Wiltshire players medal at Badminton England Hampshire U/13 Bronze

Aspiring young junior Wiltshire players bring back medals from their debut appearances on the Badminton England Junior National stage!

Four courageous 9–11-year-olds from Mid Wilts based premier coaching facility The North Wiltshire Badminton Project, travelled to The Westgate Badminton Centre in Winchester, Hampshire to enter their first National Junior U13 Bronze Tournament on Thursday 28th October.

Robert Patient (aged 12) and Imogen Drew (aged 10), who each entered all eligible categories of the competition showed remarkable resilience throughout the day, Imogen being the first to make it to the medals table by picking up a bronze in the girl’s singles consolation round and Rob making it through to the second round of the boy’s singles competition.

At the end of the day Imogen made it to the medals table again with and alongside teammate and training partner Rob when the duo gave a series of gutsy mixed doubles performances culminating in an epic final at which they took an extremely established Surrey pairing all the way to 22-20 on the way to picking up silver medals.

Encouraging performances came from all four players, NWBP team mates and training partners Thomas Wall (aged 10) and Jacob Faulkner (aged 11) narrowly missed out on a chance to go through to the second round of the level doubles competition as did Rob and his partner Salisbury Badminton Club’s Edward Woodhouse, and Imogen and her partner, Zinnia Bromell-James who was on her first outing outside her own County of Devon.

The standard of play was phenomenal and had all parents, coaches and event organisers on the very edge of their seats throughout the course of the day.

Earlier in the week impressive performances were also put in at the Hampshire U17 Bronze Tournament by NWBP members Stephen Dunthorn (aged 16), Sophie Robinson (aged 16) and Danann Butler-Roche (aged 13) and again the next day by an irrepressible Danann Butler-Roche in the Hampshire U15 Silver, across all categories.

In preceding weeks equally commendable performances were given at the Swindon Stars U15 Bronze Tournament by Danann Butler-Roche and Ben Harvey (aged 13) and the week before at Gordano School in Portishead at the BE sanctioned Avon U19 Bronze Tournament across the majority of the categories by NWBP junior players Joseph Stockwell (aged 18), Matthew Young (aged 18), Stephen Dunthorn, 2021 BE Young Volunteer of the Year William Snell (aged 16), Sophie Robinson and Danann Butler-Roche as well as 2019 BE Young Volunteer of the Year Imogen Eagles.

Application of all four elements of skill required to compete at this very competent level of competition was demonstrated by all the athletes who attend between two to four times a week for training at NWBP and they should all be immensely proud, as are their coaches, of how their technical, tactical, physical and mental skills are all developing.