On Saturday 26^th January we took two pairs and two reserves to the annual IAPS badminton tournament at Colet Court in London.

Nick Herbert and Daniel Bondatti played well in the group stages winning two out of their three matches and putting themselves into a good position for qualification into the knockout stage. All the pairs in their group, however, were quite evenly matched and in the end Nick and Daniel just missed out on points difference. This put them into the quarter final of the plate competition where they were faced with some very tall opposition from Cheltenham College. Unfortunately, their smashes and attacking play in general was not penetrative enough against this pair and it allowed the opposition to dominate from the middle of the court area. The result was 21 – 8 to Cheltenham College.

Bertie Gleave and Louis Glynn Williams had a rather slow and difficult start in their first match playing a strong pair from Dulwich College. They improved considerably in their second match beating the pair from Lochinver House by 15 points to 9. Their final group match put them against a pair from Bedford Modern. This was a really closely fought match with good movement and shots from both pairs. In the end Bertie and Louis just lost 15 – 13. This put them also into the quarter final of the plate competition where they took on the pair from the host school Colet Court. This was another close match but Bertie’s touch shots and Louis’ quick movement and shot placement paid off. They won this round and progressed to the semi final. Unfortunately, at this stage they came up against the same pair that had knocked out Nick and Daniel and were unable to progress to the final.

The whole tournament was very well run and special mention should be given to our two reserves Rowan Jones and Will Lench who were very supportive to the team. It was nice that they were also able to play a few friendly games on the warm up court as well.

We look forward to entering the tournament again next year.

Debbie Robinson