Nottinghamshire
Schools'
Badminton Association
County Under 13 Squad 2003
Yet again the Under 13 Squad has had a fantastic year. The squad consists of two sections, a development squad and a main squad, comprising forty players in all. They train in two sessions on a Saturday at Ravenshead exhausting all our coaches! Thanks go to all who have helped Dave Goodall, Sid Nicholas, Girish Ravat, Ian Smith, Paul and Sally Abbey, Glenn Foye, Phil Wiltshire, Dave Sanders and John Brook. We have a very promising set of players from eight years onwards so things look very good for the future.
The highlight of the year for the Under 13 team came in March when we travelled to Luton for the final of the National Team Challenge. It was a thrilling tense affair in the closing stages as we played our old rivals Yorkshire in the semi-final. On paper they had the stronger team, particularly among the girls, however they couldn’t match the spirit of the Notts team. When the score stood at 3-2 to Yorkshire we knew we not only had to win the girls’ doubles but we had to win by enough margin to win on points. The noise was deafening as it had been all day but Penny and Thereza withstood the pressure and played fantastic badminton. The match was won by 5 points! In the final the whole team continued to sustain the pressure and beat Hertfordshire by four games to two. The girls played at full stretch all day and were magnificent while the boys were cool and professional getting their job done. This is the fourth time Nottinghamshire have won this trophy in the last five years. Congratulations to the team; Chris Adcock, Paul Schuller, Matthew Johnson, Adam Price, George Ward, Aidan Smith, Penny Reynolds, Thereza Oliver-Smith, Samantha Reynolds, Grace Goodey and Alison Pulford.
Once again we retained the Shires League trophy without using our more highly ranked players. The younger teams have also done well. The primary team has gained experience in the north Midway League and played very well to come third. The Under 12 team have also competed in this league and came second overall. We entered teams in the Leicester Invitation Doubles, the Gloucestershire Invitation Doubles, the Gateshead Team Event, the Under 12 Yorkshire Team Event and the National Under 11 Singles Event, all the players doing very well.
Individually we now have three players on the World Class Start Scheme run by the Badminton Association of England: Chris Adcock, Paul Schuller and Matthew Johnson. Four other players are currently under consideration so good luck to them.
Individually there are far too many successes to report. I would however like to congratulate Paul Schuller, Chris Adcock and Matthew Johnson who have all travelled abroad with England. This season Chris has won the Singles titles at the English Nationals, the Danish Cup and The Aros Cup, along with mixed and boys’ doubles titles and deserves his number one ranking in Europe. He also competed in the Under 15 Eight Nations tournament and won the mixed doubles title at the Under 15 Home Countries Tournament and reached the singles and boys’ doubles finals. Paul Schuller (who doesn’t benefit from Chris’s stature) also reached the National Singles final, retained the National Doubles title with Chris and reached the doubles finals at the Aros Cup.
Our thanks as always goes to the County Council and the Notts Schools’ Council for Sport for all their support and funding.
Helen Ward