The Suffolk Under-17 badminton team supported by Harrod UK, competed in the Harrod
Inter Counties Tournament [ICT] held at Nottingham University over four days during
the Easter holidays. This event was contested by 40 county teams from all over the
British Isles including teams from Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man and a welcome
return of Guernsey this year.
Thanks must go to Harrod for their welcome support which allows us to greatly reduce
the kit costs for each player. Also to Suffolk Badminton Association in supporting
our choice to travel the day before by meeting the extra nights accommodation cost,
and not forgetting Westbourne Sports College for the use of their minibus on favourable
terms. Without all of this support, the costs to the players would be greatly increased,
or alternatively, we would not be able to offer such a good ICT package, so thank
you again for your support of Suffolk’s ICT team, we hope it may be able to continue
in 2012.
The event is organised into three rounds, with each group’s finishing position important
in deciding which group the team would be competing in next and ultimately the final
position. Suffolk’s first group consisted of Lancashire, Dorset & Northants. Our
first match was against Dorset. To emulate the positional success from last year
(16th) we needed to beat Dorset. Everyone got into their stride very quickly and
with just the girls doubles to play we stood at 4-4 but with both matches going to
3 sets we narrowly lost both and ended up with a 4-6 loss. Our second match was against
the group’s top seeds Lancashire. Our 1st mixed and 1st boys doubles played magnificent
matches both beating very highly ranked pairings giving a final score of 2-8 with
very creditable performances by the whole team. A win in our late evening match against
Northants was essential, both as a confidence booster and to meet our predicted group
placing. Strong performances in the mixed gave us a great start and we maintained
the momentum and got our first win 6-4.
The second day found us grouped with Kent, Cornwall, Middlesex & Oxfordshire. Having
studied the form of these teams we realised that we would need to play our best to
try to get top spot in this tough group. Middlesex had been seeded 2nd in their first
group but had finished 4th and Oxfordshire had also almost made it to the top half,
these were certainly going to be tough matches. First match was v Kent and great
performances gave us a 7-3 win with the 3 lost games all going to 3 sets and the
results in this match meant that already everyone in the team had scored at least
one important win. Next was Cornwall with another good 7-3 win. Our evening match
against Middlesex was very important as by then they had won all their group matches
and only needed to beat us to take the top spot. I am pleased to report that we stopped
them in their tracks with a match score of 5-5 games, 11-11 sets and finally winning
by 21 points. Proof that every point and set is essential for a positive final match
score. Our last match of the group was in the morning against Oxfordshire who had
lost to Middlesex by only 16 points. As predicted, again a very close match ended
up 5-5 but unfortunately with one of our wins needing 3 sets we finally lost by 1
set & 12 points, so near yet so far from 100% second round results. Added to the
disappointment of just missing out on coming top in the group, due to the 3 way tie
between Middx, Oxon & ourselves, the final group positions ended up as Oxon 1st Middx
2nd then Suffolk in 3rd place. Although very disappointed to have dropped down 2
groups the performances by the whole team had continued to be excellent.
Our final group found us playing for 29th to 32nd place against Northumberland, Worcestershire
& Gloucestershire. With firm resolve that our final position was to be top of this
group, we attacked each match with determination. First match v Northumberland gave
us our best match win of 8-2 with again the 2 lost matches going to 3 sets. Worcestershire
was next and again a very close match ran out to a 5-5 score line but with 4 of our
5 lost sets having gone to 3 we won by 14-11 sets. The final match of our 2011 campaign
was against Gloucestershire and with losing not an option if we were to finish in
the 20’s rather than the 30’s with a really solid performance from the whole team
we managed to secure the win before the last two games with a final match score of
6-4.
Tommy Banham, George Caplin, James Clouting, Ash Gormer, Kym Gormer, George Isherwood,
Izzy Lucas, Claudette Reis, Tim Scott, Becky Truscott.
not forgetting Erik the Viking, leader of Erik’s Barmy Army!
Under-17 Inter Counties Tournament Report 2011
Suffolk’s final position for 2011 was 29th. However, I would like to make the following
observations:- last year in equalling our best position of 16th we won 3 matches
and lost 7 matches, this year we won 7 matches and lost 3 matches. Interestingly,
Lancashire who we lost to 2-8 in the first round also won 7 & lost 3 but they ended
up in 4th place! At ICT depending on who you play & when can have a major impact
on the final positions. In direct comparison it would look that this year did not
match the success of last year, however, after the initial disappointment of 29th
I feel that this year was a very great success, with all team members winning matches
making a full contribution to the team’s results. Once again, hard work, great performances,
good team spirit, brilliant supporters (and we had many, thanks!) and good fun contributed
to an excellent ICT 2011 experience.
Lisa Jacobs (manager) and David Driver (coach) would like to thank the team for all
their efforts, not forgetting the player’s parents for their support over the whole
season.
The whole of this year’s ICT team is still young enough to be considered for selection
for 2012 and we expect there to be very strong challenges from other players for
the 5 boys and 5 girls positions available.
Looking forward, could 2012 be the year we beat our best ever position?
With lots of hard work and strong competition for team selection, I hope so!
