Josh Green is the new U19 National men’s singles badminton champion but he had to beat his colleague and training partner, Ben Tier, in the national final to lift the trophy in Milton Keynes recently.

Josh is currently studying on a sports apprenticeship course at Wiltshire College and trains as part of coach Pete Bush’s squad at the University of Bath alongside his opponent Tier who is studying for a foundation degree.

Chris Coles, also part of Bush’s squad, won the men’s doubles at the event with Matt Nottingham from Manchester.

“We seem to be creating a continuing trend of doing well at U19 level”, said Bush.  “Our programme here has a reputation for providing excellent foundations from which young players go on to greater things”.

Five of the England senior squad who competed in the recent Thomas and Uber Cups (the equivalent of a world championships-level team event) in Poland last month, for instance, were Bath “badminton graduates”. They included Harry Wright, Rachel Howard, Heather Olver, Mariana Agathangelou and Carl Baxter.

Badminton has also been a significant part of the sporting life of the newly-appointed Director of Sport at Team Bath who came to the University from top executive posts within Sport England and then the Health Service.  Stephen Baddeley was a world-ranked badminton player who remains the only Englishman ever to have won a Commonwealth Games men’s singles gold.