boys and Girls per match and only two rubbers per player was allowed.

Team started off with a convincing 6-1 and 7-0 win over Beds and Cambs respectively with all the above team participating in and winning at least one of their rubbers one in the two matches. This provided a good warm up as the more difficult counties of Suffolk and Essex were yet to be played. Mohammed being the only U13 member in the team played an excellent Boys doubles against Beds winning it in straight games .

Matt won a tightly fought 3 setter against the Suffolk No.1. Cayleigh won her singles convincingly, however Herts. lost both Boys doubles and one of the mixed to go 2-2. However Anna/Libby in the Girls doubles won their rubber very convincingly. Cayleigh and Matt won their mixed in a tightly fought 3 setter. Herts eventually winning 5-2. Noticeable performance here was Libby/Anna winning their doubles to seal the victory in this match.

The last match and the decider to see who would win this season’s tournament was against Essex. Essex strategically kept their strongest Boy and Girl to play in the doubles

Matt narrowly lost his singles in a nail biting 3 setter that could have gone either way; however Anna again won her singles with ease. The turning point of the match was an excellent attacking Boys doubles win for Lyall/James in straight games. Cayleigh and Ying won another tight duel eventually winning the 3rd game 15-14. Herts won 2 of the 3 mixed doubles to retain the U14’s I think for the 3rd season running. A formidable effort by Herts. Noticeable overall performance was Anna/Lyall winning all 4 of their rubbers in straight games.

Although my hair went greyer during the day, overall this was an excellent team effort played in an excellent spirit with much support from several parents as well as our mascot “ Leon the Dragon”. A great team to Manage. Well Done!!

Hertfordshire U13s played the Eastern regional round of the Team Challenge and once again qualified for the National Finals.

Each match was a best of 6 affair – 4 singles (2 boys, 2 girls), and 2 doubles (1 of each gender)

The day started well with a 6-0 win over Suffolk, with all matches won 2 games to 0

Next up were Norfolk, and whilst their top two singles players won very close matches against their Herts equivalents, the rest of their side was weaker, and Herts came through 4-2

After an hour’s break, it was Northamptonshire. The no.1 boys’ singles went to 3 games, but Mohammed eventually won it, and then Herts breezed through the others, winning all the games to single digits - another 6-0 scoreline.

With only 4 courts but 6 counties, there was a further hours’ break before we faced Bedfordshire. The boys’ singles were very tight – both lost the first game 15-12, but then fought back to win both in 3 sets. The girls and the doubles pairs then wrapped things up speedily to give another 6-0 victory.

So our last opponent was Essex – who had also won all their matches. This was the decider for no.1 spot – an important advantage for finals day, as it means avoiding one of the other top teams in the first part of the draw

As ever with Essex, it was a close one… The boys went on court first, winning 1 singles and the doubles, to give us a 2-1 lead. The girls then produced 3 very close matches – Herts and Essex both won a tightly fought singles in 3 games and then Essex picked up the final girls doubles, again in 3 tough games.

So with the score 3-3, and the match was to be decided on games won. As we had reminded the team all day, every point and every game matters in this competition – and so it proved, with Herts winning 8 games to Essex’s 7, to take first place

The team played well all day, and every player contributed to the team’s results. Thanks also to Andy Goode for his help and advice at the courtside, and to all the Mums and Dads who supported throughout.

The finals on February 28th will be tougher still, but they are on home territory, so please put the date in your diaries and come to support at the Sports Village from 10am.

• Renu Dhall-Chopra
• Amy George
• Isabel Hatt
• Ellie Makewell
• Daniel Fox
• Jack Goode
• Mohammed Khaku
• William Pickworth

Scores

• Herts 6 Suffolk 0
• Herts 4 Norfolk 2
• Herts 6 Northants 0
• Herts 6 Beds 0
• Herts 3 Essex 3 (Herts win 8-7 on games)

Keya Patani (Herts U11 Squad) won in the Middlesex U11 Restricted and came runner-up in the Badminton England Essex U11 Girls Doubles.

Keya Patani in the Middlesex U11 Restricted Tournament 2009

Keya Patani in the Badminton England U11 Essex Tournament 2009

Match played against Middlesex on Saturday 19th September 2009

This was an away Match for Hertfordshire, the players that played in that Match were Conor Bambrick, Matthew Widdicombe, Lyall Daniels, Oliver White, Anna Collis, Georgia Pittson, Hannah McLaren and Cayleigh Bambrick.

The match was won by Hertfordshire 11 games to 9.

Second match we played against Kent on Saturday 3rd October 2009

This was an away Match for Hertfordshire, the players that played in that Match were Conor Bambrick, Matthew Widdicombe, Lyall Daniels, David Maughan, Anna Collis, Alex English, Georgia Pittson and Cayleigh Bambrick

The match was won by Hertfordshire 18 games to 2.

Third match we played against Bedfordshire on Sunday 11th October 2009

Conor Bambrick, Matthew Widdicombe, Lyall Daniels, Oliver White, Alex English, Georgia Pittson, Hannah McLaren, Cayleigh Bambrick and Philippa English.

The match was won by Hertfordshire 20 games to 0.

LLYAL DANIELS; OLIVER WHITE: CONOR BAMBRICK; MATTHEW WIDDICOMBE & DAVID MAUGHAN (not in the picture)
CAYLEIGH BAMBRICK; GEORGIA PITTSON; PHILIPPA ENGLISH; HANNAH MCLAREN; ALEX ENGLISH and ANNA COLLIS (not in the picture)

Keya Patani (Herts U11 Squad) took part in the Badminton England U11 Dorset Tournament on 26th Sept and came Runner-Up in the girls doubles category.

Keya Patani in the Badminton England U11 Dorset Tournament 2009