U14 Boys' Badminton Tournament

This event is always fiercely contested and this proved to be no different. Many of those who entered were regular Badminton club attendees where we have over 50 players each week.

Again, the boys were in two leagues and I say boys, but for the first time we had a mixed pairing of Advith Kallepally and Rishita Dutta which was exciting to see. This pairing had a superb night, winning most matches with their great skills and communication when covering the court, thus leading to a semifinal place. Their opponents were one of the main favourites, Johnny Hullock and Aman Dinesh.

The game was excellent with both sides showing real deftness at the net and power in the smashes and the game ebbed from one side to the other, but Johnny and Aman just pulled away at the pressure points.

The second semifinal was between the favourites Ali Ravji and Saihaan Damanji who had previously been beaten by Johnny and Aman in an earlier round, leading them to take the semifinal far more seriously and so they were very psyched up for this game. Their opponents were the secret stars of the night, Krithik Mohan and Ali Jaffer. This game was an absolute joy to watch, with extensive rallies full of lunging drop shots and powerful smashes pallied by incredible blocks and drive returns. Ali and Saihaan came out victorious, but this was the game of the night to the impartial observer. Johnny and Aman entered the final very determined to repeat their earlier victory and gave an excellent account for themselves with some exceptional drop shots and finely placed smashes, but the pre-night favourites repeated last year's result and left the night as Champions.                                                     

  Great fun was had by all the players and there was a lovely supportive atmosphere throughout the evening.