On Sunday 24th March 2013, Stowmarket Junior Badminton Club hosted their Annual Tournament at Stowmarket Leisure Centre. Junior clubs from Abbeygate, Bosmere and Haverhill joined us for the event. Mixed doubles pairs competed in three age groups - under 16, 14 and 12 years and all groups were fought very competetively. Stowmarket pairings all performed very well winning the under 16 age group with Holly Simonds and Will Dunn, whilst Emma Jobbins and Craig Newcombe came through as eventual winners in the under 14 group. The under 12 age group was run as a fun tournament and this was fought just as fiercely as the older age groups!

Organising the event does involve a huge amount of work both before the event and on the day itself and it couldn't be done without lots of help from the coaches and members of the adult club. The organisers received some lovely comments from those that took part. One visiting coach emailed to say "..... It is very encouraging to see so many youngsters being energetic and competitive and having a great time. We didn't win many games but all six of our players thoroughly enjoyed their day and I found it extremely useful to identify their strengths and weaknesses against different players, especially looking down from the balcony. There has been marked resistance to playing mixed doubles on Club nights but I sensed a real change after the tournament so there is one positive already", and one parent wrote " Ellie had a lovely weekend and we are still hearing about each shot!"

Many thanks to all the players that took part, as well as all the parents and coaches that came along to support throughout the day.

Thank you for your contribution to a successful tournament.