The Under-19 Badminton Championships, sponsored by Hemensley Pharmacy, were held at the second time of asking in the NSC recently.
The boys’ singles event was played in two pools. Semi-finalists were Juan Domingo, who beat Charlie Albiston 21/14 21/9, and Martin Cheung defeated Tommy Cheng 21/10 21/10.
The final between Domingo and Cheung was a repeat of last year’s and was excellent to watch, showing both boys’ improvement with playing with the senior squad. Cheung ran out winner 21/13 21/9.
Girls singles was played in one pool with lots of exciting games to watch.
Winner was Annelise Mellor with 210 points, runner-up Jessica Thornton on 186. It was unfortunate that Kelly Domingo went over on her ankle at the start of the singles and was unable to further participate in the event.
The boys doubles was also played in one pool. Once again the champions were Cheung/Domingo with 210 points, runners-up were Cheng/Lucas Collier on 196.
Girls doubles was played as a round-robin and the winners were Sofie and Jessica Thornton with 126 points. Runners-up were Mellor/Kelly Cheung on 122. The latter had stepped in to play with Annelise following the injury to Kelly Domingo.
Mixed doubles had to be held over because the competition was already running out of time before the mixed could be started. This was played the following Wednesday evening at junior squad.
The first semi-final saw Martin Cheung/Mellor defeat Edward Cheung/Laura Garrity 21/12 21/10, while the other pitched Cheng/Sofie Thornton against the brother and sister pairing of Juan and Kelly Domingo, who had recovered from her injury.
The Domingos won 21/20 21/17.
In a repeat of last year’s final Cheung/Mellor beat Domingo/Domingo 21/11 21/11 to give Martin Cheung his triple title of the day, a repeat of last year.
Prizes were presented by Roberta Cannell on behalf of Hemensley Pharmacy in memory of John Hemensley.
A Manx representative team is heading to the Under-18 Inter County Team Tournament next week (Sunday to Thursday). It is the first time since pre-Covid that the island has contested the event.
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