Sunday 15th Jan saw more of the Christmas cobwebs being brushed off with the 3rd in the Graded Series of events. Following events in Deeside and Ebbw Vale, SWNC hosted 80 players across the five events, and what a day of play was had. Huw John and Chris Rees kept the courts moving and Court Officials Simon Ewins, Chris Taylor and Charles Dalton ensured all matches were played to the highest of standards. A huge thank you from Badminton Wales to the Court Officials!
It was the players who produced some stunning matches, and while the Victors gets the overall credit, it was each and every player, performing to their best efforts, who made the tournament what it was.
Young and not-so-young, possible future Paralympians and junior internationals all competed for 12 hours to provide an exciting day of play.
The finals showed such the high standard of play.
Terrie Dalton was playing her first tournament back after the birth of her baby (congrats to Terrie and Alex) and played like she had never stopped. She and Swang Nguyen fought through match after match before becoming undone in a high quality final to Archie Bult and Tessa Franks. The score read 18-21 21-16 21-18.
The WD provided another nerve tingling final where Nerissa Liu and Emily Hung won a tight match against Meg Pritchard and Chloe Yong 21-15 22-20. This was Emily and Nerissa’s second graded win on the trot.
The MD saw 17 pairs battle it out. Jeremy Chua and Robinson Loh came through, tough match after tough match but fell just short against an in-form Luke Bailey and Andrew Salvador with a score of 13-21 22-20 21-8.
The WS saw young Isha Mekala dominate the event with some very strong performances. In the final she played Emily Hung and while Emily played a great match she could not stop the young Welsh player from taking the title 21-10 21-9.
The MS saw a big event with 35 entrants from all over Wales. Previous winners of the Graded events Jamie Noble and Dan Kite were again fighting hard and close match after close match were readily seen. However the final was again a young player affair with Mebel Mano Kurian winning a fabulous match against Ebbw Vale’s Llwyd Crump 21-14 21-19.
A huge thank you again to all the players who made this such a great event with some very tired bodies to be seen at the end of the day. The next Graded event will be scheduled for Swansea with details being posted on the website once confirmed.
Looking forward to seeing you all there.