Double winners at junior badminton championships

The Quinn Kneale under 13 Badminton Championships took place at the NSC on Saturday.

In the boys' singles the unseeded Daniel Martin (Vikings) joined the seeded players in the semi-finals following the group stages. In the first semi Daniel upset the form book by defeating the number one seed Aswin Lizen (St Ninians) 15/9. In the other semi, contested by two St Ninians players, the number three seed Calum Peat defeated the number two seed Adam McAuley 15/10. In the final Daniel maintained control throughout and didn't allow Calum to settle, and ran out a comfortable and deserving winner 15/6 15/7.

Favourite for the girls' singles was Castletown’s Laura Beggs who just missed out in the recent under 15 championships. After the opening groups the emerging semi-finalists were Laura and three St Ninians players: Madeleine Smith, Jessica Li and Laura Kinley. In the semi-finals Laura Beggs comfortably defeated Madeleine 15/4 but the other match turned out to be a real cliff-hanger with the number three seed, nine year old Jessica Li, putting in a strong finish to defeat Laura Kinley 17/16 . Jessica played well in the final but Laura Beggs' consistent all round play paid dividends with Laura eventually winning 15/11 15/11.

The level doubles as expected was hotly contested with the seeded players very much to the fore. In the boys' doubles final Adam McAuley and Daniel Martin defeated Aswin Lizen and Calum Peat 15/11 15/13. In the girls' doubles final Laura Beggs and Abigail Li fought hard against Laura Kinley and Jessica Li before losing 17/16 15 /12.

Twenty couples played in the mixed doubles and again there were some excellent matches in the early stages. In the first semi-final the St Ninians pairing and number one seeds, Aswin Lizen and Laura Kinley, defeated Adam McAuley and Jessica Li 15/11. The second semi was won by Calum Peat and Laura Beggs 15/8. The final produced no surprises with the number one seeds running out comfortable winners 15/10 15/7.