Margaret’s trophy Hall
IT was a memorable night for Victoria Hall’s Margaret Nankabirwa as she collected two titles in the women’s singles and women’s doubles of the Master Lock & Safe Southport and District Badminton League A tournament at Greenbank High School.
The highlight came in the women’s doubles as she and partner Cathy Atfield from West End Park came from a set down to overcome the test of Southport-Churchtown pair Ellie Rees and Katie Dixon-Turner 15-21, 21-15, 21-19.
Nankabirwa’s other win came in the opening contest of the evening.
Her first of two titles was in the ‘A’ women’s singles final against Woodvale’s Millie Hyde 21-15, 21-15.
It has been a highly memorable last couple of years for Hyde, as she managed to capture the women’s singles titles in the A, B and C tournaments.
But despite showing signs of another title victory, Nankabirwa showed real strength and determination to prevent that from happening and secured a well-deserved straight sets win.
It was not just the league’s elite talent on display in the A tournament, there were also players from the lower half of the league involved, as the finals of the C tournament were also taking place.
Unlike the A. the C tournament is a handicapped event featuring players from as high as the fourth division, to the league’s seventh division.
In the C men’s singles final, despite coming through a marathon semifinal, Woodvale’s Felix Watson struggled to match that achievement in a 21-9, 21-17 defeat to Mawdesley’s Ben Mahoney.
With having a handicap advantage at the start of each set, it was a strong and solid performance from the promising junior, who managed to cope well with any threat Watson gave his way.
It was an impressive week all round for Woodvale, as they claimed four titles during the evening, two of which were all-Woodvale affairs.
The first one came in the C women’s singles final between Lucy Breen and Carrie Newnham, younger sister of 2015 champion Rachel.
Sadly for Carrie, she was unable to follow in her sister’s footsteps, as she struggled to cope with the handicap disadvantage at the start of each set.
With Breen beginning each with a +8 advantage to Newnham’s -4, this was capitalised to its fullest, and Breen came through 21-12, 21-11.
That defeat was quickly forgotten as Newnham claimed victory in the second of the all-Woodvale contests, the C women’s doubles final.
Along with her partner Lauren Oates, they battled hard to come out narrow straight set winners over the mother-daughter partnership of Sally and Kathryn Eyes 21-20, 21-20.
Elsewhere in the C tournament, Woodvale’s junior pair of Dean Wyke and Jack Sweetenham showed the league their potential by seeing off Southport’s experienced pair of Ian Cropper and Rob Smith 21-12, 21-14.
Following from previous Woodvale winners in this competition such as Danny Hyde, Manu Teague-Sharpe, Sam Chambers and Owen Highton, it is only a matter of time before we see Wyke and Sweetenham come through the ranks within the league over the next few years.
The fourth and final victory for Woodvale came in the A men’s doubles final. Despite a strong showing from the West End Park-Victoria Hall pairing of Rob Courtley and Kugan Mariappan, Woodvale’s Michael Johnston and Chris Chu showed their expected superiority in their 21-19, 21-15 win. One of the tightest finals of the evening came in the A men’s singles final. The allChurchtown encounter saw last years B tournament men’s doubles winning pair forget their partnership for one-night. Coming out victorious was Andy Owen, who claimed his first singles title in a thrilling threeset contest over Joe Steele 21-19, 8-21, 22-20. Despite coming into the tournament with a minor shoulder injury, the multiple singles champion Steele managed to exceed expectations and battle through the pain and end up being two points away from collecting another bit of silverware.
In the 10th and last final of the session, Mawdesley’s Steven and Fay Andrews recovered well after their early lead to defeat Churchtown’s Mark Rigby and Katie Dixon-Turner 21-13, 16-21, 21-10.
After winning the B men’s singles for the past two years, Andrews claimed his first doubles title. He is aiming for more success in this years B tournament, which will be the final event of the season in the second week of April.
The first confirmed finalists came in the C mixed doubles, which saw their group stage contests open the week of tournament action. Coming out on top were St Cuthberts’ Phil Wall and Sarah Irons.
They managed to outdo Hesketh Bank’s Andy Dolman and Sarah Cowle.
It is back to league action this week and approaching the halfway point, a couple more wins for teams will be ideal before the Christmas break.
For more info, be sure to check out the latest news, results and league tables on the league’s official website, www.southportbadminton.com.
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