Telford's Jess Pugh taking on the best

Pugh and Ben Lane will compete in the mixed doubles as the great and good of world badminton descend on Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena from March 8-13.

For talented teenager Pug,h she will be realising a dream when she steps out on court as she competes in the competition for the very first time.

But with that comes the danger that Pugh will let her emotions get the better of her.

However, the 19-year-old is determined not to let that happen as she aims to continue developing her burgeoning partnership with Lane.

She said: "I'm excited for the YONEX All England championships.

"Me and Ben have grown up going to watch the All England almost every year, watching people like Nathan (Robertson) and Gail (Emms) from when we were kids.

"I was about eight years old when we first went, so to be finally be able to play it for the first time, the experience is going to be amazing.

"It was on our tournament calendar, but it was 50-50 as to whether we were going to play it or not.

"We really pushed for it and wanted to play so we're happy we've got the chance to show what we can do at that level.

"We haven't played in many senior tournaments together. We started early and played a couple of years and built up to now.

"We are training full-time now and back then we didn't so we're seeing developments in our game.

"We're still changing our style because it's a completely different game at senior level. We've had a lot to change and we're starting to see the benefits.

"We've always been surrounded by people who are more experienced than us so for us every single day is a challenge. We're improving at a good rate together as a pair."

n Watch the world's best players at the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships at Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena from 8-13 March. Visit allenglandbadminton.com for tickets.