Hildenborough Badminton
hit it harder.....
JUNIOR 2014/15 Live News
Tom's Revenge.....
Yes, as promised the family duel was hammered out in some style with young Tom coming out on top this week.
That winning feeling.............
Even the youngest players can bask in the glory of victory & when the win is a major first against your brother then the effort is even sweeter. Rosie Larchet comes away grinning like a Cheshire cat after defeating brother Tom. Well done girl & coach Alex was even prouder of Tom as he took the defeat rather well.
Weekend 18th/19th April
Massive success at the Kent U16 Open but heart break the next day at the play off v Sussex for a place in the U17 Shires finals!
19th April - Play off v Sussex for a place at the U17 Shires finals
It was soooooo close!
In the end it was a 12-8 loss to a strong Sussex team with many close 3 setters just going in Sussex's favour. So it could have been 12-8 the other way!!! Nobody from either side won all their games and hopefully the Kent juniors have enjoyed the experience. We wish Sussex well at the finals when they will be even stronger as two of their boys were missing today, playing at the U15 finals! The Kent U17s have done themselves proud this season and once the disappointment has faded hopefully they will all appreciate that!
Congratulations to the team today: Alice Xu, Alex Berry, Emily Easton, Hannah Spring, Rory Easton, Rico Shergill, Luke Bailey, Tom Long, Ethan Solly, Guy Jones who were playing today.
Also to Alisha Gupta, Morrison Ayley and Thomas Wade who have played in other matches and at ICT where Kent finished 9th.
18th April
Kent U16 Open- this is an Open event that has very few Kent names in the history of all the winners. Well here on the 18th April there was a Kent winner in every discipline except girls singles/doubles.
Mixed
Winners: Emily Easton and Jack Macgregor
Silver: Rory Easton and Chloe Hunt
Bronze: Luke Bailey /Dominique Bell and Alex Berry /Greg Saunders
Boys Singles
Winner: Rory Easton
Silver: Jack Macgregor
Girls Doubles Silver: Emily Easton/Alex Berry
Boys Doubles:
Winners Ethan Solly /Jai Chanderama
Silver: Rory Easton /Jack Macgregor
11th/12th April
What an amazing weekend of badminton!
Congratulations to the following HBC juniors Alex Berry, Guy Jones, Rory Easton, Emily Easton, Alisha Gupta, Alice Xu who were 60% of the Kent ICT squad which finished an amazing 9th in the country at the end of the four day competition hosted at Nottingham Uni. More reports in Live News.
Not to be outdone by her junior players Jo Muggeridge was competing at the All England Masters and won the ladies doubles title. She also reached the final of the mixed but had to give a walkover due to an injury. This is an event that is open to players from all over the world.
And the Senior Men's A team played their last match to complete an undefeated season and take the premier title once again!
Coming up: 19th April Junior inter-regional event, 26th April Senior inter-regional
Good luck to all those selected to represent TWBL in these events.
U17 Inter County Tournament, 9-12th April 2015 - Kent wins fabulous 9th place overall!
The team consisted of:
Alex Berry, Emily Easton, Alisha Gupta, Hannah Spring and Alice Xu
Rory Easton, Guy Jones, Tom Long, Rico Shergill and Thomas Wade
The first group they played in was crucial. It contained Bucks who were holders and favourites so 2nd place was the aim and this was achieved.
The next group would decide what places they could play for in the last two days. Losses against super strong Yorkshire and more narrowly against Warwickshire meant that a win against Essex was crucial to take them into the play-offs for 9th- 12 places. This was achieved with the match decided in a crucial girls doubles game that went to 3 sets with both sides having numerous match points and at 11.30pm on Friday night the result went to Kent!
Then with confidence high over the last two days the team went on to beat Leinster, Dorset and Cheshire to confirm their 9th place.
This is the best result Kent have had in recent times and with many of these players still young for the age group next year could be even better.
Aros Cup, April 2nd-5th
Success for the travelling England quartet of players, Jack Macgregor and Freya Patel-Redfearn won the mixed title beating the 1st seeds who had knocked out Rory Easton and Helen Kelly in the quarters.
Jack and Rory also played well to reach the final of the U15 doubles but had to settle for runner-up place.
It is a challenge to take on the Danes on their home turf and excellent to come home with these results. The tournament also included strong teams from ever improving Sweden and regular rivals from Germany.
28th/29th March Redbridge
Heartbreak at the U15 Nationals but 3 medals!
