Badminton Round up- 1-3rd July

It was fantastic weekend for a number of Ulster Badminton players who were competition in the UK & Europe. Matthew Cheung Won the Men’s Singles in the Faroe Games Junior International, while also collecting a silver in the Doubles partnering Stuart McCollum. Stuart also had a great competition adding a bronze medal in the mixed Doubles. In Gloucester Corey Chambers & Conor Blakeman were competing in the U13 Gold Gloucester event taking home a Silver in the Boys doubles and a bronze a piece in the Boys Singles. In Wales there were a number of Ulster players representing Ireland across the E, F, G, H Grades in the Graded 4 Nations Championships in Wales!

 Faroe Games Junior International- 1-3rd July 2022

Emerging Performance Squad Players Matthew Cheung & Stuart McCollum both had a great competition in the Faroe Islands. In the Singles both Matthew & Stuart played some solid games to both progress to the Quarter Finals were they both Faced Scottish opponents. Up first was Stuart but Anthony McGuire proved a bit too strong winning 21-8, 21-19. Matthew was facing Angus Meldrum, and it was the Scot who took the first games 22-20, but Matthew came back strong in the 2nd & 3rd set to win 21-8, 21-19 & progress to the Semi Finals. A very controlled performance in the Semi Final seen Matthew win comfortably 21-8, 21-7 vs Christian Berg Petersen.
Matthew brought the momentum of the Semi Final win into the Final against American Aaron Bai, playing a high level singles game to win 21-13, 21-15 to win his first U19 International title.

Matthew & Stuart teamed up in the Doubles and played great to progress to the final without dropping a set. They faced the English pair of Harper & Wakefield in the final. It was the English pair who started of aggressive and took the opening game 21-17. They maintained their aggressive style which the Irish pair struggled to contain, and won the 2nd set 21-13. A good silver medal in their first competition as a pair.

Stuart teamed up with local player Bjarnhild Justinussen as a scratch partnership & had a great run to the Semi Finals. Unfortunately they came up against the top seeds & a very strong Danish pair who won 21-7, 21-9, but a great event for both players.

Excellent tournament for both players and great preparation for the upcoming European Junior Championships in August. Full results can be found here. 

U13 Gold Gloucester- 2/7/22

Corey Chambers & Conor Blakeman continued their fine form this season by taking home a silver in the Boys doubles & a bronze medal each in the Boys Singles. The boys were placed in box C of the draw along with the ¾ seed. 3 great performances resulted in 3 box wins and progressing to the Semi Final’s. There they faced the English pair of Yixiang Hou & Tejas Singh. It was the English pair who came out of the blocks fast and took the opening game 21-15, but the Ulster pair bounced back well in the second games to take it 21-12. Into the final set and it was a tight into the latter stages of the set but Corey & Conor pushed through and got the win 21-19. In the final they played the strong pair of Hubert Ceglinski & Kavin Karunakaran & it proved a game to far as the ¾ seeds won 21-10, 21-8. Overall a great event for the 2 young boys and a deserved silver medal.

In the singles Corey was in box C & Conor in Box D. 2 good wins for each of them progressed them out of their box and into the Semi Finals. Conor played a strong game but lost out 21-16, 21-17 to Adam Alam, the eventual winner of the Singles. Corey faced George Yuxiao Wang in his Semi Final Match and after 3 good quality sets was unlucky to lose out in the 3rd set 21-19. Good progression for both the boys and Bronze medals to accompany their silver medal in the Doubles. Well done!

Full results here

Graded 4 Nations Championships- 2nd-3rd July 2022

The Graded 4 Nations Championships took place in Wales, with a fantastic weekend of badminton. Ireland had teams in the E, F, G, H Grades. Well done to all those competing, especially those from Ulster. Full Teams below:

Grade E- Conor Bradley, Dein Vesko, Conor Bradley, Darragh Higgins, Ceira Kennedy, Aine Ramsey, Paddy Redmond

Grade F- Callum Laird, Sarah Barry, Hari Narayan, Ceira Kennedy, Steven Howard, Aine Ramsay

Grade G- F.S Baggi, Riya Prakas, Padraig Dempsey, Gene O’Connor, Caroline McDonald, Jocelyn Novarro, Stephanie Pierce