The Isle of Man Badminton U13 Island Championship was held on Saturday 18th November with a fantastic turnout and a total of 165 matches being played.
The boys singles kicked things off and consisted of four groups played in a round robin format to decide who progressed into the knockout stages of the main draw, with the remaining players entering the knockout stages of the plate competition. The top two places in each group were secured by Zhen Jet Woon and Zane Quinn in Group A, Elias Parry and Heilok Tang in Group B, Charlie Kneale and Ansh Agarwal in Group C and Jasper Corlett and Peter Quayle in Group D. The quarter finals saw Woon beating Agarwal 21-8, Parry beating Quayle 21-9, Kneale beating Quinn 21-15 and Corlett beating Tang 21-4. The semi-finals produced two good quality games with Parry pushing Woon hard in the first half of the game but eventually losing out after a run of points did not go his way in the latter part of the game with Woon eventually securing a 21-14 win. The second semi final was point for point all the way with Kneale holding on and claiming the all important final point and taking the win 21-20. The final was also a nail biting affair with Woon dominating early on going 7-1 up but Kneale digging deep and pulling it back to 11-10 before they swapped ends. Eventually Woon’s consistency won out and took the win at 21-16.
The girl’s singles consisted of two large groups before the top three progressed through to the knockout stages of the main draw with the remaining players again entering the knockout plate competition. Progressing through to the knockout stage were Kelly Cheung, Alice Hemensley and Erin Corlett from Group A and Sophie Clague, Connie Creer and Charlotte Quayle from Group B. The quarter final matches resulted in Creer beating Corlett 21-9 and Hemensley beating Quayle 21-18 with Cheung and Clague having byes through to the semi-finals. In the semi finals Cheung recorded a comfortable 21-10 victory over the much younger Creer with Hemensley and Clague having a much closer battle resulting in Clague managing to edge the win 21-20. The final started off point for point with Clague going ahead but the strength of Cheung soon began to show through and she eventually took the title with a comfortable 21-11 win.
The two singles plate competitions also produced some great matches with the final of the boy’s singles being contested by Harry Quayle and Wai Cheung. This proved to be another tight game with Cheung eventually taking the win 21-18. Battling through to the final of the girl’s plate was Lara Stewart and Abigail Kwan both having won their semi finals by a nail biting 21-20. The final did not disappoint producing yet another close game with Stewart holding on to take the victory 21-19.
Next up was the boys level doubles and securing semi-final places were Woon and Corlett and Kneale and Michael Garrity with 4 and wins respectively from Group A and Aditya Varshney and Ansh Agarwal and Parry and Quayle with 3 wins each from Group B. Group B saw Teddy Price and Zane Quinn also with 3 wins and equal points narrowly missing out on a semi final place based on the head to head result. In the first semi-final Woon and Corlett secured a straight forward 21-10 win against Parry and Quayle with Kneale and Garrity having to fight hard for their 21-19 victory over Varshney and Agarwal. Kneale and Garrity, a new partnership, continued to battle in the final but the established pairing of Woon and Corlett proved to be too strong taking the title with a 21-12 win.
The girls doubles was played in one large group and resulted in a number of close games but in the end the title went to Cheung and Clague with 6 out of 6 wins and Kwan and Stewart secured the runners up position with 5 out of 6 wins.
The final event of the day was the mixed doubles which again started with two groups before progressing to the semi finals. The top two pairs in Group A were Woon and Cheung and Kneale and Kwan with Corlett and Clague and Zane and Xara Quinn topping Group B. Woon and Cheung took on the young Quinn siblings in the first semi-final and secured a 21-11 victory whilst the second semi final was a much tighter affair and resulted in Kneale and Kwan edging to a 21-20 victory over Corlett and Clague. The final resulted in the third Kneale Woon head to head of the day and Woon again came out on top with Woon and Cheung taking the title and a triple for both of them. Trophies were kindly presented by the Chairman of the IOM Badminton Association Roberta Cannell.
