Nottinghamshire Schools Badminton Association Chairman's
Report 2005/06
This has been another strong year for the Nottinghamshire
Schools Badminton Association, both at team and individual levels. The
highlights of the year in team terms can best be summarised as follows:-
At U17 level we won the regional division of
the Shires League and only last weekend came runners up in the National
Finals. A great achievement although once again we were runners up
to old rivals Yorkshire. The squad also did extremely well to finish
third in a very competitive ICT, particularly bearing in mind we had several
key players missing for reasons beyond our control. We would like
to wish all of our U17 players all the very best for their senior badminton
careers.
At U15 level we were runners up in the regional division
of the Shires League to a very strong Leicestershire year. The team
did will to finish eighth in the National Team Challenge Finals and fifth
in the Shires League Finals.
At U13 level we enjoyed a very exciting year. The
squad comfortably won the regional division of the Shires League and then
came a fantastic second in the National Team Challenge Finals. The
squad are now looking forward to the Shires League Finals which take place
at the end of May.
At individual level we also had some outstanding
successes:-
At U17 level Chris Adcock won all three of the National
titles in Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles. This was a fantastic
achievement and Chris has now won all three age group titles at each of
three age groups. We believe this is the first time this has been
achieved in English Junior Badminton. He also won a team Gold at the
Danish Cup last October together with two individual Gold medals. The
highlight of his year came only two weeks ago when he won the deciding rubber
to beat Denmark at the U17 Six nation’s event in Sweden (effectively the
European Championships) - the first time that England has won this trophy
since Denmark joined the event some 27 years ago. He then went on
to win two individual Gold Medals at both Doubles and Mixed. Chris
also represented England for the first time at a full senior international
level and reached the semi final of the Men’s Doubles Event at the Welsh
EBU with his Nottinghamshire partner, Peter Mills.
Alison Pulford has enjoyed an excellent season at
all levels – we are delighted that Alison was selected for her first junior
international midway through the season by representing England at the U17
Home Countries Event in Glasgow. Alison has worked extremely hard
and we hope she will be reinstated onto the World Class programme during
the summer. Samantha Reynolds also remains on the World Class programme.
At U15 level, Jessica Tandy remains on the World
Class programme whilst Rohan Midha continues to feature highly in the national
rankings and is attending England’s national training days. Both players
are looking forward to an exciting year at their full age during 2006/2007.
At U13 level we all enjoyed an excellent season –
this is potentially a very exciting squad and three members won medals at
the National Championships – congratulations to Bethany Howard for achieving
Silver in the Girl’s Doubles Event and to Piya Sachdeva and Ellie Travers
for winning a Bronze at the same event. Bethany Howard and Nicola
Stacey also became the first Nottinghamshire Girls to win the Leicester
Doubles Event. Well done indeed.
Only a few short days ago we received the great news
that Ellie Travers has been selected for her first England junior international
event which will take place in Germany next month. During the same
weekend Serena Midha (U11) won the regional U11 championship and will now
represent the East Midlands in the National Finals during June.
We undertook our usual two weekends at Lea Green which
once again went extremely well. The highlight of the season for myself
however has been the establishment of the Notts Elite Cells that meet on a Wednesday
evening at the Manor Complex at Mansfield Woodhouse. We have learnt a
great deal about elite cell management during this season and are looking to
continue the process during 2006/2007.
During the year we have successfully hosted national competitions
at U13 and U17 level together with the usual Notts Opens which take place at
Christmas at U13, U15 and U17 age groups. Many thanks as always to Helen
Ward, John Simpson and John Ellis for their sterling efforts. Without
these people, these tournaments would not take place and the benefit to the
County in funding terms is substantial.
In closing, I would like to thank all of our Coaches,
the Officers of the Committee, the Age Group Administrators and the parents
for their ongoing support – running an association of our size with circa 100
juniors in our squads is very time consuming and demanding. We are always
looking for additional parents who may wish to volunteer their services – please
speak to either myself or the Age Group Coaches.
It is always sad at this time of year when we hand juniors
over to the senior squads for invariably the parents move on with them – I would
like to thank our current U17 Admin team, Steve and Jane Johnson in particular
for their wonderful support of Nott’s Schools during the last 7 years.
