Wednesday 28 October 2009

Talented New Resident Makes Clean Sweep at Cornwall 'Blue Riband Event'

The last weekend of September saw the Cornwall County Badminton Association host its 'Restricted' championships at Polkyth leisure centre in St Austell.

The 2 day competition brought together the best badminton players in Cornwall, with a large contingent drawn from the Cornwall Youth badminton and 17-21 age group. Over 60 competitors took part. The first day comprised Mens and Ladies Singles and Level Doubles, whilst the Mixed-doubles title was played for on Sunday.

The Ladies Singles event saw last year's winner - Bronwen Wotton being narrowly beaten in the semi-finals by the eventual winner, - Jo Philp, who went on to beat finalist Emily James in a very close 3 ender.

In the Mens Singles, the 'new boy in town'- Kelvin Edwards won his first honours of the weekend against last year's winner, (and previous 6 times title holder)- James Whetter.

The Ladies Doubles pairing of Rachel Irish and Jo Philp retained their title in a comfortable victory against Emily James and Bronwen Wotton.

The last discipline on Saturday had an exciting and close-run Mens Doubles final which saw eventual winners, Kelvin Edwards and Nick Phelps beating James Whetter and Guy Michell in a thrilling 3 ender.

Unfortunately, due to injury, the partnership of James Whetter and Jo Philp could not defend their title on the Sunday in the Mixed Doubles event. This left the way clear for the talented combination of Kelvin Edwards and his young partner Bronwen Wotton to lift the title against Nick Phelps and Jan Santillo, but not before battling it out in a nail-biting semi-final against Guy Michell and Rachel Irish.

RESULTS

Ladies Singles
Winner - Jo Philp (Camelford) R/Up - Emily James (First Edition) 19/21 21/7 21/12

Mens Singles
Winner - Kelvin Edwards (First Edition) R/Up - James Whetter (St Austell) 21/19 21/8

Mens Doubles
Winners - Kelvin Edwards/Nick Phelps (First Edition/Tecans) R/Up - James Whetter/Guy Michell (St Austell) 16/21 21/17 21/14

Ladies Doubles
Winners - Rachel Irish/Jo Philp (Truro/Camelford) R/Up - Emily James/Bronwen Wotton (First Edition) 21/14 21/12

Mixed Doubles
Winners - Kelvin Edwards/Bronwen Wotton (First Edition) R/Up - Nick Phelps/Jan Santillo (Tecans/Liskeard) 21/18 /21/15

Ladies Singles Plate
Winner - Abigail Logg

Mens Singles Plate
Winner - Pete Bazin

Ladies Doubles Plate
Winners - Lorna Riggs/Tamsin Woodroffe

Mens Doubles Plate
Winners - Nigel Stephens/ Rob Cook

Mixed Doubles Plate
Winners - Trev Searle/Claire Peterson

Monday 19 October 2009

Chiefs v Oxfordshire

The 0630 start (The 0 stands for “0 my god it’s early”) to Cornwall’s badminton first team took its toll at the weekend with Duchy crashing out 12 – 3 to Oxfordshire.

Playing before a large crowd things seemed to be going ok for the Cornish after the singles with the round tied at 2 – 2. The unbeaten singles run from the Cornish number one Kelvin Edwards continued with straight sets win over his Oxford opponent. Claire Whitmore also chalked up the other win for Cornwall with an impressive display of attacking badminton to clinch the number two tie.

In the doubles the only Cornish pair to win a game was Guy Michell and Tom Lyle against the Oxford number twos. Guy remarked “My singles was a nightmare, the journey up was exceptionally long and as much as I warmed up before the game I just could not get going” he continued “It was a sweet revenge to clinch my second doubles match”

Kelvin Edwards and Ross Lashbrook ran the second pair close but just missed out in the third 20 – 22. Jo Philip was back with her county restricted champion partner Rachel Irish, Rachel who has just returned from a Barbados training camp commented “We were really unlucky against their number ones, I feel fitter after my training camp, but the journey back and then the long trip up here inevitably took it out of me”

So with score line at 9 – 3 going into the mixed the Cornish were looking to take all three to salvage a point. It was not the Duchy’s day losing all three ties, the closest mixed game belonged to Kelvin Edwards and Bron Wotton taking the Oxford first pair all the way but just losing out 21 – 19 in the third. “It has been a difficult day” remarked Bron “Without making excuses, we lost the match, Oxford didn’t win it, the journey up was tough and the shuttles we had to use were very poor, in our mixed we used an extortionate amount of shuttles, they kept breaking”

Next match: 8th November - Hampshire away.

Monday 12 October 2009

Cornwall off to a flying start

Cornwall’s badminton first team got off to a fantastic start at the weekend with a convincing win over Somerset in the national badminton league. The team travelled up to Crewkerne, Somerset and before a large crowd produced a sensational 9 – 6 win.

After the two men’s and ladies singles the Duchy found themselves 3 – 1 up with a notable performance from Jo Philp who beat the Somerset restricted champion Amy Redaway in straight sets.

Convincing performances from the Cornish men’s doubles pairs of Kelvin Edwards and Nick Phelps, Guy Michell and Tom Lyle escalated the score line even further to 7 – 1. This was much needed as the Somerset ladies played extremely well to take all the ladies doubles games, despite strong resistance from Cornwall’s Claire Whitmore and Jan Santillo who took the Somerset first pair right to the wire before losing in the third end. Claire Whitmore remarked “Having losing the first end we changed tactics and snatched the second, but the Somerset pair just had the last say.” It was a brave effort but the score line read 7 - 5 going into the mixed.

Cornwall’s recent mixed training held them in good stead with the Duchy taking two out of the three mixed. Playing at the number one slot with partner Kelvin Edwards, Bron Wotton the Cornwall mixed champion was very satisfied with her performance. “We never let them into the game; we kept on attacking and broke down their defences”.

Cornwall’s next match is another away fixture against Oxford on Sunday 18th October.