We were unfortunate to lose one of our boys at the 11^th hour through illness, so had some hasty rearrangement of partnerships to complete before play could commence on the Friday.

In our first game against Scotland, we were unlucky to lose 5-4 with some excellent performances from the team.

In the second game against England, the games were close, but the spoils went to the English in most of the games, Sinead Chambers being the one winner in this tie.

Lastly, we competed against Wales, who had beaten Scotland, so there was everything to play for.  This was not to be our day on this occasion and Wales beat us 6-3.  

Final placings were England 1^st, Wales 2^nd, Scotland 3^rd and Ireland 4^th.  We are, however, aware that this team had three U15 players and also players competing in their first year at this age group, so can take away some positive points for 2010 from the event.

On then to the individual events.  In the Mixed we saw Stuart Lightbody and Caroline Black reach the quarter final stage after some excellent performances.  In the Girls Singles, Sinead Chambers narrowly lost out in the semi final and Sinead and Ruth Roddis reached the Girls Doubles final and won a Silver Medal here. Excellent result for the girls.

We would like to thank all the team for their excellent behaviour and commitment over the weekend and wish them all well with their badminton for the future.

Daniel, Sandra and I will be meeting shortly to discuss further plans for these young players which we will submit to the High Performance Panel for approval to work towards the 2010 Quadrangular.

Yours in sport,

Cheryl Evans (Irish U17 Manager)