Badminton

Carrier beats Cox in a singles final to remember

Louise Thacker won two titles at the Norfolk Under-17s Restricted Championships at Sewell Park Sports Centre, with the remainder being well spread among the 22 entrants.

The girls singles was played in three groups, with number two and three seeds, Sophie Piper and Holly Bowen, each comfortably winning their respective groups to set up a very close and hard fought semi-final, which Piper won 16-21, 21-18, 21-19.

In the third group, the number one seed and last year's winner, Serena Verney, lost out to Thacker who then managed to keep one step ahead of Piper in the final to take her first title 22-20, 21-18.

In the girls doubles the deciding match was between Verney and Thacker and Piper and Bowen which led to the second title for Thacker when she and Verney emerged victorious in the third set, winning 15-13,13-15,15-12.

The boys singles was played in three groups, with the event going with seeding and Mark Robinson and Luke Cox emerging clear winners from their groups to play a semi-final, which was won by Cox 21-17,21-7.

This gave rise to probably the best final that these championships has seen for many years between Cox and number one seed Andrew Carrier, which was eventually won by Carrier 21-18, 16-21, 24-22, giving him the title for the second successive year.

In the boys doubles the deciding match was won by Robinson and Cox who beat Carrier and Ashley Robb 15-8, 9-15, 15-13 to take the title.

The final event was the mixed doubles, which was played in two groups, the first won comfortably by Piper and Carrier, while the second was won, also comfortably, by Verney and Cox. The final was won by the pair with the greatest reseves of energy, Verney and Cox 15-6,16-14.