For the fourth consecutive season the club won its way through to compete in the Badminton England Cup Finals in Milton Keynes; the blue ribbon club competition nationally.
 
The Finals consisted of two groups of four teams who played each other in a round robin sequence; this year we were drawn with Wimbledon (Surrey), Barnt Green (Worcestershire) and Loughborough Students (Leicestershire).
 
We played Barnt Green on Saturday morning making an impressive 9-0 winning start; however the afternoon proved to be much more difficult eventually losing to Wimbledon 7-2.  We had 3 narrow loses in this match with Alex Marritt in his singles going down 22-20 in the third end; Glenn Coburn and Alex losing to 18 in third and Nicola Smith and Glenn losing to 18 in the third. (Wimbledon went on to contest the final eventually losing to Eltham Green from Kent).
 
Sunday morning saw us play Loughborough Students; from a 3-0 leading start we ended up losing the match 5-4 and therefore in to the play-off for 5th and 6th against Solihull & Shirley (Warwickshire).
 
A 2-0 lead after the singles became 2-1 with an ankle injury to Steve Parry playing with Robert Oadley in the top doubles which saw Steve take no further part in the match. Steve had been the 100% man showing fine form for an almost quinquagenerian up to that point winning his previous 6 rubbers. The ladies doubles were split; match score 3-2. Mark Needham having made the 4,000 mile journey across the Atlantic a day late and over coming jet lag and no sleep teamed up with Glenn to take the 2nd men’s doubles; 4-2. We won 2 of the 3 mixed and therefore 5th place was secured with a 6-3 win and a £300 cheque for the club.
 
Overall the standard of competition is clearly getting harder and most certainly the quality and intensity in individual games is as high as ever; the average age of the Brunswick team was 36. It was a solid and determined performance from all team members and I would like to thank each of them for their endeavour, enthusiasm and commitment over the weekend.
 
Team:
 
Ladies: Lisa Chapman, Nicola Smith, Tracy Parker, Nicki Chan-Lam, Cristen Callow
 
Men: Steve Parry, Glenn Coburn, Mark Needham, Robert Oadley, Alex Marritt