Four Upton-by-Chester High School pupils have again been crowned national champions.
Bethany Newis, Alex Goodwin, Laura Williams and Rachel Barrett beat competition from schools across the country to seal the Year’s 10 and 11 girls category title at the Center Parcs National Schools Badminton Championships – their second title in two years.
The finals, which took place at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, saw the girls beat Wallington High School for Girls, Surrey, and Hampshire’s Bournemouth Collegiate to win the Championships.
The trophy was awarded by Commonwealth badminton silver medallist Anthony Clark, reigning English national champion Sarah Walker and 2013 European Championships bronze medallist Andy Ellis, who had been at Center Parcs to watch the action.
Bethany said: “We are speechless. It was really tough in the earlier rounds but we are a strong team who work well together and we are so proud to have won.”
The event is one of the largest school badminton tournaments in Europe, with 2014 seeing record-breaking entries of 6,140 school badminton teams from more than 1,600 secondary schools taking to the court in four rounds of action.
Nicola Collinson, team manager for the squad at Upton-by- Chester High School, said: “It’s an unbelievable result for the girls. We won this competition last year in the years seven, eight and nine age category so for them to step up and compete in the next age group is absolutely fantastic.
“It’s a credit to the girls and the support from their parents.”
