BADMINTON: WHILE many were out enjoying the July sunshine, around 100 young badminton players from Coventry were indoors working up a sweat on the court.
Alveston Juniors sent three teams to a regional junior tournament, with all teams returning with medals of some description.
In the morning, it was the young teams competing and the Under 14s A side were put up against eventual winners Rugby Youth.
A poor start saw them fall 4-0 behind in the early singles.
Despite a brief comeback from the girls, the match ended in a 6-3 defeat.
Worse was to come when only a narrow win for siblings George and Ella Baxter prevented a whitewash as Jubilee ran out 7-1 winners in the second match.
A comfortable 6-3 win against Racqueteers in their final group match rescued any chance of a whitewash though.
In the B Group, Alveston also started against Rugby, this time though recording a 6-3 victory.
Amber Venn winning her singles 15-14 and then partnered Lily Yang to the same scoreline in the doubles.
The 6-3 scoreline was repeated against Jubilee, although there were no cliffhangers this time.
Their final game to cap a fine morning was a 7-1 win over Racqueteers.
After lunch, the older players competed in the U18s category.
A 3-3 scoreline after the singles matches against Jubilee left the game finely in the balance.
A gritty performance from Maddy Cartwright and Rachel Steinheimer saw a 21-20 victory in the girls’ doubles before siblings James and Grace Harvey clinched the result with a 21-18 win in the mixed.
After two relatively close matches, the final two games both resulted in 8-1 scorelines.
A sobering defeat to eventual winners Rugby was compensated by a win by the same scoreline against Racqueteers.