The 2015 edition of the European Club Championships got underway in Tours, France today with all but one of the 14 teams tasting opening day action. Both French clubs, Chambly and AIX (pictured), got off to an ideal start winning both their opening group matches as they look to pressurise top seeds and favourites Primorye Vladivostok who are looking to win their fourth European club gold medal in a row.

AIX, the French league runners up, were first on court in the Afternoon session on day 1 and were pushed harder than the 4-1 winning margin suggested against Icelandic outfit TBR. The mixed doubles pairing of Ronan Labar and Laurie Benredjem lost the opening set against Thomsen & Johannesdottir before coming back to win in three games.

“We were a bit asleep in the opening set and we took some time to get used to the hall and conditions” said Ronan Labar “Once we got the second game out of the way we controlled the final set to win comfortably in the end.”

AIX dominated the singles matches with Petya Nedelcheva looking in good form for the French but TBR salvaged some pride from the tie taking the final women’s doubles thanks to Margaret & Rakel Johannesdottir.

BC Chambly Oise made their entrance to the competition in the evening session of day 1 and made no mistake in front of the Badminton Europe TV cameras as the brushed aside the challenge of Spanish champions CB Oviedo.

Chambly, with an experienced line up that included Robert Mateusiak, Thomas Rouxel, Lorraine & Marin Baumann, got used to the arena conditions very quickly and stormed home to a 5-0 opening day win.

The Spanish champions had already beaten Portuguese champions ACD Che Lagoense in the opening session of day one and look in pole position to join the French in the quarter finals with Sara Penalver Pereira looking like a real talent for the future.

“I enjoyed my match but I was very nervous at the start but once I settled into the match I found my game” said the young Spanish player.

The only success for the Portuguese came from their experience singles player Pedro Martins who is one of the elder statesmen in a very young team.

“We are very young team here for these championships and we are really here to give these young players the experience of playing in a European tournament. As for my own match I am happy with the win and I feel good coming back from over a year out of the game as I look to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games next year.”

Primorye show their full hand in opening group match

Top seeds Primorye Vladivostok wasted little time in seeing off the challenge of European minnows Fiederball Scheffleng of Luxemborg in their opening group 1 match. The Russians fielded a very strong team which included European Champion Ivan Sozonov and Olympic bronze medallist Nina Vislova and took just 85 minutes to win all five matches in what was sure to be a match the Scheffleng players will remember for years to come.

Meanwhile Italian champions BC Milano look like the outfit that have enough firepower to trouble the big three as they came through both their day 1 group matches without dropping a game.

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Article by Mark Phelan. Photo by Ben Phelan for Badminton Europe LIVE in Tours.