WEST Devon’s two badminton teams put in a fantastic effort at this year’s South West Rotary Youth Games.

The team, organised by OCRA, entered two badminton teams recently into the South West Rotary Youth Games. Players aged 11 to 14 and from both Okehampton and Tavistock came together to prepare for the games under the coaches from the Tavyside Badminton Coaching Team.

Each team consisted of four players, two boys and two girls and, in the competition, played all the other teams from across the Devon and Cornwall area.

Each match consisted of five games of badminton: girls singles, boys singles, girls doubles, boys doubles and mixed doubles.

The Team West Devon Badminton ‘B’ team were playing at the games for the first time and kept narrowly losing a match 2–3. They managed one match win and came 6th.

Last year, the team West Devon Badminton ‘A’ had won the silver medal, but were determined to show the other teams what they had learned from last years’ competition.

The first match was against the team West Devon ‘B’ team and the ‘A’ team were dominant from the start. This set the stage for the rest of the competition and ended the day having not only beaten all the other teams, but also won every single game they played.

Badminton singles play relies on the individual but the best doubles pairings work together and this was where the ‘A’ team excelled throughout the competition with the opposition repeatedly unable to adapt to a pairing who made changes to their game as they discovered weaknesses.

Team West Devon Badminton ‘A’ won the very well deserved gold medal.

For any team to be present at the South West Rotary Youth Games, a lot of effort has to be put into the coaching and the team West Devon badminton squad had coaches Jemma Mackensie and Molly Davies from the Tavyside Badminton Coaching Team to thank for their guidance and support on the day.