London Youth Games: Havering serve up badminton silver

The borough squad were put in the biggest group alongside Haringey, Merton, Lambeth and Enfield, with each match consisting of five rubbers - boys singles, girls singles, boys doubles, girls doubles and mixed doubles.

And Havering made a perfect start with a 5-0 win over Haringey, before a convincing 4-1 victory over Merton and 5-0 success over Lambeth.

That meant the unbeaten Havering and Enfield teams had already qualified before meeting each other, but a win would mean weaker opponents in the quarter-finals.

Havering lost the boys singles, but won the girls, before losing the boys doubles and winning the girls doubles to leave the match all square at 2-2, before their mixed pair stormed to victory to secure top spot in their group.

That set up a clash against local rivals Redbridge in the last eight and Havering won both singles but then lost both doubles, meaning it was back to the mixed doubles pair to clinch victory which they did.

Havering faced a strong Ealing team in the semi-finals and won the boys singles, but lost the girls singles before winning all remaining rubbers for a 4-1 victory.

The final against Hounslow was a really exciting encounter with the boys singles eventually going against Havering after an epic three-setter.

Havering won the girls singles but lost both doubles after very close contests, which meant that despite winning the mixed doubles they could not avoid a 3-2 defeat and had to settle for the runners-up spot as Bromley took bronze.

Havering's team included Ryan Oakes, Alfred Tse, Callum Stone, Ethan Sabado, Michael Carter, Lucy Quinlan, Olivia Mulholland, Abby Tragen, Amber Valentine and Holly Kavanagh.

And team manager Amanda Austin said: "I was very proud of the team, in the way they conducted themselves both on and off the court in sometimes difficult situations.

"Each and everyone of them contributed to matches and they won a very well deserved silver medal. Congratulations to them all."