The Ulster Badminton U17  team have just returned from another successful year at the English Inter County Championships in Nottingham. Held over Easter the competition attracted 40 teams, from England and included Ulster and Leinster.

Ulster began their competition in a group with Berkshire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire. Ulster were by far the strongest team in this group finishing top beating, Northamptonshire and Berkshire 10-0 and then defeating Staffordshire 8-2.

These results placed Ulster into a second group with, Nottinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. Ulster started with a good 8-2 victory over Warwickshire and then faced Hertfordshire which was always going to be a close match between two very good teams. With the scoreline 5-5 in matches it was down to sets and Ulster unfortunately lost by 1 set 12-11. This was a blow to the young team as they knew now they had to beat Nottinghamshire to have any chance of making top 4. Unfortunately the Nottinghamshire match did not go according to plan us Ulster were defeated 8-2. Nottinghamshire are always a very strong side and this year they went on to finsh 3rd overall. Ulster finished the group with a 10-0 win over Gloucestershire.

The second group results meant that Ulster were placed in a third group with Lancashire, Buckinghamshire and Staffordshire again! Two 8-2 wins over Bucks and Staffs set up a group decider with Lancashire. The players once again played very well and won the match 6-4. These three wins meant Ulster finished in 9th place. Despite being slightly lower than last year the players did well to recover from the disappointment of losing on sets to Herts. Herts actually went on to finish 5th, which shows that there really wasn't much between the teams in positions 5-9.

Special mention goes to Josh Magee who stepped in to the squad last minute as Andrew McConnell had to pull out. Josh's performances in singles and doubles were outstanding over the 4 days of competition and its great for the future of Ulster Badminton that he is one of seven players that will be able to return to compete at next years event. Josh was also voted players player of the compeition by his Ulster colleagues. Congratulations also go to Kirsty Walker who was voted Coaches player of the competition for her performances in mixed doubles with Ciaran Chambers.

The coaches would also like to congratulate Sinead Chambers and Ruth Roddis who were undefeated at ladies doubles during the whole competition This was Sinead's last Nottingham, and she performed outstandingly as always. 

 Finally on behalf of the management I'd like to thank all the players for their effort and behaviour and hope they enjoyed the trip. And from myself thanks to Jenny and Dona for helping to make sure the trip ran so smoothly.

Ulster Team:

Boys: Ruaraidh Sim, Stuart Lightbody, Joshua Magee, Ciaran Chambers and Brice Bailie.

Girls: Sinead Chambers, Ruth Roddis, Caroline Black, Kirsty Walker and Rachel Orr.

Management: Jenny Stephenson, Dona Scott and Ryan Prentice.

Looking forward to next year already!!

 Ryan