Once again the new BAofE tournaments have gotten underway for the U15’s with the first held at Kettering.  Being a central location meant a very large turnout with a total of approx 185 players participating over two days. With such large numbers it meant a separate day for the grade 4 on the Sunday.

Full marks to all the players who coped with the long day and produced some outstanding badminton.  Maybe we should come up with a competition to see who can come up with the novelist way of passing the hours between games!

Anyway Yorkshire once again were well represented a took home a total of 6 gold’s and 5 bronze medals.

Representing the boys: Daniel Shiels, Chris Allen and Luke Hutchinson.

In the doubles, Chris and Luke partnered each other and reached the semi-finals , Daniel partnered N. Shoreman from Lancashire who went onto win the final.

Representing the girls: Danielle Whitaker, Lauren Birch, Hayley Shipley, Chloe Chambers and Jenna Walker.

In the singles, Hayley and Jenna both progressed from their groups, with Hayley losing out in the first knock out stage. Jenna reached the semi-final, where she lost to Alison Pulford of Staffordshire in three sets.

In the doubles, Hayley partnering Joanne White from Staffordshire reached the semi’s with Chloe and Jenna going onto take the gold medal in three sets 9-15, 15-11, 15-4.

Representing the boys: Paul Scott, Clinton Lau and George Hargreaves.

In the singles, both Paul and George progressed from their groups but lost out in the first of the knockout stages.

In the doubles, Clinton paired with Luke Swannack progressed from their group to reach the semi finals, where they lost 21-12 to take the bronze medal.

Representing the girls: Hannah Wilkie was the only Yorkshire representative.

Although unable to progress from her group, she produced an outstanding performance to come from 20-13 down to win 21-20 against Rachael Warnes who then withdrew from the tournament.

Representing the boys: James Pickard, Jonathan Baines and Simon Templeman.

Although putting up excellent performances, they were unable to progress from their groups in the singles or doubles.

Representing the girls: Nicola Hainsworth and Hannah Marsh.

Wonderful performance from both of them by winning the doubles, and Nicola taking the gold in the singles.  Hannah narrowly lost out by making it an all Yorkshire final by losing 15-11 in the semi’s