National Badminton League captain Harley Towler

Loughborough graduate Harley Towler captained the university’s side in their first ever National Badminton League game last night against Derby.

The former Sport and Exercise Science student is now training full time at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. During his time at Loughborough he picked up the prestigious sportsman of the year award at the AU Ball.

Earlier last week The Epinal caught up with Harley to find out about his time at Loughborough and his thoughts on the new tournament.

“My best achievement in my time at Loughborough was when I reached No.53 in the world rankings in Men’s Doubles with Peter Briggs and reached three European Circuit finals in Czech Republic, Wales and Portugal. We also won the Men’s and Mixed doubles two consecutive years with Peter Briggs and Ng Hui Lin.”

“Loughborough provided an ideal pathway into full-time training, at Loughborough I was able to train almost like a full-time athlete, just not quite as many hours per week.”

Harley competed in the World University games for team GB in Kazan, Russia last year.

Harley has grand plans for his future professional career.

“I am a member of the GB Programme at the National Badminton Center and will be competing in tournaments in Europe in the near future and hope to be playing in tournaments in Asia within 18 months and challenging for selection into major events.”

Setup is complete in David Wallace Sports Hall ready for the @NBL_official match v @TeamDerby! #WhereHistoryBegins pic.twitter.com/s9m68GyJft

— Loughborough Sport (@LboroSport) November 3, 2014

Harley was withdrawn from the “player auction” as a home-grown player for Loughborough and to add to that honour was selected to captain the team in the opening fixture. He has high hopes for his side in the tournament too.

“I genuinely believe we have a great all-round team, with excellent strength in all five disciplines.”

“When another team looks at our line-up I don’t believe they can say there is one event where we are weak. With this in mind I believe we have a great chance of winning the first National Badminton League.

When asked whether the NBL will revolutionise badminton, Harley said,

“We have trialled the NBL format at Milton Keynes and I attended the first match between MK Badminton and Surrey Smashers.”

“I thought the format worked really well, and the intensity was high throughout the match and the crowd were very supportive of the players and the event itself.”

“I think the Loughborough fans will enjoy the intense nature of the new scoring system and rules and it will provide a great spectacle for both regular and new viewers of badminton.”

Harley’s talent was spotted from a very young age.

Of course we can’t all be students forever and Harley does miss being a student at Loughborough.

“I do miss the great group of players I trained with over the three years I was here, the unique training environment and the inspiring atmosphere on campus. Loughborough was a huge part of my development, and I will always miss it.

“I love having the opportunity to play my sport around the world and it is a privilege to do what you love day in day out, even though the day-to-day activity can be fatiguing, stressful and tiring it’s a worthwhile sacrifice to try and be successful.”