Blackburn and Darwen Centre Parcs Badminton 2014/15

Between the 10th and 20th November 4 Secondary school team badminton competitions took place. The competition set up by Badminton England and Sponsored by Centre Parcs culminates in national finals at Centre Parcs Nottingham in June 2015.

St Bede’s RC High school have taken a step towards the national finals by being crowned champions of Blackburn and Darwen in all 4 competitions. The competition is a combination of singles and doubles matches and requires a team of 4. Players are ranked 1-4. Players 1 and 2 play singles against their corresponding players and players 3 and 4 play doubles with each other and either player 1 or 2. There are therefore 5 games in each match so a school will win 5-0, 4-1 or 3-2.

On Monday the 10th November Westholme hosted the girls U14s competition (Year 9 or younger). Westholme were represented by an A and a B team as were St Bede’s, St Wilfrid’s were also present.

Both Westholme A and St Bede’s won all of their matches before meeting each other in the final match. All of the games were of a high standard and were very close, but St Bede’s managed to win the vital points and just edged it by a score of 3 games to 2. Maddie Elliott, Kaya-lilly Pottinger, Jessica Kit and Jessica Cook will now represent the Borough at the county finals in the New Year.

The U16s Girls competition took place the following week again at Westholme. Westholme again entered 2 teams with Pleckgate, Darwen Vale and St Bede’s also competing. As in the U16s completion it came down to Westholme A against St Bede’s to decide who would be crowned champions. St Bede’s team of Brenna Mcpartlan, Katie Dudgeon, Ellie Brindle and Sophie Jenkins again came out on top thanks to winning 4 games to Westholme’s one.

The boy’s competitions took place at Pleckgate High School. The U14s competition on the 13th November and the U16s Competition on the 20th. In the U14s competition 2 teams from St Bede’s and teams from Westholme and Darwen Vale took part. St Bede’s came out on top with Westholme finishing a close second. Luke Boyle, Tom Horsefield, Seth Elliott and Jake Jose were all part of the winning team.

The U16s event was contested between 2 teams from St Bede’s, St Wilfrid’s, Pleckgate and Darwen Vale. In a 5 way round robin it came down to the match between St Bede’s A and St Bede’s B and true to the form book it was the A team who came out on top. The B team was made up of Boys who are in year 10 and eligible to play again next year. Harry Boyle, Declan Charnock, Chris Kay and Bailey Mcgovern will all represent St Bede’s at the county finals next year.

Chris Bentley director of PE at St Bede’s said ‘To win all 4 competitions is a great achievement and a credit to our students. We have put a lot of hard work into developing Badminton over the last 3 or 4 years. We have clubs at lunch times and afterschool and have recently set up a Satellite Club at Blackburn Community Sports club which many of our students attend. I am confident we can do well at the county competitions and progress to the North West finals and maybe a trip to Centre Parcs isn’t out of the question. I would like to Thank Andrew Mercer for Organising the competitions and to Westholme and Pleckgate for hosting.