THE Plymouth and District Badminton League end of season tournament took place recently at the Plymouth Mayflower Centre.
In the men's singles competition James Cooper (BATS), David Harrington (BATS), and Sean Ryder (Callington) all got through to the quarter-finals with James and David facing each other in the final.
With David having already turned the tables on one player by beating him in the knockout stages the final was to be a showdown. The result was quite one-sided with James dominating.
In the divisions 4 and 5 men's doubles competition Gavin Leithall and Mike Ward (BATS) played well in their first competition together but were unable to go through to the knockout stages.
Colin Rowlands and Brian Gilbert (Callington) fared a little better by winning one game but lost out early in the knockout stages. Again, David Harrington (BATS) partnering Sean Ryder (Callington) came up against James Cooper who was partnering Alan Berry in a final. Again, David was on the losing side when he and Sean lost out to James and Alan.
In the divisions 2 and 3 men's doubles competition, Gary Marker and Ray Northey (Tavistock) played well in the round robin stages but lost in the semi-final to the eventual winners. Julian Cooper (Callington) partnering Colin Tatershall (Tavistock) played well together to get through to the final but lost out in a tense and close game.
In the ladies' singles there was keen competition between the BATS players with four of them having entered. Tamsin Woodroffe and Elizabeth Rae won some of their round robin games but did not go through to the knockout stages.
In the first semi-final Frances Ward lost out to the eventual winner. Susie Povey, having beaten the other finalist in the round robin stages was hopeful of winning but lost out closely although pleased to be runner-up in the competition.
In the divisions 4 and 5 ladies' doubles competition a number of local pairs entered. Fiona Casey and Hannah Rowlands (Callington) were playing together in their first competition and did well to take points off other more experienced pairings.
All three BATS pairs fought their way through to the knockout stages with Heather Cooper and her daughter Victoria Piper and Tamsin Woodroffe and Elizabeth Rae losing in close semi-finals. In the end it was left to Susie Povey and Frances Ward to represent BATS in the final and they duly won it comfortably.
In the divisions 2 and 3 ladies' doubles competition only Nicky Gabb (Tavistock) entered and played with scratch partner Zoe Othick. Once they had worked out each other strengths they put together a good run of results that came to the end in one of the semi-finals.
The most keenly contested event was the mixed doubles divisions 4 and 5 competition where nine local pairs entered. In the round robin stages all three father and daughter, Mike Ward and Becky (BATS), Colin Rowlands and Hannah (Callington) and Rodney Cooper and Victoria Piper, played well but were unable to go through to the knockout stages.
Rodney was forced out of retirement by his daughter and presented a novel way of gaining an advantage over the opposition pairs by wearing historic badminton clothing: the ploy failed but everyone gave him full marks for trying.
Two local pairs fell at the quarter-final stages with Sean Ryder and Fiona Casey (Callington) and Gavin Leithall and Elizabeth Rae (BAT's) losing out to local pairs. This left the semi-finals being totally dominated by BATS pairings. In the first semi-final Alan Berry and Susie Povey lost out in a hard fought game to mother and son pair Heather Cooper and James.
The other semi-final saw Chris Woodroffe and Frances Ward comfortably win against David Harrington and Chris's sister Tamsin Woodroffe. The final saw Chris play some of the best badminton he had played all season when he and Frances won the mixed doubles title against Heather and James Cooper.
At the end, players from BATS, Tavistock and Callington badminton clubs had won four titles and come the runners-up in five. The tournament was the icing on the cake at the end of the season, particularly after three of the five divisions had been won by local clubs.