national badminton week
As part of National Badminton week, Somerset hosted a day of coaching and competition for County Juniors from Somerset and Devon. On Sunday 22nd October at Quantock lodge, junior players were put through their paces by top coach Paul Tomlinson. The coaching built up to attempts at the newly established One-Minute-Rally-Challenge event.
International stars Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg hold the record of 152 shots set at the National Badminton Centre earlier in the year. The future of junior badminton looks good with Somerset U15 players Alex Covey and Greg Cornelius setting the highest score on the day of 100 shots! To put this into context, the Badminton Development Officers for Devon and Somerset also attempted the challenge. With over 40 years of playing and coaching experience between them, they managed 107 shots in their minute (suspected to be the highest score by 2 BDO's anywhere in the country). This makes the efforts of the junior players even more impressive. Devon pair Luke Bovey and Sam Burnham set the ball rolling (or should that be shuttle flying?!) by posting a solid 92 shots, which also made them the highest scorers for Devon. Suprise of the day came when players teamed up with parents to have a go, with some impressive scores.
The aim of the day was to provide an excellent badminton experience to all participants, whilst raising money for the NSPCC, BADMINTON Englands chosen charity or this weeks National Badminton Week. On both counts, the day was a resounding success.
Sue Jarvis
Devon Badminton Development Officer