Rory fought strongly all weekend at the U15 Nationals and came away with 2 bronzes and a silver medal but the elusive doubles gold that he and his partner Jack Macgregor had set their hearts on was not to be. Jack had been ill earlier in the week and with the competition at the top between the top u15 boys so close and fierce, Jack and Rory could not fulfil the promise their results had shown all season. So the number 1 seeds lost their Semi final to Russ/Donegan who went on to win.
However for Rory to medal in all three events while still U14 is an achievement and the boys move on to the Aros Cup in Denmark (2nd-5th April) looking forward to the next challenge.
U17 Nationals- 21st/22nd March 2015, Redbridge
Congratulations to all the HBC players who competed valiantly at this year's U17 Nationals. Even just qualifying to be in the tournament is an achievement.
Alice Xu performed well reaching the last 16 of the girls singles and the quarter finals of the doubles. She has another year at this age group as do many of the other players.
Rory Easton reached the last 16 of the boys singles.
Luke Bailey had a difficult singles box but took the 5/8 seed Sam Lyle to 3 sets before having to admit defeat to a stronger older player.
Some huge positives to take forward to next season.
22nd March 2015
Two for the future.................
They might only be 9 years old but they can play & we are pretty confident that they both will win a haul of Kent junior titles in the future.
Darcy Berry & Sofia Bao took Gold in the TWBL u10 doubles on Sunday 22nd March, with Sofia just pipping Darcey in the u10 girls singles final.
Feb 2015 Rory plays his part in England silver at 8Nations
England take home Silver at u15 8Nations
England's u15 team found it tough going in the initial stages at the 8 Nations in Oradour sur Glane, France as they came up against Germany, Switzerland & the well fancied hosts France.
They got off to a flying start with a 7-2 win against Germany, before fielding a weaker team against a young Swiss team, but came through home 7-2 winners.
HBC's Rory Easton & his doubles partner Jack MacGregor put in a couple of solid performances against these countries with comfortable wins.
Rory was then called up to also play the opening Mixed tie against hosts France with Molly Chapman & they came good with a nervy 18-21, 25-23, 21-19 win having come back from 19-13 down in the 2nd set.
The England youngsters were then well set for an ultimate 6-3 win against the hosts which put them into a tough final against the all conquering Denmark. Once again Rory & Jack pulled through against the 2nd Danish pair of Jaeger & Kristiansen but unfortunately their win was only one of 2 in a 7-2 win for the very strong Danes. Given that half of the English team were u14, there is a high hope of going one better next year.
Here come the girls.....
Having had to complete BE's registration forms for all our juniors recently, our junior secretary was pleasantly surprised to note that we almost have as many girls as boys as junior members.
Interestingly we have more (8 in number) girl junior Kent champions than boys and we only see that tally rising in the future.
HBC's Rory Easton & partner Jack MacGregor continued their fine run of form at the highest level with a third straight win in BE u15 Gold's at the Surrey u15 Gold. Rory also picked up silver in the singles and bronze in the mixed.
The boys have a short break before heading off to the 8 Nations Euro's at half term full of confidence and we wish them well.
25th Jan @ u17 Essex Bronze
Alexandra Berry takes Silver in the u17 singles falling just short in the final and then pairs up with 12 year old Alicia Chu (Essex) to win another Silver in the doubles.
24th Jan @ Mid-Sussex u10
A couple of our young players ventured to Mid Sussex to play in their annual tourney & they came away with a clutch of medals.
Krisha Hari continues to surprise us & her wide smile says it all after winning a double gold in the u10 novice singles & doubles (partnering Lyra Elsdon).
HBC's rising star Sam Goddard came away with Silver in the u10 County singles & GOLD in the doubles with partner Tim.
Great to see young Sam making substantial progress over the year as last year he entered the Novice category of this tournament & he did not win a single game!
Meanwhile over in Kent young Emma Goddard was battling through a difficult group in the Kent u13 BE Bronze.
She came 2nd in her box but then went on to win the KO2 category in the u13 singles.
Emma then partnered up with Isabelle Craig from Sussex & the girls pair won Bronze in the u13 girls doubles.
Watch this space for more news of Emma & Sam as they continue to progress in tournaments capitalising on the training they are putting in on court.
8th-11th Jan Pecs, Hungary
HBC's touring team, TEAM Skyfall consisting of Holly Williams plus England team-mates Asmita Chaudhari, Pamela Reyes, Alex Green, Neil Bhabuta & Sid Palakkal made the long trip to Pecs to play many a young international player from Eastern Europe.
