EXCELLENT NEWS!!  ENGLAND SELECTIONS!!

Northumberland’s outstanding junior Lucy Dodd recently won the U19 National Women’s Doubles title, and has had a number of other excellent tournament successes.  Lucy is having a superb season, and during the last couple of weeks has been representing England in the U19 European Team and Individual Championships in Ibiza.  There is a report on the Team Event on Badminton England’s website.  In the individual event, Lucy and her partner drew the second seeds in the Mixed Doubles first round, and they were too strong for the English pair.  In the Girls Doubles, Lucy and her partner reached the last 16, losing to a strong Danish pair.  This was still a great achievement.  This has all been an excellent experience for Lucy as she has another year in this U19 age group.  Well done Lucy!!

The second piece of news concerns Andy Craigie, from Deaf Awareness NE.  Andy has gradually become more integrated into clubs and has been playing in a few different clubs to gain experience and to help him improve. A number of weeks ago Andy went to Milton Keynes to take part in the Deaflympics weekend. Following that, he has just heard that he has been selected to represent England in the European Deaf Championships in Brno in the Czech Republic, from 25 to 27 April next year!!!  I doubt whether we have ever had any deaf player reach this level in the North East!! It has been really encouraging to see Andy (sometimes with his partner Josh) integrating more, in clubs, at the NBA Presentation Evening, and also recently at the Sport Newcastle Dinner.  Andy may well be seen practicing at the Tyneside Badminton Centre!  Congratulations to Andy!!!