Devon continuing successful season

Norfolk's Devon Minnis has had a very busy season. In addition to her county commitments, she regularly trains at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes as a member of the Under 13s talent development squad and has entered many gold and silver tournaments throughout the country. Last month she played in the Oxfordshire Open and won the singles and mixed doubles events with her partner Kyle Cherry from Northamptonshire and came runner-up in the girls doubles with Georgia Cattermole (Suffolk) The following weekend she travelled down to Cheltenham for the National Championships, where she was seeded 7th. She comfortably won her group to move on to the knockout stage to beat A Ngo (Bucks) in two straight sets to line up a quarter final encounter with Englands no 1, Jessica Pugh from Shropshire. Devon played very well in a match consisting of many long rallies which worried her opponent, before going down 21-17,21-14, but she was well pleased with her performance. She also had a great result in the mixed doubles where she reached the quarter-finals partnered by Kyle Cherry.

In May Devon has three Under 14s tournaments plus the Norfolk Under 15s "play-offs" to look forward to, and then she - and her parents - will have a well deserved rest, with weekends at home, before it all starts up again, with, hopefully, even greater success.