HUNDREDS of students swung their racquets in a battle to win first place at the Bracknell Forest Primary Schools Festival of Badminton.

On the Tuesday, February 4, Bracknell Leisure Centre was the venue for the the festival, organised as part of Bracknell Forest Council’s Young People in Sport Scheme which has been running since 1993.

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This year, 14 teams from 10 different schools took part, producing some really exciting and close fought matches. In the first part of the competition the aim of the teams was to accumulate as many games and points as they could towards their final total. At the end of the preliminary matches the two teams with the most points played the final, the next two teams the bronze medal match and so on until all teams received a ranking from 1 to 14.

In the closely fought final Ascot Heath and St Joseph’s began with their number 1 seeds both performing to an extremely high standard. The match was particularly close and every rally was tight.

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St Jospeh’s narrowly took the first game, whilst the honours of the next 4 matches were shared between the teams. It went down to the final game, Ascot Heath won to be crowned champions.

At the end of the morning the successful teams were presented with their medals and trophies and College Town Primary were awarded the Fair Play Trophy, voted for by the other teams.

The standard of badminton throughout the festival was first class, particularly as many of the children were playing in a tournament for the first time. The children also played in a terrific spirit and the atmosphere was excellent throughout.