Under 13

Oxfordshire U13 Squad

 

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 and here are some of our recent Medal Winners...

Left to Right: Emma, Joe, Dan, Ibby

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Shires Match Report – Oxfordshire vs Surrey on 31 January

We took a team just as far as Eynsham to play Surrey in our last Shires match of the season: Daniel, Joe, Dan, Ibby, Emma, Kezia, Sanjana and Megan.  It was bound to be a tough call and indeed we did lose it 19-1 against their strong team of gold and silver graded players.  Again, there were some encouraging performances among the Oxfordshire players – well done to Joe and Emma on a tough mixed doubles win in 3 ends.  Emma and Kezia also battled hard losing to the Surrey number 1 pair 21-19 in the third end, very disappointing for them.  Well done to everyone for great effort and enthusiasm as always. 

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Inter County Match Report – Oxfordshire vs Northamptonshire on 28 February

Thank you to all the team for travelling to Kettering (and for some of you it was just after a very long day at Bracknell): Kezia, Megan, Molly, Elodie, Jack, Jay, Ben and Chris.  It was an exciting event ending in a draw 10-10.  Special thanks to Molly and Elodie for playing up from the under 11s for us.  They had a great day winning both their singles matches which bodes well for next year!  We won 3 of our 4 mixed matches, 2 in exciting 3 enders (well done to Megan and Jack for coming back at them after losing the second 25-23).  Jack won a great singles match against their number 2 and Jay was disappointed to lose narrowly in 3.

Thanks very much to Megan’s Dad, Dom, for acting as Team Manager and again thanks to the parents for long driving and much-appreciated support.

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Tournament News

We have continued to have a great season with some notable performances, medal wins and re-gradings. 

Congratulations to Ibby who won another bronze boys doubles medal at the Wiltshire Bronze Tournament in February with his partner from Surrey.  They had never played together before (or even met!) and had to get through a group of 5 pairs initially so that was very well done to them.

Dan achieved his bronze grading at the Stroud Bronze tournament and met Joe in the semi finals of the boys singles!  It was a close match with Joe just coming out on top to get into the final.  So bronze and silver medals for Oxfordshire in boys singles.  Joe managed get into the final again at Bracknell in February and in addition to the medal will achieve his silver grading.  The Bracknell Bronze tournament was a great occasion for many of the Oxfordshire players – Dan and Kezia won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles and Kezia went on to win the bronze with Sanjana in the girls doubles.  It was exciting but came at the end of a very long day.  The boys had arrived before 9 am and the last of them left the girls still going at 7.30 pm.  Well done to all our entrants and especially all the parents for sheer endurance. 

For those who hadn’t had enough at Bracknell on Saturday 27th February, they went back for more on Sunday at the Silver JC tournament.  It was Joe’s first silver tournament and he made it to the quarter finals losing in a very tight 3 ender.  The notable news of the day was Dan’s great achievement in getting his silver grading, just 2 days after the official confirmation of his bronze grading!  Not content with that excitement Joe and Dan won a bronze medal in the boys doubles. 

 

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Shires Match against Sussex on Saturday 16th January at Burgess Hill

 

We took a team (Daniel, Alex, Yiran, Joe, Ella, Sanjana, Kezia and Emma) to Burgess Hill on the day of the big thaw. The driving conditions were terrible so thanks to parents Sarah, Andrew and Wenming for getting there in such good time and for their cheery support in the face of adversity.  Sussex is probably our toughest test (although we also have Surrey coming up!) and we lost 19-1 (there’s no nice way of putting that) but again several of the matches were hard fought 3-enders (well done to Yiran and Joe for coming so close).  Daniel played a great and close match against the Sussex number one (who is probably close to national number 1!)  Ella and Emma had a frustratingly close doubles against the top Sussex girls.  Sanjana and Joe were pleased to win their mixed in two ends.  We came away smiling and were pleased that at least we had eaten all the cakes (special thanks to Alex for that).

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 Inter County Match against Worcestershire on Sunday 24th January at St Helen’s, Abingdon

 

It is delightful to report a solid win, 15-5.  Well done to the team: Emma, Becky, Sanjana, Megan, Jack, Jay, Ashley and Robert.  You were awesome!  (At one point I was getting rather worried that we wouldn’t let Worcestershire win anything).  Most of our wins were in two ends but where they weren’t it was great to see us hanging on and refusing to give in.  I think it was the first County match for Ashley, Jack and Robert – well done, you played so well and were so composed.