With the national teams from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia plus hosts Hungary participating, the TEAM Skyfall youngsters got off to a storming start with convincing wins against Hungary Red, Romania, Slovenia & Slovakia.
Their semi-final against Serbia was an extremely tense affair as Serbia took the first 2 top boys singles matches only for Sid Palakkal to take the 3rd boys singles and Asmita Chaudhari taking the girls 2nd singles, leaving on court Pamela Reyes fighting out a gruelling 3 setter against the Serbian #1 girl & HBC's Holly Williams out against a very tall & strong Serb.
In the event it was Holly that came through in a 2 set win with Pamela being an unfortunate loser despite taking the 1st set.
3-3 after the singles, the strong Serb boys took the boys doubles, whilst Pamela & Asmita were our bankers in the girls doubles, leaving Neil Bhabuta & Holly to fight out the final rubber in the mixed against the serb #1 girl & her partner.
Unfortunatley our pair fell 21-19, 21-19 to a well set mixed pairing & the team went down valiantly 5-4.
TEAM Skyfall were then resigned to playing the 3rd place play-off against Slovakia and they went out 8-1 winners, an improvement on their 6-3 win in their group match.
All our young players played with great enthusiasm & fun, something exemplified by the home Hungarian support on the final day.
A truly fantsastic experience for all concerned & our thanks goes out to all the tournament volunteers & sponsor Multi Alarm. Well done Jozsef & crew.
As a mark of our appreciation we handed a set of team Skyfall t-shirts to the home organising team & we hope to see them next year.
3rd Jan @ u17 Essex Silver
A large field of HBC players travelled to Essex to play off those Xmas puddings & we saw Guy Jones & Ethan Solly take an impressive GOLD in the boys doubles.
Guy progressed through to the 1/4 final of the boys singles but came up against the strong Brandon Ngooi who took the tie 15-12, 15-12.
Other notable performers were Thomas Wade who made it through his box only to fall in the next round, whilst Alex Berry was unlucky in the draw as she met eventual winner Zoe King in her box.
20th Dec @ Essex u17 Bronze
Alex Berry dominates a large field in u17 girls singles & wins GOLD.
She then partners up with u13 local Essex lass Mia Hillsden & they take a credible Bronze in the u17 girls doubles.
6.12.14 Kent U15 bronze:
Harry Wang wins a singles bronze.
HBC juniors bag a hand full of medals at TWBL Restricted
Once again our little ones came out to play & enjoyed much success at the TWBL Restricted.
9 year old Krisha Hari was the surprise package, winning gold in u10 girls singles and silver with doubles partner Eleanor Barnes (pictured) in the u10 doubles. Fellow HBC junior Darcey Berry took Gold in the u10 doubles with partner Robyn Watson.
In the u10 boys singles Sam Goddard came away with silver after a tense 14-15 loss in the final but he did take Gold in the u10 boys doubles. Well done to all.
6/7th Dec @ Surrey u17 GOLD
Rory makes 1/4 finals in singles & doubles after a pulsating 3 set win with partner Jack Macgregor against top England u15 pairing of Huang & Russ.
29th/30th November: Leigh U15 GOLD
Rory lived up to second seed status winning silver in the gold star singles and then went one better in the doubles (partner Jack Macgregor) to win the final against Zach Russ and Luke Donegan making the long drive North worthwhile.
HBC juniors triumph @ East of Scotland Open
A great weekend for HBC juniors Rory Easton & Holly Williams as they make the trip to Edinburgh to challenge the best Scotland has to offer at the East of Scotland Open.
Rory was not troubled on the singles court as his strength & skills shone through with impressive wins against Adam Pringle in the semi & a 21 11, 21 15 win against Harry Mobey in the final.
Holly featured in the match of the opening day with a thrilling 3 setter against Scotland's top u12 girl Erin Waddell. With the Scottish crowd shouting from the stands & a few English voices trying their best to be heard, Holly raced off to a commanding lead taking the 1st set but Erin fought back bravely to come out on top 21 19 in the 3rd set.
Holly did get her revenge as she & England team mate Kiara Henry beat the top Scots pair of Waddell & Alice Campbell in the final of the u13 girls doubles.
