Hildenborough Badminton
hit it harder.....
April 20th-23rd, U17 6 Nations, Kolding Denmark
U17 Six Nations Mixed Champions
Rory Easton and Hope Warner
Rory and Hope won through to the final of the individual 6 Nations mixed event taking on pairs from Germany, Denmark, France, The Netherlands and Sweden. They did not drop a set on the way to winning this enormous trophy and are looking forward to playing more events together next season. Rory also reached the semi of the boys singles which was won by England teammate Harry Huang.
The England squad then went on to win silver in the team event behind a strong Danish squad who took gold beating strong French and German teams.
April 10th-14th ICT Nottingham
Kent finished a creditable 13th in the country after coping with a number of injuries. The HBC players in the 10 strong squad were:
Holly Williams, Nikita Ghosh, Emma Goddard, Emily Tillman
Rory Easton, Mehar Bijral
9th April Kent Junior Inter-regional Canterbury
TWBL U15 and u19 squads picked up both Trophies again despite our teams being weakened due to the clash with the U15 Nationals in Nottingham. Congratulations to all the team particularly the less experienced players who stepped up to the challenge.
U19s: Rory Easton, Jonathan Tsoi, Rohan Shergill, Emily Easton, Emily Tillman, Alisha Gupta
U15s: David Lang, Prabhav Bhamidipati, Rohan Gupta, Shivani Bhoombla, Annabel Sykes, Hannah Sarshar
Annabel Sykes and Hannah Sarshar were playing in their first team event of this type since starting to play badminton at Wally within the last two years. Special mention also to Rohan Shergill who had to take one for the team and play up into the U19 squad rather than in his own U15 Age group.
April 8th/9th U15 Nationals Nottingham
Holly Williams is the double golden girl of the weekend winning the girls doubles with partner Gouri Shidhaye and mixed with Neil Bhabuta. Holly also picked up a bronze in the singles.Holly was the most successful athlete on show at this year’s Nationals, being the only player to reach all 3 semi-finals.Emma Goddard posted her best ever age group singles result by reaching the quarter finals. There were a number of other solid performances by improving young players. Well done to all those who qualified to enter these Nationals which is an achievement in itself.
April 1st/2nd U17 Nationals Milton Keynes
Rory Easton qualifies through to all three finals, winning Gold in the Mixed with partner Annie Lado and Silvers in the singles and doubles with partner David Hong.
15th/26th Feb U13 Gold Milton Keynes
A stronger than usual field with Danish players over to take part. Sofia Bao wins a bronze medal in the Gold singles event while still a year young. The Danes were in the Gold star singles which pushed more players down into the Gold.
18th/19th Feb U17 Gold Cheltenham
A first medal at a gold age group event (I think) for Mehar Birjal as he gets bronze in the mixed with partner Katie Scott.
11th 12th Feb U19 NATIONALS, Milton Keynes
3 Bronzes for Rory Easton with partners David Hong and Sian Kelly who are all young in this age group. Rory was the only player to medal in 3 disciplines at this event.
11th 12th Feb U15 Gold Cheltenham
A golden day for Holly Williams winning both Singles (Gold Star) and Mixed with partner Alex Green. She also reached the semi of the girls doubles.
21st 22nd Jan U19 Gold Derby
Rory reaches final in boys doubles with David Hong and semi of mixed with Sian Kelly
31st Jan 2017
Selection news for the U15 8 Nations to take place in late March. Holly Williams earns another England cap! She will travel to Belgium in late March with the squad of 6 boys and 6 girls. Sadly this means she will miss the Kent Senior Team weekend but we are still thrilled for her.
Congratulations also to David Lang and Sofia Bao who have been invited to an England U13 residential training camp over the Feb half term.
David Lang and Sofia Bao are invited to an England U13 training camp over the Feb half term. The arrival of the first selection letter is always very exciting for young players, parents and coaches. David and Sofia have been working exceptionally hard over the last 6 months with coaches Jo Muggeridge, Alex Easton and sparring with Rory. We wish them an exciting half term and look forward to hearing all about it. They will be attending the camp at Lilleshall National Training Centre near Birmingham, an inspiring venue where National teams for many diverse sports train.
28th Jan 2017
Many young players were in action in Kent Senior County 1st 2nd and 3rd teams. Luke Bailey called up to 1sts who won their matches 9-2 and 10-1 leaving the possibility of play-offs still open.
Holly Williams was pushed up into the 2nd team and won both her singles matches playing 1st singles!
Emily Tillman was called into the 3rds for the first time.
Also playing were Rory Easton (1sts), Guy Jones, Rico Shergill , Emily Easton (2nds)and Ethan Solly (3rds).
21st/22nd Jan - U19 Gold Derby
Rory reaches final in boys doubles with David Hong and Semi final of mixed with Sian Kelly.
7th Jan 2017 - Redbridge U17 Gold
A rare triple gold for Rory with partners David Hong and Annie Lado
10th December - U15 Gold Leigh
Holly Williams battled with illness this weekend but managed a bronze in the girls doubles.
