THE Leinster badminton team will hope to secure promotion to the premier division of the English Inter County Championships in Manchester this weekend.

After their first six matches, played earlier in the season, Leinster lead the second division by four points and despite being without Sonya McGinn (injured) and Jim Colfor (work commitments) should take enough points from their matches against Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex to win one of the two available promotion spots.

Meanwhile the Irish team that will compete in a triangular tournament in Scotland next month has been named. Keelin Fox, who recently won her first national singles' title, will win her first cap in the internationals against Scotland and Wales but Caroline O'Sullivan, who won the doubles' title with Elaine Kiely, has been surprisingly excluded.

Team: K Fox, E Kiely, J Plunkett, D O'Halloran, M Peard, M Watt, B Topping.