Rory then teamed up with Ellie Wheatley to beat all-comers in the u15 Mixed playing some commanding badminton only to be slightly troubled by Lloyd Holland & Lauren Middleton in the final, but once they got their heads round the fact that Lloyd was left handed, they cruised to victory. Rory & Holly invited some England team mates up to Edinburgh & they also performed superbly as Jack Macgregor ran our winner of the boys u17 plate, Kiara Henry won u13 singles & pick of the bunch was Freya Patel Redfearn's wins in u17 girls singles & doubles (partnering Ellie Wheatley). Well done all.
Unusually for a junior tourney, the winners received cash prizes as well as large trophies & interestingly it was the cash that interested the kids most!
The novelty will wear off.....
HBC's mixed motley crew claim a clean sweep
At the end of a successful day @ Medway Park on Saturday 1st Nov, HBC juniors look a bit disheveled but took a clean sweep of the medals in the u17 Kent Bronze Mixed event with many more titles & medals to their names in other disciplines.
Rory claims double GOLD @ Cheltenham u15 Gold Star
A stunning performance of power play from HBC's young gun as he powers through to victory in u15 Gold star singles with fine wins over doubles partner Jack Macgregor 18 21, 21 12, 21 13 in the semi & a convincing 21 15, 21 9 victory over Jai Rathi (Yorkshire) in the final.
Jack & Rory looked good all weekend as they overcame fierce competition from Chapman & Chandarana in what was the match of the tourney before a comfortable win over Donegan & Van Leeuwen in the final. Rory now heads to a 5 day training camp with England up in York & is joined there by fellow HBC Junior, Holly Williams - good luck Holly!
18th October @ Medway Park - Kent Junior Restricted 2014
HBC juniors triumph at Kent Junior Restricted 2014
Hana Yun-Stevens & Emma Goddard dominated the u13 girls events with both taking gold in the doubles & Hana beating Emma in the singles final.
HBC girls dominate all age groups at Kent Restricted.
With our new cell of u11's up & playing badminton at least twice a week it was no surprise to see our young ones taking home the bulk of the medals with Darcey Berry taking Gold in u11 singles & Silver in the doubles partnering Sofia Bao.
Sofia also medalled silver in the singles with surprise package of Nina Oliva & Florrie Rodgers claiming GOLD in the doubles. The majority of our u11 girls & boys (well done Sam Goddard for an excellent silver in u11 boys singles whilst still only u9!) were aged u10 for these championships, so we can expect another medal haul from them next year!
In u15, England's (& HBC's) Holly Williams always looked in control in each singles match she played despite being 3 years young for the age group!
Finally, our 3 strong leading ladies of Alex Berry, Emily Easton & Alice Xu shared gold and silver across singles & doubles events with Alice beating Alex in the singles final (Emily taking bronze) and Alex & Emily taking gold in the doubles with a fine win over Alice & partner Hannah Spring.
We did feature prominently in the boys events too with Harry Wang taking home 2 silvers in the boys u15 singles & doubles and our u17 boys of Ethan Solly, Thomas Wade, Luke Bailey & Guy Jones all taking home medals of many a different colour with Guy & Luke winning gold in the u17 boys doubles.
Well done to ALL our juniors for having a go at the County Championships.
We do hope that the organisers could host the event on 2 days next year as 13 hours in a hot hall is not exactly an ideal day - but many thanks to Kent Badminton & referee Phil Jones for your efforts in organising.
"14 year olds just should not be that good!"
So it was said of our guests from India: Rahul Bharadwaj, Lakshya Sen & Kartikey Kumar (pictured above) as they visited Europe for a 3 week stint on the European u19 circuit with Lakshya coming away with 2 major titles in winning the Wimbledon u19 Gold & Swiss Open u19 singles. Rahul also showed great promise in reaching the u19 Belgian Open semi final before his loss in the final (to Lakshya) in the u19 Swiss.
All 3 boys hail from the prestigious Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore and HBC coaches are giving you the heads up that at least one of these boys will play on the international senior stage in the future.
All 3 boys plus their coach Balachandran Raman attended some of HBC's midweek coaching sessions to show our youngsters a few tricks (or two) and we wish them well in their forthcoming national championships.
Sat 11th Oct
Friendly match v Tonbridge School.
U18s won 5-4
1st pair Alex Berry and Emily Easton had to beat all three pairs of sixth form boys, with two very close games going to the third set. The deciding match at 4-4 involved the girls finally winning 23-21 in the deciding set.
The other two pairs Charles Brice/Oli Petrick and Jennifer Woodrow/Josh Davidson had some very close games and with each of these pairs winning one of their matches HBC came out on top - just!
