Roger Baldwin of Monkwick St. Peter and Simon Gilhooly of Stanway were both selected to be part of the England party competing in the veteran's World Championships in Ankara, Turkey from 9th - 14th September 2013. A total of 93 players travelled from England for the events and the final medal table showed 9 Golds, 11 Silver and 15 Bronze to place the England team at the top.
Roger and partner John Whalebone were unlucky to draw the #1 seeds from Thailand in their first match and despite pushing the favourites close in the first set they found conditions more difficult after the change of ends.
Simon had a walkover in the first round of the Over 40 Singles after his opponent from Hungary failed to show up for the match and then went on to beat a Finn in the second round. However the last 16 was the end of road as the eventual winner from Denmark made short work of eliminating Simon 21-6, 21-6. In the doubles Simon paired up with Phil Troke of Kent in the Over 35 section. A first round bye was followed by a straight-forward win over a Russian pair.
The third round match was against Austrian international Juergen Koch and his partner from Indonesia. Simon & Phil came out fighting and were 11-10 down at the interval in the first set but thereafter were chasing the game, eventually losing 21-13, 21-10.
There was some success for Essex players: O40 Women's Doubles Runner Up - Karina Bye, O45 Mixed Doubles Runner Up - Viv Gillard.
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