On Sunday 4th November Oxfordshire's U12 team travelled to the home of badminton - the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes - for Oxfordshire's inaugural U12 Shire's League match against Buckinghamshire.

Our team had a mixture of experience with some who had played tournaments in other counties, but with more who had not competed in competitions outside Oxfordshire at all. The girls were Phoebe Wing, Maya Cawte, Jess Hall and Megan Tristram while the boys were Ryan Tao, Ethan Soanes, Jamie Wakefield and Siwan (Yang Yang) Fang. The team arrived early to warm up, get themselves fully prepared and acclimatise to the purpose built setting.

After a quick team talk we were off - the first round was four mixed doubles matches. With only one pair (Ethan and Phoebe playing first mixed) having partnered each other before, there were three new partnerships that would need to bed in. However Oxfordshire achieved a clean sweep winning all four matches in two ends setting the tie up nicely going into the singles. Boys singles was first and it was quickly apparent that the Oxfordshire boys were stronger across the board. Ryan and Jamie playing at first and third singles respectively had competitive matches but overcame their opposition in two ends. Meanwhile Ethan and Yang Yang playing at second and fourth singles respectively allowing their opposite numbers only single figure scores in all games, Yang Yang winning one of his games 15-1! The score was now 8-0 in the tie.

Girls singles followed and this was a lot more competitive than the boys singles. Phoebe had a very tough match playing a strong and tall opposite number at first singles and lost after putting up a good battle. Jess playing at third singles recorded an excellent two end victory over her opposite number. However arguably the matches of the day were Maya and Megan's matches - playing at second and fourth singles respectively. Both had lengthy and tense three end battles which were great to watch. Both lost very narrowly 15-13 in the third end, but a fantastic experience for the players. The overall match score was now 9-3

Level doubles rounded off the tie. Again Oxfordshire's boys proved too strong for Bucks and Ethan and Ryan as well as Jamie and Yang Yang recorded two wins each. The girls doubles was competitive with both Phoebe and Maya as well as Jess and Megan recording victory over the Bucks second pair. However the Bucks first pair were a strong partnership and managed to beat both Oxfordshire pairs.

The match was played in a friendly yet competitive manner and finished with both teams sharing a well deserved selection of sweets.

The final match score was 15-5 to Oxfordshire - an enjoyable first victory for the newly formed team!