U16s won 7-2
The first HBC pair Jonathan Tsoi and James Price were too strong for the opposition which bodes well of next week's Kent Restricted when they compete for the U15 boys doubles title. Two less experienced HBC pairs: Matthew Saunders/Ashwath Hari and Dom Mawdsley/Tom Webster played well to bring a comfortable victory to the HBC team.
We look forward to the return match in November - played with feather shuttles!! Many thanks to Tonbridge School for inviting us.
HBC Juniors have a smashing time with Surrey Smashers
With the new National Badminton League looming, Surrey Smashers put on a great day for some of our best juniors at Surrey Sports Park on Sat 20th Sept.
The entire Smashers team was on show as they put our players to the test and we all came away happy with the days play.
England stars Gabby Adcock, Chris Langridge, Matt Nottingham & Carl Baxter all coached our youngsters for a full 2 hour session and we now are looking forward to supporting the Smashers in their forthcoming season in the top tier of English Badminton.
Indeed HBC's connection to the team goes deeper than many of our senior club may be aware as players Carl Baxter & Joel Gayle have both been regular guest coaches for our club as well as current HBC performance coach Steve Higgins who assumes the role of Assistant coach for the Surrey team.
Another Junior achieves England selection:
The 2013/14 was a pretty stellar season for Hildenborough Badminton Club’s newest young star, Holly Williams.
She won Kent titles in U11 and U13 singles and many medals on the National U11/U13 circuit. The highlight was becoming England’s National U11 Singles Champion in March 2014, and a silver in the U11 doubles.
The 2014/15 season was expected to be quieter as it is always more difficult for the U12 girls to compete in the U13 age group. However Holly has just received a call up to the England U13 team that is travelling to Denmark in October. Five U13 girls from all over England have been selected to travel, but Holly is by far the youngest and least experienced. Local coaches already knew she was destined for future National selection however it is fantastic to have that promise recognised so early by the England Junior squads’ coaching team who obviously wish her to gain valuable international experience early in her career. No sooner had the news arrived than Holly had to refocus on her 11 plus exams as she is in her last year at Hilden Oaks School. Celebrations had to be delayed until that was out of the way, but Holly is now looking forward to meeting the age group coaches, and being given her first set of kit before flying to Copenhagen on the 10th October.
Sept 27th/28th: Swiss U15 Open, Basle
International success for Rory in Switz.
Another big win for HBC's Rory Easton as he & partner Zach Russ (Sussex) took Gold in the u15 doubles at the Swiss Junior Open held at the impressive St Jakob's Halle in Basle.
Zach & Rory dominated the doubles event with wins against top Belgian, German & French opposition before seeing off the top Swiss pair of Mueller & Oerteu in 4 sets to 11.
A sterner test was to come in the singles event as first Rory (in the quarters) & then Zach (in the final) lost to Shiau Chen from Chinese Taipei in the u15 singles.
Rory then went on to take Bronze in the u15 Mixed partnering Helen Kelly (Yorkshire).
Senior Kent Restricted Sept 25th to 28th.
Fabulous play from a number of U17 boys who made the seniors work for their places. Luke Bailey lost narrowly missed reaching the singles semi. Full results will hopefully be on the Kent Badminton website soon.
Notts U15 Gold; 13th/14th Sept
Rory reached quarter finals in the mixed and semi finals in both singles and doubles, losing to the eventual winners in both events. A solid start to his U14 season.
Wimbledon U19 Open; 13th/14th Sept:
Visiting Indian U15 players from Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy caused an upset with 14 year old Lakshya Sen winning the U19(!) singles title coming through a field of all the top England u19 national players as well as a few continental European players too.
Bournemouth U17 Silver - 6th Sept 2014
Rory Easton - Gold in boys doubles with partner Jack Macgregor. Guy Jones and Ethan Solly reached the semi finals in this event.
Emily Easton - Silver in girls doubles, playing with Freya Patel-Redfearn.
Paige starts season flying with win @ Kent Senior Silver.
HBCs Paige Butler got off to a flying start with an impressive win in the Ladies singles at the Kent Senior Silver, cruising through the initial rounds before a strong victory over Freya Hodgson (Sussex) in the final. After a tiring 3 week training stint in India early in the summer followed by a restful holiday in the Med with parents Steph & Bev, Paige hit the ground running in this opening BE Silver event & she now looks set to challenge the best England has to offer in forthcoming BE tourneys.