SSBU Round Up: 2006 Age Group

By Hugh Ainsley

With Wishaw being unavailable SSBU moved to Penicuik for the 2006 Age Group event on 24th November. There were 21 players but plenty of close matches with a large number of games taking 3 sets to complete.

The boys singles had 12 entries. The pools finished fairly quickly with all seeded players proceeding to the A knock out. The first upset came in the opening round of the knock out with Max Law (Midland) defeating ¾ seeded West player Matthew Brown with a 17-21, 21-16, 21-18 scoreline.

The other opening round match was almost as close but here seeded player Ciaran Hope (G & NS) managed to hold on to defeat Dunbar’s David Campbell 21-17, 13,21, 21-15. That was not to be Ciaran’s closest match however as he came up against 2nd seed Abi Vinjam (Lothian) in the semi and this time the score was 19-21,21-15,25-23 in favour of Abhi. It was quite a surprise when top seed Alfie Sweeney won the event needed just 2 sets to beat Abhi 21-16,21-14.

On to the ladies where there were 9 entries. All of the entries were strong players so even the consolation event had some high quality matches. The consolation final was won by Shona Brown (G & NS) with a 30-29, 21-15 victory over West’s Valentina Peterson. In the main draw 3rd seed Jaagruti Mannem (West) had a tiring day. In her quarter final she took on Anshita Jaiswal (G & NS) and won the match 25-23,21-16. This took her to the semi where she played Strathallan School pupil Hailey Ho in the longest match of the day. Jaagruti won in 56 minutes 17-21,21-16, 21-13. In the final Jaagruti had to play top seed Tushara Senthilrajaram. This was another close game with Tushara eventually winning 21-11, 18-21, 21-15.

All of these long matches delayed the start of the doubles There were 5 pairs in the boys doubles and 4 pairs in the girls. The girls event was won by Anshita Jaiswal & Jaagruti Mannem who gained revenge over Tushara who had to settle for second place here with partner Lucy Degg.

For the boys event top seed Ciaran Hope and Alfie Sweeney were the winners but they were given a bit of a scare by 2nd seeds Matthew Brown and Max Law winning that game 21-12, 18-21, 21-13. Matthew and Max had to settle for third place however as they were pushed out of the runner up spot by David Campbell & Abhi Vinjam who defeated them 21-18,21-19.

Tournament organiser Hugh Ainsley now has a couple of weeks off before the final 2 events of the year on 16th & 17th December.