Cornwall's top badminton team's challenge

The best players in Cornwall made their way to Bristol recently to start the new season of inter-county matches, in Badminton England's Senior County Championships. The team were anticipating a challenging day as this was the first set of games since their promotion last year, and so it proved.

Brian flies the flag

Tom’s team talk

First up were the talented Wiltshire team, and Cornwall's singles players struggled to gain a hold, despite a battling three ends from Liam Sillifant, and Kellen Moore's close contest in the women's singles. In the top singles, Tyler Sillifant and Cara Collins were up against two strong opponents playing consistent, skilful badminton who took both their games in two ends.

Tyler in action

Being 5-0 down, it was always going to be a struggle in the doubles, although James Whetter, and Sean Havis making his very creditable debut, pushed the Wilts pair very hard and were unlucky to just lose in the third end.

Cara Collins and Amy Cox also went close in the women's, in a match that could easily have gone either way, followed by a tight game involving new pairing Bronwen Wotton and Amy Polglase, who were unlucky not to take the second end in an exciting battle.

Despite being well down, the Cornish team showed great fighting spirit in the mixed, although Tom Lyle and Bronwen couldn't match the power and guile of their opponents, in the last game Sean and Amy Cox did everything they could to just win the first end, be extremely unlucky to narrowly lose the second, then go down with heads held high in the last.

Sean and Amy battling hard

A heavy defeat to start the day, with another tough match versus Gloucestershire to follow.

In the singles, again Tyler and James lost out to strong players, but Liam had an excellent win in the number two slot, to finally get a Cornish score on the board. Kellen followed suit and also won her singles comfortably, but Cara was playing a very experienced ex England player, and despite winning the first end, was unlucky to lose in three.

The men's doubles both went Glocs' way despite both going to three ends and again James and Sean went close. Cara and Amy Cox had a thrilling battle in two nerve biting ends but just lost out, although Bronwen and Amy Polglase restored Cornish honour with a great victory in yet another tight game that went the distance.

In the mixed doubles, Tom and Bronwen lost out to a powerful pair, and in the last match of the day Sean and Amy Cox looked good in taking the second mixed in two exciting ends to give the overall score 7-4 to Gloucestershire.

A long, gruelling day's badminton, but the team played everything in great spirit and the number of close games means that they can look forward to the next matches optimistically.



1st team - Tyler Sillifant, Liam Sillifant, Tom Lyle (all Launceston), James Whetter (St Austell), Sean Havis (Surrey), Cara Collins (Liskeard), Kellen Moore (Camborne), Amy Cox (Surrey), Bronwen Wotton (Bristol), Amy Polglase (Camborne)