The Thorpe St Andrew U14 girls team represented the Eastern Region at the National Schools Badminton finals held at Center Parcs, Nottingham. Over 22,000 competitors had participated in the earlier rounds so it was a superb achievement for the Thorpe girls to get this far.

Their first match in round one was against Higham School (Warwickshire). The team played well but could not match the strength of their opponents, losing 3-2. Their second match was against Bournemouth High School, Dorset.Although they lost 5-0, the score does not reflect how hard fought each game was.

The girls were determined to go out on a high in round two. They beat the Royal Grammar School, Northumberland 4-1 and then had a 3-2 victory over the King Edward VII School, Yorkshire. They were delighted to finish in seventh place out of the nine competing schools in their age group. Playing for the Thorpe team were Kylie Amos, Lauren Mortimer, Kate Sawyer and Beth Underwood and all the girls played well, supporting each other throughout the event.

They enjoyed the experience of meeting and talking to Gail Emms MBE, Olympic silver medallist and 2006 World Champion and Sarah Milne, a member of Team England.

• Norfolk were well represented at the 96th All England Senior Open Championships. Ian Murphy, partnered by Carl Jennings from Leicestershire, won the Over 35 mens doubles. Louise Culyer teamed up with Sang Tu from Essex to win the Over 35s mixed doubles and Eric Plane and Debbie Rigby (Lancashire) were the Over 50s mixed doubles champions.