On 24^th February, our KS3 badminton team played in the Level 3 county tournament at Leisure@Cheltenham. Joel Downward, Raiph Ackroyd, Taras Wolczuk, Husayn Ginwalla and Alan Paulson, after having won the Level 2 Gloucester qualification at the end of 2015, were confident they could become the first STRS badminton team to become county champions.

The first match was against our expected closest rivals in Balcarras, and after a close fought 3-2 win with some great play by Joel Downward and Raiph Ackroyd the team went on to easily beat KLB, Forest High and Kingshill schools.

A great team performance from everyone and we also got awards for Teamwork and Passion shown during the tournament.

As County Champions the team are now through to the Level 4 Southwest regional finals where we will be playing the best schools from Devon, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Avon and Somerset who all traditionally have strong county badminton squads. This takes place in Plymouth on Thursday 10^th March.