A Bonanza of Badminton, Sir Ben Ainslie Sports Centre, Truro, 19th November 2023
Over 50 badminton players from all over Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, gathered at Truro School’s 8 court sports centre at the weekend to take part in Cornwall Badminton Association’s popular Bonanza event.
The idea of Badminton Bonanza tournaments is to give both social players and those who play league badminton a chance to try out and develop their skills against different players. The many regulars were joined this time by some very welcome new faces, some playing in a tournament for the first time, as the Bonanza goes from strength to strength, with any profits going towards developing badminton in Cornwall.
This year’s tournament at Truro was another great success, with some close fought battles in all the different disciplinesand a great day of badminton.
For the social players, the men’s doubles was a closely fought event, won by Camborne’s David Wong and Joseph Tsewith Phil Wright and Simon Rafferty from Falmouth as runners-up. In the mixed doubles, the top slots were once again shared by members of the Choughs club based at Carn Brea, with a repeat of last year with Russell Tucker and Zelda Bennett coming first, followed by regulars Mark and Della Griffiths. The men’s singles saw Phil Wright triumph with the top results, with fellow Falmouth club member Barry Buist as runner-up. The overall women’s singles title went to Sheila Wu, who competed in the combined mens and womens social singles.
The social women’s doubles title went to Chough’s Linda Bishop and Martha Rail, who outpointed the runner’s up from Falmouth, Anna Mitchell and Meg Trevaskis.
In the league women’s doubles, after some close games, mother and daughter combination Jane Barber and Jess Hargrave came first, with players from the Tecans club based in Pool, Sara Best and Anne Herlihy runners up.
The league men’s and mixed events also had some hard fought, skilful badminton, and in the men’s singles the two group winners went through to the final, where Torquay’s Jake Turpie played Falmouth student Quinn Hurwood Foster in an absorbing game which Jake eventually won. Following some close group games in the men’s doubles, the final was contested by Tecan’s Gary Braunton and Tony Wong from Mount’s Bay, against Lee Chappel and Steve Chan also from Mount’s Bay. After two close games, Gary and Tony ran out winners overall. The mixed doubles final was between group winners Jake and partner Lorna Riggs from Truro, and Tony partnering Sara Best, with Jake and Lorna winning after some impressive mixed badminton and complete an excellent day’s badminton.
Results –
League men’s singles – winner Jake Turpie, runner up Quinn Hurwood Foster
Social men’s singles - winner Phil Wright, runner up Barry Buist
League women’s singles – winner Sheila Wu
League men’s doubles – winners Tony Wong/Gary Braunton, runners up Lee Chappel/Steve Chan
League women’s doubles – winners Jane Barber/Jess Hargrave, runners up Anne Herlihy/Sara Best
Social men’s doubles – winners David Wong/Joseph Tse, runners up Simon Rafferty/Phil Wright
League mixed doubles – winners Jake Turpie/Lorna Riggs, runners up Tony Wong/Sara Best
Social mixed doubles – winners Russell Tucker/Zelda Bennett, runners up Mark/Griffiths/Della Griffiths
