Tadworth’s Ben Beckman will be looking to follow in his mother’s footsteps at the Thomas Cup European qualifiers in Amsterdam this week.

The 24-year-old Badminton star has been selected to play for England at the tournament and will be hoping to repeat the success of his mother Karen, who helped the ladies team win silver in 1984.

Beckman though has a long way to go to match her 83 caps – this will be just his fourth for his country having made his debut in 2008.

The Thomas Cup is Badminton’s equivalent to tennis’ Davis Cup and a prestigious event in the world badminton calender, with the final held in China in May.

Beckman goes into the tournament on the back of a semi final appearance in the English National Championships earlier this month.

Seeded third, he beat Christopher Hotchen 21-8 12-21 21-8 in the first round and disposed of Daniel Groom 21-17 21-17 in the second.

He came back from a game down to beat Rhys Walker 20-22 21-19 21-17 in the quarter finals but met his match against English number one Raj Ouseph in the semis.

Ouseph ran out a 21-18 21-17 winner in a close match and went on to win the championships.

Despite being Britain’s third best badminton male, Beckman will not be going to the Olympics this summer as Britain are guaranteed only one space as they have no players ranked in the world’s top 16.

Ouseph is ranked 24th and likely to take that spot.

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