The 2009-2010 Suffolk Centre Parcs Badminton Championships finished this year on a high with the county finals for the under-14 boys and girls and under-16 boys and girls.

The 2009-2010 Suffolk Centre Parcs Badminton Championships finished this year on a high with the county finals for the under-14 boys and girls and under-16 boys and girls.

The competition, which is the biggest schools' badminton competition in England, started in November when each of the eight School Sports Partnerships in Suffolk ran a competition at each age group for both boys and girls.

In excess of 350 young people took part in these partnership rounds.

The competition has grown dramatically from 2008-2009 with the introduction of the U16 competition for boys and girls.

The winner of each SSP round went forward to the Suffolk County final which was over four days at Holywells High School.

On day one, the under-14 boys took centre stage with eight schools from around the county competing for a place in the regional final.

It was a very exciting tournament and went down to the wire with Copleston High School and Bungay High School battling it out in the final.

Eventually Copleston pulled through to win the match three games to two.

The under-14 girls were up next on day two and once again it was a tight affair.

Copleston High School found themselves in another final, this time against Benjamin Britten High School.

Unfortunately for Copleston it wasn't to be, with Benjamin Britten taking the crown.

Day three saw the inaugural under-16 Boys competition and it turned out to be a tense affair with two particularly strong schools winning their groups.

Stowmarket High School and Kirkley High School then came face-to-face in the final and it turned out to be a very tight affair with Stowmarket just pipping Kirkley 3-2.

The final day saw the inaugural under-16 girls' competition and once again saw Copleston High School in the final and they took on Thurston Community College.

Thurston demonstrated their strength in depth to win the match 4-1 and take the title and the place in the regional finals.

Andrew Wilesmith, competition manager, said: “It has been a very enjoyable tournament throughout the past few months. It's great to see other sports get centre stage and it allows us to continually raise the profile of school sport and the excellent achievements made by these young people.”

The Regional Finals will be held at Cambridge Regional College on Friday, March 5 and will start at 10am and finish at 3pm. For more information please contact Andrew Wilesmith on 07850 908630 or email him on andrew.wilesmith@yahoo.co.uk