Dame Alice Owens year 8 twin sisters Aditi & Aayushi – U15/U13 Hertfordshire badminton stars
Aditi & Aayushi Dhelaria along with their team of total 5 girls and 5 boys are crowned as the U15 National county champion 2022 at the impressive Derby arena, Pride Park. A special thanks to the coaches for their support throughout the season.
The event see’s counties across England compete in regional groups during the season. Each match is the best of 20 games. The top 8 performing counties from the group stages then meet in the knockout finals. Herts had finished qualifying as number two seeds behind Berkshire both teams having won all 6 of their regional qualifying matches, Berkshire having slightly better games difference.
The finals took place on Saturday 17th April. Herts drew Nottinghamshire in the first round of eight. The Herts team were focused and able to find a high playing level early, rolling out comfortable 18-2 winners. In the semi-finals Herts played Surrey who had finished 5th in the group stages and again Herts produced a first-class performance for a straightforward 18-2 win.
Berkshire had a very close semi-final victory over Yorkshire, the score was 10-10, the decision went to points difference, Berkshire scrapping through by 4 points. So, the final was contested by the top two seeds. Herts had been magnificent all day and kept up their performance levels. After the boy’s and girl’s singles and mixed doubles games Herts had already secured the win by beating Berkshire in all to lead 12-0. The boy’s and girl’s doubles, although immaterial, were played in good spirit with Herts eventually taking the trophy with an extremely convincing 17-3 victory.
The following weekend, they steered their way to accomplish a full house in the U13 Hertfordshire restricted tournament held in Stevenage . Aditi won 3 golds in all categories- singles, mixed doubles, women’s doubles. Pairing up in the doubles category the twin sisters had a comfortable 21-0 win. Aayushi bagged the silver medals in the singles and mixed double categories.
Both Aditi & Aayushi are continuing to play tournaments most weekends organised by the Badminton England teams.