ICT 2007

Often described as the "Jewel in the Crown" of junior badminton, the Inter County Tournament, played at Nottinghamshire University, brought together the cream of the countrys under 17s players from 41 counties for four days of intensive competition in a noisy and electric atmosphere.

The format of the event requires winners to play other winners after the first round and losers to play losers, allowing counties to eventually play in groups of a similar standard.

In the first round Norfolk predictably lost to Kent and Warwickshire, but had good wins against Bedfordshire and Devon. But the second round unfortunately produced further defeats at the hands of strong teams from Northamptonshire and Durham, leaving Norfolk in a final group of seven counties playing for the bottom seven places.

All the matches in the group were closely contested and all finished with an identical 6-4 scoreline, with the games against Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Northumberland and Guernsey going in Norfolks favour and the two against Jersey and Bedfordshire against. This left Norfolk in second place in the group, but in 36th place overall.

Yorkshire won the event for the 9th successive year, with Hampshire in second place, Buckinghamshire 3rd and Hertfordshire 4th.

It was team manager, Maureen Lincolns 27th year in charge of the county side, which made her the longest serving manager of the competition and a special presentation was made to acknowledge Maureens remarkable service to the county.

Norfolk were represented by Chris Piff, Ryan Minns, Lee Robinson, Dan Leers, John Carrier, Sarah Lewin, Stephanie Rowland, Charlotte Crosby, Holly Bowen and Rebecca Chapman.