The Under 15 Isle of Man Badminton Championships were held on Saturday 3rd February and took the honor of being the first ever tournament to be held in the brand new Roundhouse in Braddan. We had another great entry of players with well over 100 games played during the afternoon.
Play started with the boys singles and consisted of 4 groups of either 4 or 5 players. The winner of group A was Lok Cheung who cruised through his games with relative ease. Group B was a very close affair with Olly Cassidy, Jasper Corlett and Charlie Kneale all tied on 3 wins, this then came down to points whereby Jasper was determined the winner by a margin of just 2! Group C and D were won fairly comfortably by Jet Woon and Adi Malikireddy, this set up the semi finals of Lok versus Jet and Adi versus Jasper. Both younger players put up a great fight against their more experienced older counterparts, but could not match the strength of Lok and Adi who progressed through to meet each other in the final. This was a fantastic game to watch with some excellent play from both sides, in the end it was Lok who was victorious taking the win in a close game finishing 21-16 and his first singles title!
The girls singles were split into 2 groups of 5 with some terrific battles between the younger girls. Fatima Syed was the comfortable winner of Group A but showed great sportsmanship encouraging the newer and younger players. Group B was won by U13 Champion Kelly Cheung with Sophie Clague hot on her heels at just 6 points behind in 2nd place. Fatima went on to show her dominance in the final, taking the win and the title 21-14 despite a great effort from Kelly.
On to the boys doubles which was split into 2 groups of 4 with the top 2 pairs to go through to the semi finals. Topping group A was Lok Cheung and Adi Malikireddy with 3 wins, closely followed by Harry Quayle and Zane Quinn with 2 wins. Over in Group B, Olly Cassidy and Charlie Kneale clocked up 3 wins to top the group, with Jasper Corlett and Jet Woon just behind with their 2 wins. This meant a first semi final of Lok/Adi against Jasper/Jet with the former pair taking the win 21-14. In the other semi, Olly/Charlie beat Harry/Zane 21-9 to progress to the final which produced some fabulous rallies and an impressive performance from Lok/Adi who took the game 21-13 and a second title for Lok.
The girls doubles had an entry of 6 pairs and so was played in one big group giving each pair plenty of games! This was very valuable experience for some of the younger players getting the chance to play pairs in an older age group as well as having their own close games against similar aged players. Topping the group of girls and taking the overall win, were Fatima Syed and Kelly Cheung who didn’t drop a game, this also gave Fatima her second title of the day. Runners up were Sophie Clague and Lara Stewart.
The last event to be played was the mixed doubles which was again split into 2 groups. Group A was won by newly crowned singles champions Lok and Fatima who paired up together recording 3 straight wins. Lok’s younger brother Wai Cheung and his partner Kelly were close behind with 2 wins. In Group B, Adi Malikireddy and Molly Bell topped the group winning all their games. Just behind and only dropping one game were Sophie Clague and Elias Parry who took the last semi final spot. The first semi was won by Lok/Fatima 21-11 over Sophie/Elias, with the other semi final resulting in a win for Adi/Molly 21-11 over Wai/Kelly. The final was a real nailbiter with Molly and Adi leading for much of the game before Lok and Fatima found their rhythm and just edged the victory 21-18. This meant triple titles for both Fatima and Lok.
We would like to express our thanks to the fabulous Roundhouse staff for their help with everything on the day and also in preparation for the tournament. Also thanks go to our tournament officials, helpers and parents who helped the day run smooth and to time.
The next tournament in the calendar will be the Under 19s on the 2nd March.
