Junior Series North Wales
The North Wales Junior Series event held by the North East Wales Badminton League (NEWBL) took place last weekend. The event was a huge success – with over 74 individual entries it is officially one of the largest junior competitions we have had in Wales in the last 10 years!
The event ran with the similar format seen across the junior series of events with U11, U13 and U15 being separated only into singles and doubles with no separation by gender. Whilst the older age groups of U17 and U19 were separated into the five usual disciplines. A novel scoring system (for the junior series) was used throughout the event with all games bar the final being best of 3 to 15 with the 3rd set being to 11, changing ends at 6 with no extended play.
The Tournament had junior players come from not just across Wales but also England as well. The competition got off to an early 08:30 start with fantastic matches being played all the way till the final match at 19:00. From a personal perspective it was fantastic to see individuals from all different areas and badminton experience come together and enjoy what competitive badminton has to offer.
Throughout the day a serving challenge and guess the shuttles in the box with prizes of a Racket and Yonex bottle took place allowing a break from the intensity of the competition inside the hall.
Congratulations to all of the winners;
U11S
- Winner: John Britto (Gwynedd)
- Runner Up: Alfie Pugh (Flintshire)
U11D
- Winners: John Britto (Gwynedd) + Rocco Caton (Conwy)
- Runners Up: Alfie Pugh (Flintshire) + Lauren Bignell (Flintshire)
U13S
- Winner: Eden Harris (Blaenau Gwent)
- Runner Up: Addhyan Saini (Staffordshire)
U13D
- Winners: Aadi Shah (Cheshire) + Eden Harris (Blaenau Gwent)
- Runners Up: Charlie Ren (Merseyside) + Marcel Chengalai (Merseyside)
U15S
- Winner: Luke Betts (Flintshire)
- Runner Up: Samara Britto (Gwynedd)
U15D
- Winners: Eden Harris (Blaenau Gwent) + Luke Betts (Flintshire)
- Runners Up: Harry McKenna (Cheshire) + Mason Harvey (Rhondda Cynon Taf)
U17BS
- Winner: King Hin Cheung (Cheshire)
- Runner Up: Bobby Lai (Cheshire)
U17/19GS
- Winner: Samara Britto (Gwynedd)
- Runner Up: Aaradhana Bharathwaj (Cheshire)
U17BD
- Winners: Elgan Morgan (Carmarthenshire) + Surya Vijay (Neath)
- Runners Up: Oliver Barnes (Cheshire) + Rory O’Keeffe (Cheshire)
U17/19GD
- Winners: Isabel Williams (Conwy) + Serena Yang (Greater Manchester)
- Runners Up: Aaradhana Bharathwaj (Cheshire) + Angelina Avinash (Denbighshire)
U17XD
- Winners: Luke Betts (Flintshire) + Samara Britto (Gwynedd)
- Runners Up: Luke Tunnicliffe (Cheshire) + Serena Yang (Greater Manchester)
U19BS
- Winner: Cai Owen (Conwy)
- Runner Up: Bobby Lai (Cheshire)
U19BD
- Winners: Cai Owen (Conwy) + Surya Vijay (Neath)
- Runner Up: King Hin Cheung (Cheshire) + Rahul Srinivasan (Cheshire)
U19XD
- Winners: Cai Owen (Conwy) + Isabel Williams (Conwy)
- Runners Up: Josh Lewis-Smith (Flintshire) + Charlotte Taylor (Flintshire)
I would also like to thank the main tournament organiser Heather and all the Volunteers from the NEWBL community who helped run the event.
Report by Josh Hart – Badminton Wales Regional Community Manager
Full results and photographs can be found at: https://newbl.co.uk/play-badminton/juniors/bw-junior-graded-series-north/