The island under-15 badminton tournament, sponsored by Kirby Estates, was held over the weekend at the NSC.

Fencibles duo Benjamin Li and Leah Masson were the competition’s stand-out performers claiming three titles each.

Katie Kewley nearly caused the upset of the tournament in the girls’ singles competition by just losing 21/20 to usual playing partner and number one seed Leah Masson.

Leah then had a tough game in the semi-finals against Kitty Thomas, but she again came through 21/17 18/21 21/15. Masson then beat Hollie Robertson 21/13 21/12 in the final. The plate event was won by Amelia Brockbanks.

The four semi-finalists in the boys’ singles were Li, Thomas Halliwell, Charlie Morris and Sam Skelcher-Maxwell. Benji defeated Thomas 21/5 21/7 and Sam overcame Charlie 21/17 21/15.

The first game in the final was taken by Benji 21/9. Sam played some excellent badminton in the second game but lost out 21/15.

The plate event was won by Martin O’Malley.

The final of the girls doubles was an all-Fencibles affair between number one seeds, Leah Masson/Katie Kewley and number two seeds Leah Brennan/Hollie Robertson.

The play was of a high standard which was expected with all four girls playing in senior teams. Leah/Hollie took the first game 21/16, but Leah/Katie fought back to take the other two games 21/15, 21/10.

The plate event was won by Amelia/Sravanthika Sivakumar.

In the boys’ doubles Martin O’Malley/Charlie Morris caused an upset by beating the number two seeds Joe Teare/Sam Skelcher-Maxwell in the semi-final 21/10 12/21 21/19.

The number one seeds then proved too strong for them in the final with Benji Li/Robert Russell 21/11 21/14 securing a good victory. The plate event was won by Daniel Jones/Dylan Rainey.

Another shock looked on the cards in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles when Leah Brennan/Thomas Halliwell beat number two seeds Robert Russell/Kitty Thomas 17/21 21/14 21/18.

In another all-Fencibles final they faced top seeds, Benji Li/Leah Masson whose experience was too much for Leah/Thomas, winning 21/13 21/13.

The plate event was won by Daniel Jones/Katie Kewley.

Thank you to Pat Crease, Jenny Mo, George Li for running the tournament, the sponsor Kirby Estates and county umpire Caroline Whitehead who presented the awards.