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 Avon Invitation Doubles – 24th January at St Ursula’s, Bristol

Thank you to Ibby and Will who represented the under 13s at Bristol in boys doubles.  This was a tough assignment as the tournament is ungraded and so open to all-comers.  Teams included Surrey, Hampshire, Avon, Yorkshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset and Nottinghamshire.  They did us proud with great wins against Somerset and Cornwall and had very close matches against Dorset and Hampshire (18-21 and 20-22).  Well done to them and thanks to Phil and Lindy for getting the boys there and supporting in a cold and damp venue.

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 Under 13 Shires match against Hampshire 3rd January 2010

Our first shires match of 2010 saw us travelling on a bright but freezing cold day to Winchester (poor Lee on his motorbike).  Having expected a cold (and perhaps not very appealing school hall) the Westgate Badminton Centre was a good venue with a great lounge (where we enjoyed the home-made cake and flapjack) and a super viewing gallery (still cold though).  It was always going to be tough and we lost 14-6 but there were some very encouraging performances and results.  Yiran played in his first Shires match for the under 13s and won his singles in 2 ends.  Alex lost a very close and hard fought match in 3 ends (2 of which were 23/21).  Sanjana had a great singles victory in 2 ends. 
The boys won all their doubles in 2 ends which was an excellent result against very tough pairs.  Thanks go especially to Elodie (U11) for playing for us and of course to all the parents who spent their Sunday driving and supporting.     

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 Shires Match versus Avon

Our under 13 team  travelled to Bristol on Sunday 13 December to play in a Shires League match.  It was a trip worth taking as we won very convincingly 14-6.  Our girls were especially dominant (Kezia only allowed her opponent 3 points in two games in her singles match and Ella, Emma, Kezia and Sanjana won all 4 of their doubles matches).  The few matches that we lost were close with 3 of those matches going to 3 ends.  Especially pleasing to note is that thirteen of our 14 wins were achieved in 2 games.   Congratulations to Jay and Will who played very well in their first Shires fixture.  Will had a particularly nail-biting match win (20-22, 23-21, 21-17). 

A special thanks goes to Martyn White for taking all of the girls team in what must have been a rather noisy car. 

Will, Jay, Joe, Dan, Ella, Sanjana, Kezia and Emma. 
A few of our players are looking a little distracted as Lee is about to throw shuttlecocks at them!

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ICC Team Challenge 21/11/09

The U13 team played well at the ICC Team Challenge in Haywards Heath this weekend, playing against Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex, Kent and Bekshire, eventually coming home in 4th position with wins against Middlesex and Kent. Great effort by all the players

Results:

Surrey won	1-5
Sussex won	0-6
Middlesex lost	4-2
Berkshire won	1-5
Kent lost	4-2

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Match Reports

We played a Shires match at home against Berkshire on 4th October. This fixture was always going to be a tough one and we duly lost 17-3 but the team gave a very good performance and the matches were frustratingly close and high scoring.

On 18th October a team travelled to Coventry to play Warwickshire in a friendly match and had a terrific result winning 15-5. This was really pleasing as several of our players were very inexperienced but performed very creditably. This was a first match for Megan and only Sanjana’s second. Becky from the training squad helped us out greatly, she won her singles and doubles with partner, Jay.

Our next Shires match was at home against Dorset on 15th November. We were very disappointed to lose this one 12-8 but again many of the matches were very close, Ella and Emma had a nail-biting girls doubles match, going to 3 sets (24-26 in the last!). A special mention to Darcie who was not feeling at her best but put up a great performance, especially with partner, Dan, in the mixed doubles with an exciting and close game going to 3 .

Tournaments

On 1st November the Under 13 JC Bronze tournament was held at Abingdon White Horse Leisure Centre. Oxfordshire is always an especially tough tournament attracting a large and very able contingent. Again many of our players were playing in their first national tournament – well done to Sanjana and Megan. Ashley did very well to win a great singles match – he was in a very tough group containing the under 11 winner from the tournament the day before and an extremely experienced (and very tall!) player from Bucks. We did very well in the mixed doubles with Ella and Dan getting a bronze medal and Joe and Emma receiving the silver.
 

U13 Graded Players are (at March 10)

Daniel Cook - Grade 1
Alex Cook - Grade 2
Yiran Ji - Grade 2
Dan Blair grade 2
Joe Roberts - Grade 2
Ella Boyd - Grade 3