Badminton

Archit (Tapton) beat Joseph Pooley (Notre Dame) 15-9-15-10 in the boys singles final and Grace (Lydgate Junior) defeated Serena Khan (High Storrs) 21-7 in the final of the girls singles.

Gareth Pang (High Storrs) and Serena won the mixed doubles with a 21-4 victory over Joe Matthews and Rachel Ellis (King Ecgbert) but Gareth and Fraser Burdon (High Storrs) lost 14-21 to the Notre Dame pair of Will Jones and Joseph in the boys doubles final.

The girls doubles final resulted in a victory for Hassini Liyanage and Rosie Partington (Tapton) 21-18 against Amelia Loftus and Nhi Pham (King Edward VII). Joseph’s brother Jack (Notre Dame) won the boys singles in the Y9 & Below tournament defeating Sam Wooldridge (Meadowhead) 21-16 in the event final.

Sam had earlier beaten Alex Speakman (Silverdale) 15-14 in the semis. The boys doubles was won by Adam Fox and Andy Wang (Birkdale) with a 21-14 victory over Leo Henderson (Meadowhead) and Sam.

Nhi Pham (King Edward VII) retained her girls singles title defeating Kashish Kapoor (Sheffield HS) 21-16 and Kashish and Adithi Ravishankar (Sheffield HS) won the girls doubles final, 21-14 against Rachel Ellis and Claire Turner (KingEcgbert).

For the fourth time in the last 6 years the girls doubles in the Y6 & Below girls tournament resulted in an all-Sheffield HS Junior final, Maddie Cropley and Amukt AIvatori defeating Libby Davidson and Maddie Cundy 15-8 to win the event.

Maddie also won the singles event with a 15-11 victory over Lucy Beare (St Marie’s R.C. Primary).

The Y5 & Below boys tournament provided two first time results.

The doubles was an all-Loxley Primary final and when Oscar Horsley and Felix Wright beat Hanley Sorby and Rowen Bingham 21-14. Liam Mesnage (Dore Primary) won the singles title defeating Will Dodsworth (Greystones Primary) 15-4 in the final.

There was a record entry for the Y5 & Below girls tournament, 26 in the singles and 4 pairs in the doubles events.

Alice Pooley (Sacred Heart RC Primary), whose brother Jack won the Y9 & Below boys singles competition earlier in the term, retained her singles title and finished runner-up in the doubles. She defeated Nhu Pham (Westways Primary) 11-6 in the semis and in a closely contested final beat Lois Roberts (St Marie’s RC Primary) 16-14.

Lois had reached the final with a 11-6 defeat of Esme Thomas (Greenhill Primary). The results were reversed in the doubles final when, in another 2 point game, Lois and Erin Beare defeated Alice and Tilly Storf 11-9, the first time players from St Marie’s had won this event.

n A team from Tapton school qualified for the Badminton England National Schools Team Championships Finals for the sixth year running when their Key Stage 4 boys as well as Silverdale Key Stage 3 boys and Sheffield HS Key Stage 3 girls teams won their events at the Yorkshire & Humberside Round at York.

Having qualified by winning the South Yorkshire Round earlier in the term the teams, which included Tapton Key Stage 4 girls team, played schools from North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humberside.

Tapton boys (Archit Sachdeva, Josh Williams, Jamie Atkinson, Jon Wilde) beat Wensleydale 5-0, Longcroft (Beverley) 3-2 and in the deciding match against Grammar School at Leeds with the score at 2-2 the final game between the first doubles pairs was level pegging until 17-17 when Tapton won the next 4 points for a 21-17 result and a place in the nationals finals.

Sheffield HS (Mara Sergienko, Charlotte Wadsworth, Alex Lam, Ananya Gaitonde, Kashish Kapoor) secured their place in the finals with victories over Wolfreton (East Yorks) 3-2, Malton (North Yorks) 5-0 and Grammar School at Leeds 5-0.

Silverdale (Krithicck Sivakumar, Alex Speakman, Hugh Simpson, George Camp) won all their matches 5-0 against Ermysted’s (Skipton), Sir John Nelthorpe (Brigg, North Lincs) and Grammar School at Leeds to qualify for the finals which will be held at the National Badminton Centre, Milton Keynes, on 28th/29th April.

Tapton KS4 girls team (Natasha Atkin, Lucy Breakwell, Maisie Crossley, Amy Saunders) lost 2-3 to Wensleydale and South Hunsley (East Yorks) and 0-5 to Wakefield Girls HS, the event winners.

n Grace Sachdeva (Lydgate Junior) won 3 titles, girls singles and doubles and mixed doubles, at the recent Yorkshire Badminton Association Under 14 Championships at York.

The events were organised on a group basis with all players progressing to play-offs.

Grace was unbeaten in the girls singles defeating Delphi-Beau Foster (Middlesbrough) 15-3, 15-7 in the deciding play-off match. She teamed up with Delphi-Beau to win the girls doubles title with a 15-7, 15-5 victory over. Grace teamed up with Fred Robertson (Wakefield) to win the mixed doubles event. Hugh Simpson (Silverdale) and Fred won the boys doubles event.

The Fox brothers Adam (Birkdale) and Ethan (Dore Junior) finished 4th in the boys doubles and Adam narrowly defeated Ethan in the final of the boys ‘B’ singles 12-15, 16-14, 21-20.