Thursday 12th November saw Ciaran Chambers and Kirsty Walker take to the court for mixed doubles at 9am. Although they played well, their oppostion from the Netherlands proved to have the upper hand on the day and went on to win this tie.

Next up came the pairing of Jonathan Dolan and Caroline Black against Thomas Mair and Isabel Delueg from Italy.  Jonathan and Caroline won this match in two convincing sets 21-10 21-9.

Later in the morning Ruaraidh Sim went on court to play Olafur Om Gudmundssdon from Iceland and Ruaraidh despatched of his opponent 21-14 21-12.

Not to be outdone, Jonathan Dolan came onto court shortly afterwards against one of the singles seeds Jakob Nilsson from Sweden and took the match 22-20 21-18.

Caroline Black played then against the Dane, Sandra-Maria Jensen but this was not to go in favour of the Irish.

Lastly, Rachel Orr and Alannah Stephenson played a Slovakian partnership in the Girls Doubles.  The girls fought well but went down in this one 21-17 21-15.

All in all a good day for the Irish with hopefully more to follow tomorrow.

Friday 13th Nov at European U17 Championships in Slovenia

First on court this morning was Jonathan Dolan and Caroline Black against the Welsh pair of Oliver Gwilt and Georgia Hughes.  The first set was a close affair but the Welsh stole the match 21-19 21-9

Then Jonathan faced the Austrian M. Almer in his singles but this was a difficult tie with Jonathan losing 21-13 21-11.

Ruaraidh Sim then faced the Ukrainian K. Leonov and although Ruaraidh played well the Ukrainian won the tie 21-13 21-11

Last but not least, the Irish pair of Caroline Black and Kirsty Walker played the Turkish pair Kilic and Yigit Nesihan (No. 2 seeds) but the Turkish girls were on form today and won the match 21-12 21-8

All the players have performed well in this competition which has all the best U17 players in Europe competing and the experience will stand to them in the future.

Our thanks to all in the Slovenian Badminton Association and all those involved with all aspects of the running of this event.  The organisation has been exceptional.

Cheryl Evans & Dan Magee
U17 Manager & Coach
Badminton Ireland