RESULTS

 

MEN’S SINGLES

 

Semi-finals

D Hooper bt M Clackett  21/19, 21/14

J Scott bt J Isaacson    21/12, 21/17

 

Final

J Scott bt D Hooper    21/17, 21/19

 

LADIES’ SINGLES

 

Losing Semi-finalists  Charlotte Clouting / Jo Hughes

 

Final  J Dennis bt F Webb    21/17, 21/10.

 

MIXED DOUBLES

 

Semi-finals

A Jones / J Dennis bt D Hooper / K Adderson 21/12, 21/19

J Scott / F Webb bt J Isaacson / J Hughes  25/23, 21/16

 

Final

A Jones / J Dennis bt J Scott / F Webb  24/22, 21/10

 

MEN’S DOUBLES

 

Semi-finals

A Jones / J Scott bt D Moss / P Day   21/16, 21/11

M Soler / J Isaacson bt M Clackett / D Hooper 21/23, 21/15, 21/16

 

Final

A Jones / J Scott bt M Soler / J Isaacson  22/20, 23/21

 

LADIES’ DOUBLES

 

Winners J Dennis / A Thomson

Runners Up A Newcombe / J Hughes

 

VETERANS

 

Ladies’ Doubles Winners S Scott / S Poole

Men’s Doubles Winners D Wade / A Jones

Mixed Doubles Winners P Day / K Hooper  Runners-up: M Waters / G Harris

Suffolk Restricted Championships 2009

25th & 27th September 2009

 

The start of the badminton season brings all the players together for the Suffolk Championship’s, the first opportunity to see how players have progressed. In the last few years a growing number of the younger players have been pushing hard for County honours and this tournament saw the trend continue with a good entry from players as young as 11 participating.

Pride of place this year undoubtedly goes to James Scott who became the youngest ever winner of the Men’s Singles Title at 16 years of age, won the men’s doubles title with Alan Jones and also reached the final of the mixed with another junior Freya Webb.

The men’s singles event produced some excellent badminton throughout with two hard fought semi-finals resulting in wins for James Scott over Jonathan Isaacson and Daniel Hooper over Matthew Clackett, last years winner. The final saw Scott trying to establish dominance by making best use of his height advantage to produce steeply angled winners, and deceptive drop shots, whilst Hooper used his athleticism to run everything down and create space for his own forcing shots pushing his opponent as far back as possible. This was a fine contest between two evenly matched players, but the difference was the inconsistency of length by Hooper, particularly in the second set, which enabled Scott to dictate and control the rallies. Scott took the title in straight games to change the record books.

The ladies singles put youth against experience with Freya Webb taking on Janet Dennis in the final. Again there were good, promising performances in the earlier rounds, but a special mention should be made of Georgia Cattermole who tried so hard even though only 12 years old. The final started with both players testing each other with all court play looking for weaknesses that could be exploited. Dennis used her greater control of shots, deception at the net and rally building to good effect, whilst Webb tried to prolong the play as long as possible to wear her opponent down to create an opening for her more powerful smashes. Dennis has encountered such youthful enthusiasm before and although Webb was the holder of this title, she would prevail by forcing an increasing number of errors as her strong defence pushed Webb into going too tight to the lines. This was also won by Dennis in two sets

The ladies doubles event was hit by some late withdrawals and therefore a round robin was played. Janet Dennis renewed her partnership with Alys Thomson, who was returning to badminton after the recent birth of her first child, to retain their title. They proved to be too strong for the rest of the pairings with the sister combination of Jo Hughes / Amanda Newcombe being the runners up

The men’s doubles is typically played at a tremendous pace, with big hitting, stout defence and very athletic movement. Last years champions Miguel Soler / Jonathan Isaacson had returned to defend their titles but were made to work extremely hard in their semi final as Matthew Clackett / Daniel Hooper came so very close to beating them in a thriller. In the other half of the draw, Alan Jones / James Scott were also made to work hard to defeat the surprise pairing of Daniel Moss/Peter Day.

The final proved to be a classic men’s doubles encounter with Jones, the most experienced of the four players, trying to control the rallies to set up kills and intercepts at the net for Scott. A concentration of accurate attacking play with heavy smashing to the hips of the opponents was also proving very effective. But Isaacson/ Soler were not defending champions without good reason, thinking the strategy through trying to keep play flat with powerful drives to the corners to take Scott’s height advantage away, and impressive tight net play. There was never more than a few points in the match with both sets played going into tie break. In the end Jones / Scott just prevailed with a 22/20, 23/21 victory, in a final which was a great advert for the sport of badminton.

The Mixed doubles has produced some fine pairing for Suffolk and is somewhat of a strength for the County. This was another good contest but the defending champions, Janet Dennis / Alan Jones would prove to still be the ones to beat as they retained their title, but Freya Webb / James Scott showed the future is in good hands. There were tremendously long rallies in the final, with Jones setting up Dennis at the net with flat pushes to mid court and deep cross court drives, whilst Scott produced steep angled drops and Webb’s good defence and heavier weight of shot against Dennis all helped to provide an intriguing encounter. The first set was very close, but the second saw the youngsters just lose their way as the experienced Dennis / Jones took the title.

 

Mike Tee