Four players from the Sidmouth Badminton Club represented Devon in the Inter County Badminton over-40s league, playing against, and on, the Isle of Wight. Simon Heuson, Chris Bird, Paul Carter and John Carter were chosen from the available squad of player

Four players from the Sidmouth Badminton Club represented Devon in the Inter County Badminton over-40s league, playing against, and on, the Isle of Wight.

Simon Heuson, Chris Bird, Paul Carter and John Carter were chosen from the available squad of players as the four men to represent the county, all of whom are members and play at the Sidmouth Badminton Club.

Simon Heuson partnered Chris Bird in the first men's doubles, losing in the third end in a closely-fought match.

In the second of the men's doubles, Paul Carter and John Carter (not related) won in a relatively easy victory over the Isle of Wight pairing in two ends.

In the second of the men's doubles, Simon and Chris, powered their way through to victory in two games and then Paul and John's second match was a closer affair, but a hard fought win.

The four ladies in the team, represented by players throughout Devon, fought hard in their doubles, winning 2 and losing 2, leaving the overall score going into the mixed at 5-3 in favour of Devon.

In the mixed, John Carter and his partner had a tough three setter, but came through victorious.

Chris Bird and his partner, and Paul Carter and his partner powered their way to wins.

The final mixed involving Simon was a bit of a gladiatorial battle.

The first two ends were very close, and were split, and it came down to the deciding game.

At this time, due to the match overrunning half an hour, a basketball team were getting anxious to enter the hall to play. As a compromise it was agreed that they could use half of the hall, whilst the final match for Simon could be finished. This was far from ideal as the basketballs were being thrown all over the place and the badminton players' concentration was tested to the full. The score of the final game ended at 25-23 against Simon. However, overall the match score was a win for Devon 8-4.

Four players from Sidmouth in the Devon Over-40s team goes to show that Sidmouth Badminton Club continues to go from strength to strength, and this is complemented by the excellent juniors that are coming through to play in club.