RVBA Players RVBA (Supported by Memory Lane Cakes) players Sarah Thomas (Wales) and Tim Stranks (England) both won their respective singles titles in style this weekend at the British Badminton u17 Quadrangular (England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). With Tim also taking the mixed doubles title, and getting through the men’s doubles final with the final being played later today.

Sarah Thomas came through the team event winning all her matches for Wales, helping Wales to a second place finish in the team event behind England. In the individuals singles event Sarah started off with a victory over Spittel 21-11, 21-8, before beating England’s Bromley in the Quarter final 21-10 21-15. That set up a semi final match against Brown (England), with Sarah coming out on top 21-10, 21-14. The final was up against England’s No1 Westwood which had been a tough 3 set encounter in the team event with Thomas coming out on top. In another tough encounter Thomas came out on top this time in two sets 22-2-, 21-19 to take the British title.

Richard Vaughan (RVBA Head coach), commented “It’s great Sarah has been able to take the title on the back of the team event, and it shows some real progression the past months. It is all down to her own hard work especially off court last summer with camps in Singapore and Spain. Hopefully Sarah can carry her performances through to the senior Nationals in a few weeks time, and next week’s Swedish open in Stockholm. People should not underestimate how tough it is to be the best in your age group in GB, and I hope her example will set a bench mark for especially other Welsh juniors to achieve. As I said already it’s all down to a lot of hard work from Sarah and her family day in day out and nothing is more important”.

Tim Stranks of Cheltenham won his team match games helping England win the badminton Team event, and started the Quadrangular off by coming through and winning the mixed doubles event with his partner Holly Smith. This was particularly impressive as Tim has been struggling with an injury in the Christmas period which had severely limited his preparation, and forcing him out of the Dorset Open the previous week. Tim also had a tough draw coming through with wins over Welsh 1st pair Gwilt and Hughes 21-18, 21-11, then Irish No1 McConnell, and Chambers 21-16, 23-21, then top seeds England’s Dobson and Westwood 21-19, 15-21, 22-20, before taking the final against England’s Cappleman and Bromley 21-12, 21-11.

In Tim’s main event, Singles, he started off with a 21-11, 21-12 of Robert John (Wales), before beating Irelands Sim 21-17, 21-13. In the semi final he beat Cappleman from England 21-11, 21-12. That set up his England’s rival Dobson winning 17-21, 21-13, 21-9 and taking the second GB Badminton title.

In the men’s doubles Tim was playing with U15 Walker from England and beat the established England No1 pair in the semi final Dobson and Cappleman. That’s sets him up with a final against Top Welsh pair Font and Gwilt tonight in order to take all 3 titles which would be quite some achievement. The Welsh pair proved the better doubles pair blocking Tim’s triple attempt for the title.

Vaughan commented “Again it’s a great achievement for Tim for lots of reasons. He has had an annoying injury the past weeks which has left him below 80% of his level and he has still managed to take two titles and be in contention for a third. In nearly all the events he has won by beating the best players including difficult first round matches, while not playing with established doubles players, this demonstrates his improved physical shape which I know he’s been working hard on. Again like Sarah, Tim and has family have been incredibly devoted to hard training, day in day out with an emphasis on quality which means driving regularly to Bath twice a week for England cell training with Peter Bush and then the other days driving down to South Wales for training with myself. That’s a return commute of 3 hours on a daily basis in addition to getting good grades in school etc. Like Sarah, Tim sets a great example and he deserves the titles.”

Next up for the RVBA players is the Swedish Badminton Open in Stockholm in 2 weeks time with Sarah Thomas, Piret Vaughan and Richard Vaughan all competing, before playing the Welsh Badminton Nationals. Later in the season Aimee Moran, and Sophie Trerise will be hoping to challenge more titles for Wales at the GB u15 Badminton Quadrangular.