Jenny Wallwork might have slipped to defeat in Loughborough Sport’s opening game this season but the Bolton badminton star is convinced her new partnership with Andrew Smith will soon lead to success.
The second season of the National Badminton League (NBL) got underway on Monday night with two fixtures taking place in Loughborough and Surrey.
Wallwork was in action at the former, as her Loughborough Sport side hosted University of Nottingham Badminton at Loughborough University.
She took to the court alongside Smith for the mixed doubles in the fifth of five events to face world No.6 Chris Adcock and NBL debutant Cheryl Seinen.
Wallwork and Smith, who had only hit together for the first time the previous day, ultimately lost 9-8, 9-6, 9-6 although Loughborough Sport did walk away 3-2 winners on the night.
And despite the defeat, Wallwork is adamant there is plenty more to come from the new pairing over the coming weeks.
“We didn’t really play the way we wanted to out there but we only came together as a pair one day before the match, so we knew it was going to be a tough ask,” said the 27-year-old.
“Hopefully we’ll improve throughout the season but it was nice to get out first match done even if it wasn’t the result we wanted.
“There are definitely positives to build on as a pair – we produced some good stuff and we know we’ve got the ability to play at a high level together.
“We’ve not played as a pair but we’ve got that experience at the highest level, so we’ll keep pushing and have more training together from now on, so we’re confident we can do some damage. Once we’ve trained together more, we’ll be alright.”
Wallwork – who once reached world No.5 playing alongside Nathan Robertson – won five of her seven events in inaugural NBL season last term as Loughborough Sport were eventual runners-up.
They started that season slowly before recovering well, although Team Derby, University of Derby’s NBL franchise, pipped them in the final.
They face a rematch with Team Derby in their next fixture on December 7 and Wallwork claims the team are desperate to end this season as champions.
“We really want to go one better than last year – we’ve got to,” she added.
“We had a great time last year and played together well as a team but we just missed out. We were devastated, so we won’t let that happen again.”
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Image courtesy of Badminton England via Youtube, with thanks.
