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Surrey set early season Premier A badminton pace

14 November 2011

badengland

The Inter County Championships Premier A & B got underway over the weekend as Surrey Sports Park hosted Premier A.

With ambitions to take the Premier A title for the 12th time in 13 years, Yorkshire got off to a flying start, beating Glasgow and North Strathclyde 9-1 and Nottinghamshire 7-3 but the reigning champions won’t have the 2011/12 season all their own way if the early season pace setting is anything to go by.

The white rose county were pushed all the way by recently promoted Avon but eventually emerged victorious by 6-4 in a tight tie that could have gone either way whilst Surrey and Hertfordshire will be keen to keep up the pressure of Yorkshire after unbeaten starts.

Surrrey, last year’s runners up, have opened their ICC campaign with 3 back-to-back victories to lead the table after the first weekend. Bouyed by the likes of Toby Penty, Ben Beckman, Sam Ward, Georgina Bland and Hayley Connor, Surrey opened up with a 7-3 win over Warwickshire and an 8-2 thumping of Middlesex before seeing off Essex 10-0.

Also enjoying an unbeaten opening weekend are Hertfordshire, who secured 3rd place on the provisional table with a 7-3 sunday morning victory over Middlesex. This win was on the back of a tight 6-4 win over Cheshire and defeat of Avon to the same scoreline.

After claiming a respectable 5-5 draw against an experienced Nottinghamshire team, the Avon squad will take positives from their first weekend back in the top level of county badminton after last year’s promotion.

At the other end of the table, Essex, Middlesex and Glasgow & North Strathclyde will have some work to do in the next Premier weekend if they want to give themselves the best chance of remaining in Premier A.

Essex and Middlesex played out a nervy 5-5 draw in their season opener before another draw with Warwickshire whilst Glasgow and North Strathclyde faced a pair of 9-1 losses to Cheshire and Yorkshire and suffered defeat at the hands of Nottinghamshire.

For a full results service, click HERE