Birmingham | West Midlands Performance Centre

As the main badminton season nears an end the WMPC has real cause to celebrate.

Top amongst the many achievements of our players were: England representative honours for Nicola Gresty, Asmita Chaudhari and Kiara Henry, with others knocking on the door, Ryan Quek playing in qualifying at the All England Badminton Championships (badminton’s version of Wimbledon), Joe Ball winning the Silver medal in Boys Doubles at the Under 13 National Championships (we are hoping for more medals in the nationals shortly).

Our medal count for the season is now approaching 50 (wow!) and we have recently been recognised by Badminton England as one of the leading Performance Centres nationally. Special congratulations to our medallists: Asmita, Chris M, Chris W, Joe B, Joe E, Elizabeth, Joshmyn, Kiara, Khushi, Lorenzo, Matthew, Megan, Rob, Selena, Simran, Victoria. This only comes will lots of hard work and lots of training hours each week.

Many of our players have represented their counties this season, including taking part in the prestigious Inter-County Under 17 Tournament (ICT) over 4-days recently at Nottingham University. those not already mentioned who have played for their county are Katie, Rhea, Sam, Toby and Zak.

Now we wish for our success to continue as we aim to become the leading performance centre in the country. Please spread the word that the West Midlands PC really is an amazing place to train, with world class coaching right on the doorstep.

You can always check out the details over the summer season the PC are running a couple of BE tournaments and there will also be the notorious Summer Camp on August. Keep checking the website for details.

Emerging and Developing can they do it?

Day two of the Inter PC Tournament in Manchester saw players from the Developing and Emerging groups take to the courts hoping to leave their mark with our northern competitors.
WMPC Developing group for the Inter PC event, was being represented by Kishen Lee, Samuel White, Kayleigh Beeston-Smith and Selina Liang. There were six teams in our group so 5 gruelling matches lay ahead in a warm Manchester veladrome for relatively new pairing against, what turned out to be some strong opposition. The first Match saw us narrowly loose 2-3 with very close games set the bar for the days battle. Although no match was won by WMPC developing group but with close scores of 17s, 18s, 19s says hard fought battles were had in may of the games. Un-triumphant the Developing team set of home with heavy hearts. The day was a great experience and lessons can be learnt and taken to work on for next year and/or similar events.
The Emerging group for the Inter PC challenge saw Rob Spink, Chris Williams, Sarah Collins and Grace Taylor turn out for an epic first match against a the host Manchester PC. The format or game order was, ladies doubles, mens singles, ladies singles, mens doubles and one mixed. Chris had a gruelling first mens, winning 21-13, 20-22, 26-24. Sarah played ladies singles losing narrowly in the second game 14-21, 21-23. Mixed doubles saw Rob and Grace take their game to 3 and winning 21-16, 19-21, 21-13. Final first match score 3-2 to WMPC. Unknown to us at this stage that was the winning match. Out off the remaining 3 matches saw WMPC play Potteries 1 and 2, opposition that was a little closer to home and better known. Overall some fabulous badminton for those of us on the side line spectating. Triumphant on the day yet Emerging guys walked away with medals and the trophy. On a lighter note each team nominated a player from the opposition for sports person of the match, whose names where put in to a hat and drawn at the end of the competition to win a Babolar racquet. Young Sarah Collins is now the proud owner of one such racquet.
Well done to all the players both Developing and Emerging and thank you parents for your support and the early start.