Ashaway at the All England

It was great to see the return of live badminton last week at the All England Championships in Birmingham. 

In amongst the drama of Covid testing and players being sent home, there was some fantastic badminton played over the 5 day event. Ashaway was well represented by a handful of our player team; Viki Williams, Steven Stallwood and Jessica Hopton. 

First up, partnering Annie Lado, was Steven Stallwood in the Mixed Doubles event, and a comfortable victory over Egyptian pair, Adham Hatem Elgamal and Doha Hany. Next, with the same partner, Viki Williams. A tough ask against a strong Danish pair, the girls couldn't quite find enough to progress and lost out to Malken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen in 2 sets. 

Steven was back out on the court with partner Callum Hemming in the Mens Doubles. Coming back from a loss in the first set, the boys dug deep, and were able to seal a win in a 3 set battle against Danish pair Daniel Lundgaard and Mathias Thyrri to go through to the second round. 

In the final match of day 1, Viki Williams was back on court with partner Callum Hemming, to start the their Mixed Doubles venture. Facing French pairing, Thom GIcquel and Delphine Delrue, it wasn't to be for our English pairing, and they sadly were defeated in this first round match. 

Securing a bye in the first round, Jess Hopton started her All England debut on the second day of play, in the second round. After a close first set defeat, Jess and partner Jenny Moore, just couldn't maintain the momentum of the first set, and lost out to Tan Pearly and Thinaah Muralitharan. 

Steven was back on day 2 for his second round matches. Drawing fellow Brits, Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis, it was always going to be a tough ask, and after a valiant battle, it was the more experienced English pair who proved victorious. It was also the end of the road in the Mixed Doubles for Steven and Annie, losing to a very strong Malaysian pair, Tan Klan Meng, and Lai Pai Jing.

All in all, some great performances from our Ashaway team, we are very proud!