County Badminton Report
West Norfolk Junior Badminton, sponsored by Roythorne's Garage of North Wootton, recently hosted a county junior moderates tournament for Under 11s and Under 13s played at the King Edward V11 High School. The Under 11s boys singles was split into two groups. Joe Rolfe won his group, with Tom Hitchcock runner-up, whilst Bradley Smith came out on top in the second group, followed by Charlie Wakefield in second place. The top two in each group contested the semi-finals, with Rolfe beating Wakefield in a very close match 21-19 and Bradley Smith getting the better of Hitchcock . Rolfe then went on to take the title, beating Bradley Smith 21-12.
The boys doubles was an extremely close contest. Two pairs were equal with four wins each, but as they both scored 102 points, the winners had to be decided on countback of points conceded, which meant that Luc Widdowson and Bradley Smith took the title by one point from the Downham Junior Club pairing of Joe Rolfe and Jamie Salas Brown.
There was a smaller entry for the girls Under 11s event. The singles was won by Amy Hayhoe with Caitline Parfitt in second place. Parfitt and Hayhoe then won the doubles with Jessica Bateman and Phoebe Claxton coming in second.
There was a better entry for the Under 13s events. Matthew Baker made it to the semi-finals of the boys singles, winning his group, followed by James Rushmore. The top two in the other group were Matthew Cott and Zak Robinson. Baker won his semi-final relatively easily, but he had a much harder game in the final, being pushed all the way by Cott before finally winning the title 21-18. Baker then made it a brace of victories, winning the doubles with his partner Bayley Shaw from Rushmore and Cott, with Rolfe, playing up an age group, and partner Jacob White in third place.
The Under 13s girls singles had the largest entry of the day, with 13 girls split into two groups. The first group was dominated by West Norfolk players, with Freya Straffon Lawrence taking first place, followed by Ella Payne with Lydia Appleton third. Chloe Sellors from Norwich, won the other group, closely followed by Caitlin Parfitt, with Louisa Claxton third. Both Freya and Chloe easily won their semi-finals and the final was neck and neck until the half way stage, when the Norwich girl pulled away to take the winner's trophy.. But Freya, partnered by Ella Payne, won the girls double title. with Lydia Appleton and Louis Claxton runners up.* The Over 60s mantained their early season form in the Veterans League by beating Lincolnshire 8-4 and Suffolk 7-5, where the ladies won all four of their games, with one set going to 28-26. The squad was Alan Palmer, Copper, Roger Potter, Gerald Cooke, Tom Chung, Ann Hutchins, Lois Ash, Lorna Potter, Margaret Peters and Pam Mace.
* The county second team made the long journey to Staffordshire to play their high-flying second team in the Inter County Regional Championships, but had to return to Norfolk empty handed. However, the team are confident that they can return to winning ways in their next match at home to Northants on 29th January at Easton Sports Centre.
