Chris and Gabby Adcock begin bid for fourth English National Badminton Championships title

The Championships, held from Friday to Sunday, will see all of England’s top stars in attendance at the £10 million University of Derby Sports Centre.

The top-seeded Adcocks will play either Michael Roe and Nicola Gresty, of Cheshire and Gloucestershire respectively, or Hampshire pair Adam Rickenbach and Laura Woodward as county players aim to make their mark on the big stage.

“Everyone’s expecting us to win the nationals, so there will definitely be pressure, but we’re so experienced now if we play well, it’ll be okay,” Gabby said.

“We’re quite chilled about it. It’ll be exciting to play.”

Chris added: “If we just play like we’ve trained everyday then we should be okay. Obviously a strength of ours is to kind of stamp our authority early on, so hopefully we can do that in Derby as well.”

The Adcocks are seeded to meet Matthew Nottingham and Emily Westwood in Sunday’s final.

Tickets are still available to watch the Championships and for more information go to badmintonengland.co.uk/nationals.