Category: Player news

FastStep’s U15 and U17 players shone today at the Sussex County Junior Badminton annual restricted championships in Portslade, showing great sportsmanship and passionate play throughout.

In the girls U15 event, FastStep Elite squad member Eva Craig took the girls singles title a year young. Meanwhile in the doubles, FastStep Stars’ Monica Carr-Pacquay secured a runners-up medal with partner Molly.

In the U17 boys event FastStep Elite squad members Daniel Hatton and John Jo Pye displayed some excellent badminton before facing each other in the semi final. Daniel came through victorious and then fought an excellent final, narrowly losing out on the title 21-20.

There were some hard fought games also from David Jolliffe in the U15 boys event and Laura Hemsley in the U17 girls event. Well done all our players!

FastStep Elite player Laura Brownlie was lucky enough to train this weekend with some of the top players in the country as part of an event by National Badminton League side Surrey Smashers.

Laura was invited to the promotional event organised by the Surrey Smashers at Guildford Sports Park including world number 5 ranked mixed doubles player Gabby Adcock.

Surrey Smashers start their campaign in the new NBL on 6th October away at MK Badminton in Milton Keynes. All games will be streamed live online for free by Sky as well as being on its paid sports channels.

Well done to FastStep’s Monica Carr-Pacquay on taking Silver in the Girls Doubles at the Tunbridge Wells Badminton League U15 Junior Invitational tournament on Sunday 20 July.

Great to see all your hard work paying off!

Congratulations to FastStep’s Ben Smith for getting the runners up medal in the U13 boys doubles at the Tunbridge Wells Badminton League junior open today.

A great effort and a nice medal to show for it!

Well done to Amy Radford on some hard fought games against tough opposition at the Kent U14 Open this weekend. So tough that Amy actually lost a tooth on court!! A great way to spook your opponents!

Amy and partner Casey Coats took experienced pair Vidhi Garg and Lily Stent into setting in the first game, narrowly losing 21-23, then losing to 15 in the second. Their tough box also included number 1 seeds Lydia Ip and Gemma Atkins from Surrey but again the girls put in a good performance.

There was victory for Amy and Casey in their other game against a Kent pair, 21-8, 22-20  placing them third in the box.

Overall a great experience for sure.

FastStep’s Daniel Hatton reports on an exhausting week of badminton at the very top county level for Sussex at the Harrod U17 County Challenge 2014 in Nottingham. We’re very proud of you Daniel!

“To be chosen for the most prestigious National Badminton Tournament (open only to the chosen top 5 boys and top 5 girls in each county) in all the British Isles that would last for 4 jam packed days, was to be an experience of a lifetime. I had high expectations, and I was not to be disappointed…

Continue reading “U17 County Challenge thriller for Daniel”

Well done to Izzy Craig for winning the U10 girls singles at the Sussex Rising Stars in Portslade today.

Great to see so many U10s and U12s competing today and showing good progress over the season.

Well done to David Jolliffe for winning the year 7/8 boys doubles title at the 2014 Crawley Junior Badminton Tournament this weekend.

Despite the very early start to the day, David and partner Ben stayed focussed to secure victory in the final.

Just a week earlier David was runner up in the U14 boys doubles at the Tunbridge Wells Spring Open.

There was also a silver medal at Crawley for Izzy Craig in the year 5/6 girls doubles with partner Abby.

Well done to Amy Radford for winning the U14 girls singles and doubles at the Tunbridge Wells Spring Junior Open 2014.

Amy racked up 7 wins in her path to the singles gold medal. In the doubles, Amy clinched her second gold of the day with partner Jess. Great job!

 

 

FastStep Badminton Academy players picked up 5 medals at Badminton England tournaments over the half term break.

Daniel Hatton played at the Hampshire U17 Bronze mid-week and secured Gold in the boys doubles with a new partner, Guy Jones. He also won a Bronze medal in the singles event. His third medal of half-term came at the Suffolk U17 Bronze where he claimed a well earned Silver medal in the boys doubles.

Eva Craig put on a strong performance at the SE Essex U13 Bronze at Redbridge Sports Centre. After cruising through her box and quarter final, Eva met Surrey’s Alexandra Oprisan in the semi-final. Eva never looked in trouble as she won the match 21-8. In the final she fought hard but had to settle for Silver after a strong performance from training pal Anna Palacci from Surrey.

At the beginning of half term, U10 player Isabelle Craig picked up a bronze medal in the girls’ doubles with Sussex partner Abigail Thring at the Bournemouth U11 event.