The opening day of the Devon Tournament in Paignton featured the U11, U15, and U19 events, with 11 of our juniors taking part. Our girls’ contingent stepped up to compete an age group higher in the U15 events and did us proud – progressing in both confidence and performance as the day went on.
Many of our U15 open (boys) doubles pairs ended up in the same box! They played each other with good spirit, showing their competitive but fair and kind nature amongst friends.
In the U19 open doubles event, Simon and Jayden put up a great fight in their small group, just missing out on a place in the Semi-Finals! The U15 Open doubles concluded day 1 of badminton with the final!
Luca & Mahidar, had a close game, with the lead swapping hands countlessly from the start of the game all the way to 14 all, and they continued to fight till the last rally and finished the game as Silver medalists after a 21-16 defeat.
As the sun set on day 1 the juniors – suitably fed with enough Chinese buffet food to feed the Jurassic Coast – are getting some well earned rest as they prepare for another exciting fast paced day of action, with many of them playing in age groups 2-4 years above their age.
Day two opened with another round of exciting matches, as most of the Juniors took on the challenge of playing an age group above their usual category – some even two levels higher!
They battled through the group rounds against some tall competition – quite literally, with a few players nearly twice their height! Despite that, they earned several impressive wins in the Boys Doubles U17 event. Unfortunately, only the top team from each box advanced, and with strong seeded pairs in the mix, they unfortunately missed out. Still, a fantastic effort and great experience gained!
In the Girls event, the power of “partner wanted” really came alive as Darcie teamed up with Hridapya in a large U13 group round-robin. Together they impressed from start to finish, winning all their matches before coming a close second to the top seeds in a thrilling final clash – with the whole team cheering them on!
Another silver medal, and huge congratulations to Darcie on her debut U.K. tournament – bringing home medals already!
Well done to all Juniors that attended this tournament, and a MASSIVE thank you to our Junior sponsors Horsepool for their support, and for treating our Juniors to their team dinner yesterday evening.