Domestic 1200

January 30, 2023

A new year started with a bang in a busy month of domestic badminton action in January.

Here is our look back at the best domestic action over the past month.

Masters County Challenge (7-8 & 14-15 January)

The Masters County Challenge took place for the first time since 2020 and was held across five venues in Bournemouth, Worcester, Nottingham, Eastleigh and Birmingham, featuring over 1000 competitors ranging from 40 to 75 years of age.

It was a particularly successful two weekends for Yorkshire, who won both the O45 and O60 Premier Divisions, while the remaining five divisions were all won by different counties.

Lancashire were triumphant in the O40 Premier Division, while the O50 Premier Division event was won by Hampshire.

Essex were victorious in the O55 competition, with Surrey winning the O65 Premier Division and Kent proving victorious in the 070 Premier Division.

A full lowdown of results can be found here.

Senior County Championships (21-22 January)

Middlesex remain at the top of the table by the finest of margins, just one point ahead of Buckinghamshire after a 7-4 loss to their nearest rivals.

Another flawless weekend for Hampshire left them third in the table – five points off the lead – and they maintained the only unbeaten record in the Championships, with six wins from as many matches.

It remains close in the chasing pack behind them, with just two points separating Yorkshire in fourth place and Leicestershire in eighth.

Lancashire remain at the bottom of the ten-team table, victories over relegation rivals Cheshire and Leicestershire have greatly boosted their chances of survival come the final weekend of action in March.

Cheshire are the only team still yet to win this season, though they remain off the bottom of the table having amassed 11 points across the weekend.

A full list of results can be found here.

2023 Northumberland Senior Gold (7-8 January)

Georgina Bland and Jamie Pearcy were among the winners at the Northumberland Senior Gold event which took place across 7-8 January.

Top seed Bland did not drop a single game on her way to the women’s singles crown, defeating Lucy Brierley 21-7 21-12 in the final.

Meanwhile, second seed Pearcy overcame Rohan Thool 17-21 21-12 21-12 to win the men’s singles event in Newcastle.

James Anderson and Neville Baptist were crowned men’s doubles champions, while Abigail Hong and Yulia Tang won the women’s doubles and Joshua Young and Lucy Dodd were crowned mixed doubles champions.

Full results for the event can be found here.

U15 Gold Milton Keynes (28-29 January)

Kalyan Manoj didn’t drop a single game as won the boy’s singles title at the U15 Gold Star event in Milton Keynes at the end of the month, beating Sajan Senthuran 21-13 in the final.

Manoj and Senthuran were partners in the boy’s doubles and reached the final, where Joel Joby and Siddhanth Shirol were triumphant.

Martha Ng prevailed in an epic girl’s singles final, battling past Mia Fox 22-24 21-15 22-20 to seal victory.

Ng and Fox were also opponents in a similarly competitive girl’s doubles encounter, with Fox and Yashica Racharla beating Ng and Shraddha Gopalakrishnan to claim victory.

George Clare and Katie Hoult were victorious in the boy’s doubles competition, beating Manoj and Racharla to take home the title.

Full results can be found here.

U13 Gold Leicestershire (14 January)

Nikhil Pulikkottil and Vedanshi Jain won all three events they competed in at the U13 Gold event held in Oakham towards the beginning of the month.

Pulikkottil defeated Adam Alam in straight games to win the boy’s singles title, and the two paired up to defeat Eden Gough and Gerry Ou in the boy’s doubles final on the same day.

And it was three gold medals in one meet for Pulikkottil, who paired up with Jain to defeat Aditya Vignesh and Daya Variangattil in the mixed doubles.

Jain was also the winner of the girl’s singles event, beating Mutiara Mandala in the girl’s singles final, while she prevailed in the girl’s doubles alongside Mudra Mayekar.

Full results for the event can be found here.

McCoig Trophy

England successfully retained the McCoig Trophy in January after taking on Scotland in the annual clash, this year held at the Sir Craig Reedie Centre in Glasgow.

Despite a competitive start in the Masters event, held for 40+, 45+, 50+, 55+, 60+, 65+, and 70+ age ranges, England eventually ran out 22-11 winners to defend their title.

The next edition of the event will be held in York in 2024.

Recent posts

Back to news