Visions Badminton Academy

David Follet took the Wheelchair W1 title in Nottingham with a great peformance. In the group stage 2 walkovers meant there were only 2 matches for David and he beat Phil Day 21-4 21-8 but lost out to Owen Kilburn narrowly 21-17 21-19. However since 2 went through David would again face Owen in the final and when it mattered he bounced back to win 21-13 21-15 and claim the title.

In doubles in the W2 category David and Rowan Crossman reached the final but lost out to England’s Gobi Ranganathan/Martin Rooke 21-13.  21-10. David trains at Visions Cranford with Sue Williams and at Devon Racqueteers.

Another Devon player Krysten Coombs won the mens doubles in the Dwarf Class and was runner up in the singles and mixed doubles. Krysten lost the singles final to Andrew Martin 21-9 21-17.

Ben Lane took Gold in mixed doubles at the School Games in London. Ben and regular partner Jess Pugh beat Adam Hall Heather Macpherson (Scot) 21-14 21-17 in the final. It was England’s only Gold at the games.  England take an u15 team to the U17 annual school games event

Selected Visions players in English National rankings to week 17 :

MS : 24 Alex Lane , 54 Daniel Chow 90 Russell Walker 129 Ben lane

WS : 36 Alice Feesey 92 Sarah Nickels

MD: 21 Matt Corby 22 Dan Corby 24 Alex Lane 67 Ben Lane 117 Jamie Roberton 120 Russell Walker

Nearly all players continue to climb the rankings at the end of another superb season

Some new Visions players made their mark as our team dominated the county trials tournament.  Visions players won all 4 singles titles on offer in a superb performance.

U11s- Visions Torbay’s Dan Conway showed his class to beat Owen Waters to the boys title. Dan then teamed up with another player from our Torbay group Cameron Hollingsworth to take the boys doubles title.

Lauren Cole from Torbay was also double champion, she came back to beat Lucy Cooper in a close singles final before teaming up with Lucy to take the doubles.

U15-Torbay’s Mai-Sing Lim-Cooke continued her rapid rise winning the title in style.  A Visions Exmouth player Vicky Prouse took the doubles beating Mai-Sing and Emily Hutchings.

Callum Owens showed his class taking the title while still U13 and teamed up with regular partner Charlie Otto to take the doubles.

Many will have seen the coverage of PM David Cameron playing badminton with some of the England squad. Ben and some of the other UK School Games team met the PM and toured 10 Downing St yesterday. Some links below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/gallery/2012/mar/28/david-cameron-badminton-in-pictures#/?picture=387985894&index=5

http://www.itv.com/news/2012-03-28/badminton-battle-cameron-vs-coe/

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/david-cameron-fails-to-show-off-badminton-skills-7594679.html

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/03/stick-cameron-proves-tennis

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sporting-politicians-david-cameron-is-latest-760420

Coaches Sue and Darren travelled to MK for the final nationals of the season, the tough under 19 event. Visions players Alex, Ben and Alice competed with Alex achieving a runner up spot and a semi final.

Singles-  Alex reached the quarter finals with 3 straight set wins, where he played 3/4 seed Steven Cappleman.  Alex struggled for consistency but ran out a winner in 3sets 21-17 15-21 21-16. In the semi Alex faced 2 seed Tom Wolfenden. Alex lost the first set making some uncharacteristic errors but bounced back to take the second set. In the end though Alex lost out to the excellant Wolfenden who would go on to be triple U19 champion.

Ben, the U15 National champion was playing his third age group nationals in 3 weeks but came through 2 tough matches against Moon and Stobo before again meeting Sam Parsons, Ben wasn’t able to trouble Sam like the previous weekend and lost in 2 sets.

Alice Feesey had a good opening win over Charis Wyatt 21- 14 21-14 before losing out to eventual champion Chloe Birch in 2 sets in round 2. Alice had some tough draws in doubles, meeting Alex in round 1 of mixed, and losing out Bromley/Showan in 3 sets in round 1 of ladies doubles. 13-21 21-14 21-17.

Ben and Sean Vendy had a thrilling 3 set win over Akroum/Golding winning 26-24 in the 3rd set, but then lost out to 3/4 seeds Mairs/Roe in 3 sets. Ben teamed with Jess Pugh in mixed and reached round 2 where they lost to eventual champions Wolfenden/Smith 21-14 21-19, but the U15 pair played a superb second set to trouble the older pair.

Alex’s best form came, suprisingly in doubles where in mixed with Chloe Birch he reached the quarters and nearly beat eventual runners up McCarthy/Sankey 21-16 20-22 15-21. In mens doubles with Sam Parsons Alex claimed the runners up spot. Seeded only 5/8, Alex and Sam upset 3/4 seeds Kilgariff/Scott in the qtrs before making a superb comeback against 1 seeds Walker/Cheng in the semis winning 21-15 11-21 11-21 in impressive fashion. In the final Alex and Sam struggled to get into the game against the tall pairing of McCarthy /Wolfenden and lost in 2 sets.

Overall another strong performance from Alex and Ben and over the age group nationals Visions players acheived 4 titles, 4 runners up spots and 4 semi finals. Congratulations to  Lancashire’s Tom Wolfenden who was triple champion and to Yorkshire’s Chloe Birch who added U19 to her U17 national singles title.