Making final is a Silver lining for young Phil
THE annual Northumberland Senior Silver Tournament at the Tyneside Badminton Centre attracted the usual quality field.
It was led by Josh Young from Teesside who was top seed in both singles and doubles, with partner Martin Drabble, defending both his titles from last year.
Northumberland’s young guns featured strongly with five semifinal appearances and one final.
Second seed Philip Pahatouridis made the men’s singles final with a minimum of fuss, as did Young, who defeated Garrylee McMullen in his semi-final.
In a repeat of last year’s decider, McMullen fared better but in the end lost out to Young’s consistently accurate, high-tempo game 21-15, 21-18.
The final followed a similar pattern with Pahatouridis, while competitive, unable to get ahead and he too lost in straight games.
Seventeen players contested the ladies’ singles with Newcastle University student CiCi Lu top seed.
She duly made the final without the loss of a set and came up against Scottish junior international Basia Grodynska from Lothian, who had made the final unseeded having beaten Becky Boyle in her opening game and Northumbrian ex-pat Vicky Brewis in the semi in three sets.
Lu started the better and took the opening set before Grodynska gradually worked her way into the match, levelling at one set all before establishing, and keeping, a lead to take the decider 21-15.
The men’s doubles saw McMullen partner Ryan Quek from Worcestershire and they made the semis before losing in three sets.
However, the shock result was in the other half of the draw, Young and Drabble going down in three sets in their opening match to James Lauder and Jack Smith from Oxfordshire.
They went on to defeat Robert Cooper of Staffs and Alex Hutchings of Jersey 21-18, 15-21, 23-21.
Emily Harrison, another product of Northumberland and a ‘Gold’ junior player, was the next to make a semi - partnering Lu from Yorkshire.
They were defeated by Brewis and Elena Johnson of Guernsey, the top seeds, 11-21, 21-19, 21-19.
The latter had three more close sets in the final but lost to second seeds Sophie Brealey of Derbyshire and Rachel Vickers of Cheshire.
In the mixed doubles, Pahatouridis and Lu beat the top seeds Drabble and Vickers in the quarter-final 21-14, 23-21.
In the last four they faced Johnson and Jordan Trebert of Guernsey, taking the first set 21-17 before losing the second to 18.
The North duo led the decider 15-9 and 17-12 but eventually went down 25-23 after having a match point and also saving two!