The Isle of Man Badminton Primary (Under 11s) Championships took place on Saturday 16th of March at the Roundhouse in Braddan, attracting a mix of some of the Island’s promising young squad players, as well as some entering their first ever badminton tournament.

Play started with the singles events for boys and girls with each consisting of a group stage of 3 or 4 players.

In the girls singles, the winner of group A was Abigail Kwan, group B was won by Lara Stewart, while group C was extremely closely contested with Erin Corlett just beating Connie Creer 21-20 in a fantastic game which was point for point all the way to the bitter end.

This then set up the semi finals. With only 3 groups, Abigail was given a bye so progressed straight though, while Erin and Lara played off for a place in the final. The result went the way of an on-form Erin who won the game comfortably at 21-4, to now face Abigail in the final. Erin took a good lead at the start and managed to maintain it right until the end, winning the game 21-11 to take the U11 girls singles title.

Over in the boys singles, a similar 3 group set up saw Jasper Corlett winning group A, Group B was won by Wai Cheung and again, Group C produced another thriller of a deciding game that saw a great fight back from Zane Quinn to take the win 21-20 over Aditya Varshney after coming back from an 8 point deficit!

In the semi finals, Jasper was given a bye through to the final, leaving Wai and Zane to battle it out to join him. There was super play from both boys, but it was Wai who was the victor at 21-16 and progressed on meet Jasper in the final. The boys put on an exciting final game with excellent attacking shots and impressive net tumbles from both sides, in the end it was Jasper who came through to win the game 21-7 and (not to be out done by younger sister Erin), took the boys u11s singles title.

Both the girls and boys doubles were played as a round robin format meaning that all pairs played each other, this gave them plenty of games and lots of opportunities to take a win!

The girls doubles saw some new partnerships formed this time with some very close games within the group, as well as lots of good experience with in a competition set up, especially for the players competing for the first time. Third place went to Abigail Kwan and Aamiya Cijesh, which left the last game to play as the head to head between both undefeated pairings of Charlotte Quayle and Connie Creer, who faced Xara Quinn and Erin Corlett. Again, this was a brilliant and exciting game to watch and was practically point for point until the game neared the end when Charlotte and Connie just edged ahead with some great attacking play to get to game point at 20-18. The game was then held on a knife edge, as Xara and Erin crept back a couple of points (thanks to some very steady serving from Xara), to draw the game level at 20-20. The last and deciding point was fast and furious with both pairs of girls playing their hearts out, in the end it was Xara and Erin who made the winning attack to win 21-20 and become the under 11 girls doubles champions.

The boys doubles did also not disappoint and produced some very impressive rallies, some fantastic net shots which shows the talent we have coming through all the juniors as they progress to the next age group next season. We also had a number of boys competing who don’t currently play in the junior squads, but showed some excellent play and sportsmanship and really improved as the day went on. Third place for the boys went to Aditya Varshney and Teddy price, while the last fixture was between the two pairs who were yet to drop a game in the group, Wai Cheung and Evan Cooke against Jasper Corlett and Zane Quinn. Whilst not quite as tight a finish as the girls, the final was not at all one sided and both sides scored some fantastic winners, Wai and Evan certainly made their opponents work hard but it was Jasper and Zane who finished victorious at 21-15 and took the under 11 boys doubles title.

Special thanks to the Roundhouse staff and all our IOMBA tournament officials for their organisation and smooth running of the event. Thanks also go to our older juniors who took time out to help score, organise players and keep parents going with tea and coffee, it was very much appreciated!