NORTHWICH’S Greg Mairs insists he will be a better player for the experience of crashing out of the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham.

Mairs and mixed doubles partner Jenny Moore went down 21-18, 21-18 to Indonesian duo Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari at the Barclaycard Arena last Tuesday.

The Brits matched their more accomplished opponents for large periods of the match in Birmingham but ultimately fell just short of a famous victory.

Despite the defeat, the 20-year-old is confident their display showed plenty of promising signs.

“There are a lot of positives to be taken out of the performance – playing in a big venue like this it can be quite hard to control your shots,” said Mairs.

“And playing against a pair like that, who have so much experience, I guess we’ll have to take this on board and move forward.

“We thought we played quite well but there were a couple of bits at crucial times where we didn’t quite meet our standard.

“It was those things like the drift on certain shots, being composed and taking those crucial points when we can.

“It’s brilliant to play in front of such a big crowd who are so loud and all cheering for you though.”

With a busy calendar of events in the near future, Mairs will have plenty of opportunity to build on the promising foundations he laid at the All Englands.

Despite potentially travelling the world to play tournaments, the Brit may struggle to find a more vocal, partisan crowd than the one at the Barclaycard Arena.

Mairs came into the All Englands in good form having won both the men’s and the mixed doubles titles at the BUCS Nationals in Sheffield less than a fortnight ago.

He is keen to build on that form, while keeping his partnership with Moore on an upward trajectory over the next few weeks.

“We’ve got a few international tournaments as well as some events on the European circuit coming up now, so we’ll just try and do well in those,” added Mairs.

“We’ll compete, have a good summer’s training at Loughborough so we can compete next year and do even better.”

Tickets for future badminton events can be found at allenglandbadminton.com