A new one-day badminton tournament proved to be a great success, with 74 players taking part.

A NEW one-day badminton tournament, the Weston Handicap Badminton Tournament was a great success with 74 players taking part from a variety of clubs.

It was organised by Mark Edwards, Paul Edwards and Rob Morray of Uphill Badminton Club and included four separate doubles handicap competitions.

The men’s A competition had 10 pairs, split into two boxes with the top two going through to semi-finals.

Box one winners were the young Frys pairing of Alex Nash and Matt Cleaves (+1) with 77 points, with favourites Jason Reading and Roger Lanning (-7) of Clevedon Feathers coming second with 76 points.

Box two was just as close. The winners being Carl Harrison and Kai Boompeng (+3) from Uphill with 83 points, ahead of second placed Matt Cole and Tom Higgins (-3) of Uphill with 79 points.

In the semi-finals Tom and Matt overcame Matt and Alex 21-18, and Jason and Roger defeated Carl and Kai 21-17.

The final was a tense affair with Jason and Roger clawing back their four-point deficit, but were unable to beat Matt and Tom, who combined superbly in the closing stages to win 21-18.

There was a plate event for those not making the semi-finals, which was won by Matt Heal (Winscombe) and Will Hollis (Uphill), beating Rob Armstrong (Clevedon Feathers) and Grant Kelly (Uphill).

The ladies competition had eight pairs and was played in one box with the top four going through to semi-finals. The top four were Ellie Jewell and Christy Langford (-4) of Uphill, who were box winner with 144 points, Nicola Wall and Emma Bailey (-5) of Clevedon Feathers (143), Jackie Wright and Karin Haverson (+9) of Mark (130) and Viv Edwards and Vicky Gigg (-1) of Clevedon Feathers (128).

Viv and Vicky overcame Ellie and Christy 21-18 and the second saw Nicola and Emma defeat Jackie and Karin also 21-18 to set up an all Clevedon Feathers final. This was another superb encounter with Nicola and Emma fighting hard to overcome their four-point deficit, but the experience of Viv and Vicky won through and they held on to win 21-19.

The mixed section saw the top two handicapped pairs of Nicola Wall and Jason Reading (-5) of Clevedon Feathers coming runners-up with 83 points and Christy Langford and Matt Cole (-4) of Uphill winning the box with 84 points.

Box two saw tournament favourites Ellie Jewell and Paul Edwards (-6) of Uphill coming through as group winners with 99 points. Second place was only separated by three points, but the Winscombe duo of Adrian Moore and Juliet Dormer edged through on 93 points.

The semi-finals were both fairly one-sided matches with Christy and Matt defeating Adrain and Juliet 21-12 and Nicola and Jason beat Ellie and Paul 21-13.

This set up a familiar battle between the Uphill and Feathers pairs which has gone both ways over the past year. Nicola and Jason kept up their fine form and ran out comfortable winners 21-11.

In the plate event, the winning pair were Clare Laney and Olly Dormer of Winscombe.

The men’s B competition was in a one-box format containing eight pairs with the top two pairs contesting a final.

The top two points scorers were both Uphill pairings of Dennis Tseung and Zakir Hussain (+2) with 142 points and Ian Gilmore and Mark Brooker (-1) also with 142. The final saw Dennis and Zakir repeat their box win with a 21-16 victory.

It is hoped that this will become an annual event after a successful day and at the conclusion of the tournament, thanks were given to Mark, Paul and Rob for all their work in putting on such an enjoyable day.

Mens ‘B’- Mark Brooker, Ian Gilmore, Dennis Tseung, Zakir Hussain.

Mixed - left to right - Matt Cole, Christy Langford, Nicola Wall, Jason Reading.

Ladies - left to right - Emma Bailey,Nicola Wall, Viv Edwards, Vicky Gigg.