10th December - U19 Gold Milton Keynes
In a slightly weaker than usual field Rory lived up to his #1 seeding in both mixed (partner Sian Kelly) and singles, also reaching the doubles final (partner David Hong) but losing to a strong pair 2 years older. Luke Bailey reached quarters in doubles.
12th November - Senior County Matches
The first weekend when senior county teams were in action. Congratulations to the following juniors who were selected:
Firsts: Rory Easton with coaches Jo Muggeridge and Carl Baxter
Seconds: Luke Bailey, Emily Easton, Guy Jones, Rico Shergill
Thirds: Ethan Solly, Holly Williams
30th October - TWBL restricted Tonbridge
Many fantastic performances by our less experiences junior players in this local event especially Sam Bowen in his first tournament.
Courtney King won the girls U15 singles and Rohan Gupta got the silver in the boys U15 singles with third in U15 boys doubles. Well done to all those who participated. I am sure I have missed a few - please email me results as they are not available online for me to check.
29th-30th October - U17 Gold Milton Keynes
Rory Easton makes two finals winning the mixed (partner Annie Lado) and losing the singles to a determined Harry Huang. Holly Williams and Alex Green played superbly to reach the quarters of the mixed in this competition where they were 2 years young.
22nd-23rd October - Middlesex Senior Gold.
Rory Easton entered a senior gold for the first time playing doubles with one of his Kent team mates (Lawrence) and they reached the quarters. He also reached the quarters of the singles but then surprised everyone by winning the mixed doubles event with scratch partner Hope Warner whose regular partner had been unable to enter. A senior gold event won by two 15 year olds is unusual.
12th-16th October - Danish Cup Copenhagen
A stunning U17 singles Danish Cup win for Rory Easton while still U16. England's Harry Huang got Bronze so great result for team England in a field which included most of the strongest junior players in Europe. Rory also reached the quarters in the boys doubles and mixed.
Kent Senior Restricted Sept 29th - Oct 2nd 2016
No commentary required - the results from all of these junior players in our SENIOR Kent Restricted say it all. Well done kids (with a little help from your older partners) and well done coaches! I hope I have not missed anyone. We don't think this has been done before in the history of Kent Badminton.
Senior Mens Singles Champion: Rory Easton
Runner Up: Guy Jones
Semi Finalists: Rico Shergill and Ethan Solly
Senior Mens Doubles Champions: Rory Easton and Sean Parr
Semi Finalists: Guy Jones and Ethan Solly
Senior Mixed Champions: Rory Easton and Tracey Middleton
Mixed Quarter Finalists: Ethan Solly and Holly Williams
Ladies Doubles Runners Up: Emily Easton and Carla Staden (Trident)
Kent Junior Restricted Sept 17th/18th 2016
These three had an impressive week-end's play at the Kent Junior Restricted with Sofia taking 4 gold's across u12 & u14 age groups, partnering HBC's Krisha Hari in u12 doubles & Wally Hall's Georgie Vertue in u14 doubles.
Holly took home an unprecedented 5 gold's in u16 & u18 age groups, partnering Emma Goddard in u16 & u18 doubles to gold with Emma taking Silver in both u16 & u18 singles events which is a huge achievement & testimony to the progress she is making.
Many other HBC juniors were also successful, with David Lang taking gold in u14 boys singles and Sam Goddard taking Bronze in the same event.
Sam & partner Jack Browne (Medway) took Gold in the u14 boys doubles with David & Yash Gupta winning Bronze.
In the u12 boys events, young Tom Larchet was unlucky to "only" get silver in singles & doubles (partnering Daniel Carson-Bray) as both finals went to tense third sets. Well done Tom in his first Kent Restricted tournament.
Also of note was the participation of several new girls with 5 newly selected Kent squad girls from Wally getting involved in the Junior restricted for the first time and 3 of them winning county medals:
Georgie Vertue took Bronze in u14 girls singles & Gold in u14 girls doubles (partnering Sofia Bao), with Rosie Williamson & Annabel Sykes taking bronze in the u14 girls doubles too. Hannah Sharshar & Kitty Pope were unfortunately not in the medals but they took Rosie & Annabel to 3 sets in the doubles & both ran others close in the singles event. Well done girls.
17th/18th Sept, U19 Gold Wimbledon (new age groups)
Bronze Rory Easton Singles
Bronze Luke Bailey Mixed
Congratulations to Rory also on selection for England U17 team to travel to Belgium U19 Open this week and also into the U17 Danish Cup team in October.
The start of the 2016-17 season consisted of an extra set of age group Nationals due to the changes in age groups implemented this season which resulted in all juniors moving up 2 years rather than just one.
Well done all those who participated. It is not easy to rush straight into serious competition at the very start of the season.
3rd/4th Sept
U13 Nationals
David Lang - last 16 singles
U17 Nationals
Rory Easton silvers in mixed and doubles, bronze in singles
10th/11th Sept
U15 Nationals
Holly Williams - last 16 in singles and mixed, quarters in doubles
U19 Nationals
Rory Easton (3 years young) singles bronze
Luke Bailey (1 year young) Quarters in doubles
11th Sept
U11 Nationals
First bronze medal for Sofia Bao who was narrowly beaten by the first seed who went on to win comfortably.
