SSBU 2009 Age Group: Round Up
By Hugh Ainsley
On 18th November the SSBU held their 2009 Age Group event at Wishaw.
There were 33 players taking part in total with 19 entries for the boys singles. Newcomer Avi Mittal played well beating the seeded Rory Meldrum in the first round of the knock-out and then 3rd seeded Drew Murdoch in the quarter final. Unfortunately for him he came up against top seed Adam Li in the semifinal where he lost 21-10, 21-14.
Meanwhile Cockermouth player Rory Galloni-Wilkinson was having a long tussle with his doubles partner and fellow club player Ali Scammell Rory won this match 21-18,13-21,24-22 but then found Glasgow & North Strathclyde player Lakshya Sharma too strong for him in the semi final.
Rory’s game proved not to be the closest game in the singles however as the final proved to be a long and hard fought match. Adam LI eventually won the final in a 40 minute match the score line being 21-18, 9-21, 25-23.
There were 12 entries for the girls singles. There were 3 pools of 4 to start the event and with many close games 2 of the 3 pools had a 3 way tie on games won to decide the 2nd place and decide who played the A knock-out.
[3/4] seed Riya Bhaskar lost out to Layla Shaw in the pool so the A knock-out had only 3 of the seeded players. Layla lost to top seed Shona Brown in the top semifinal while in a day of long games [3/4] seed Lucy Degg took 38 minutes to beat 2nd seed Valentina Peterson 19-21, 21-19, 21-18. There were to be no further upsets however with top seed Shona Brown winning the final 21-16, 21-10.
On to the doubles where there were 6 pairs in each doubles event. Both were played with 2 qualifying pools with the top 2 going to the A knock-out and the 3rd placed pairs playing off for the consolation event.
The two finals went on court at the same time and finished almost at the same time with tournament organiser Hugh Ainsley taking charge of the boys final and his wife Riris taking charge of the girls.
The girls event was won by top seeded Shona Brown and Valentina Peterson with a 21-14, 21-11 score against Lucy Degg and Flo Kirkpatrick while the boys event went to Adam Li and Lakshya Sharma who beat Rory Meldrum and Drew Murdoch 21-16, 21-8.
With Wishaw unavailable next weekend SSBU move to Penicuik for the older 2006 Age Group event before having a couple of weeks off and two further events before Christmas.