Dore pupil Ethan wins two Sheffield badminton titles

Having never reached the final of a Sheffield Schools badminton tournament, players from Dore Primary won 2 titles and finished runners-up in 2 events in the Y7 and below tournament .

Ethan Fox was the most successful of the Dore players. He finished runner-up in the boys singles after losing 10-21, 10-21 to Connor Jones (Notre Dame) in the event final but won the doubles title with Ronan Gabbitas-Ward with a deciding group 21-15 victory over Tim Shorrock and Dan White (Silverdale) and with his sister Mia won the mixed doubles with a close 22-20 victory over Dan and Jess Wright in the event final.

Jess also lost in the girls doubles final with Milly Mead, 10-21 to Varsha Prakash and Adithi Ravishankar (Sheffield HS) and Adithi beat Mia 21-7 to win the girls singles title.

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Both the Y5 and below girls and Y6 and below boys tournaments resulted in players from two schools contesting the two finals and in both competitions the two schools each won one event.

There was record entry for the Y5 tournament, 26 singles and 11 doubles pairs, since this competition was first held in 2005. The doubles was won by Erin Beare and Lois Roberts (St Marie’s R.C. Primary) who defeated Alice Pooley and Tilly Storf (Sacred Heart R.C. Primary School) 11-9 in the event final. In the singles semi-finals Alice beat Nu Pham (Westways Primary) 11-6 and Lois defeated Esme Thomas (Greenhill) by the same score. In a closely fought final Alice beat Lois 16-14 to retain the title she won last year.

From an entry of 38 in the Y6 singles tournament the semi-finals resulted in wins for Leo Crosby (Dobcroft Junior) over Daniel Bates (Totley Primary) 21-13 and Ethan Fox (Dore Primary) over Joshua Dunford (St Maries R.C. Primary) 21-15. Leo then narrowly defeated Ethan 23-21, 16-21, 22-20 in the final.

However Ronan Gabbitas-Ward (Dore Primary) and Ethan who defeated Aria Karanjkar and Monty Reynolds (Dore) 21-13 in the semi-finals went on to take the doubles title with a 21-5 victory over Aayan Dawson (Dobcroft) and Leo in the final. Aayan and Leo had earlier beaten Patrick Siggs (St Marie’s)) and Joshua 21-18 in the semis.

Badminton England Under 18 Inter-Counties Team Tournament

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Five Sheffield players, Will Atkin (King Ecgbert), Grace Sachdeva (Lydgate Junior), Archit Sachdeva and Harry Walker (Tapton) Jasmine Lidster (Westfield), represented Yorkshire in the annual Badminton England Under 18 Inter-Counties Team Tournament at Nottingham University.

Seeded to finish between 5th and 8th places the team exceeded expectations to achieve 4th place. The competition involved 32 counties and was played over 3 rounds of group matches. Undefeated in their 3 first round matches Yorkshire then defeated Hampshire 7-3, Leicestershire 7-3 and then faced Cheshire who were seeded 3/4 for a place in the group competing for places 1-4 and won this match 6-4.

In this group they lost 2-8 to top seeds and eventual winners Buckinghamshire, lost 3-7 to Surrey and finally lost 4-6 to Kent to finish in 4th place. Grace Sachdeva is the youngest player to be selected for the Yorkshire to play in this event.

Yorkshire Badminton Association Under 12 Championships

Sheffield players featured in 5 out of the 7 finals in the Yorkshire Badminton Association

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Under 12 Championships held at Leeds University on 17th March winning 2 singles titles as well as 3 doubles titles with players from elsewhere in the county. Grace Sachdeva (Lydgate Junior School) won 3 events and Ethan Fox (Dore Primary) won 1 event and finished runner-up in 2. Grace retained the titles she won in last season’s championships to add to her victories in the singles, doubles and mixed events at the county Under 14 Championships in February.

The events were played 1 game to 21 in a single group or in 2 groups with all players progressing to play-offs. Played in 1 group of 6 players Grace conceded only 15 points and defeated

Sia Pandit (Leeds) 21-8 in the deciding girls singles game and with Angie Zhu (Middlesbrough) won the doubles competition defeating Scarlett O’Grady (Hull) and Sia 21-9 in the deciding group game. Grace’s third success was in the mixed doubles with Sumedh Reddy Chittamuru

(Pontefract) with a 21-8 victory over Ethan Fox and Angie in the event final.

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Ethan narrowly defeated Daniel Bates (Totley Primary) 21-20 in the boys singles semi-finals but lost 9-21 to Sumedh in the final. However Ethan and Sumedh won the boys doubles title a 21-8 victory in the final against Suvir Munival and Daniel who had beaten Hugo Durbin-Garcia (Ecclesall Junior) and Jonah Reynolds (Dore Primary) in another close game, 21-20, in the semis.

Ethan’s sister Mia (Dore Primary), undefeated in her 5 group games, won the girls ‘B’ singles competition.

Badminton England Under 13 National Championships

Grace Sachdeva (Lydgate Primary) took her total of Badminton England National Championships titles to three when she won the girls singles at the Under 13 Championships at Birmingham University.

Grace won her group and quarter-final matches before defeating Sofia Bao (Kent) 21-10, 21-17 in the semis and then beat Lucy Brierley (Notts) 21-11, 21-18 in the final to take the title. In the doubles Grace and Emily Chen (Hants) beat Delphie-Beau Foster (Middlesbrough)) and Katie Ovenden (Wilts) 21-17, 21-18 in the semi-finals but lost in the final 7-21, 10-21 to Lucy and Sofia to finish runners-up.

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Two boys from Silverdale, Hugh Simpson and George Camp, met in the doubles quarter-finals where Hugh and Daniel Kemp (Cumbria) beat George and Sumedh Reddy Chittamuru (Pontefract) 21-18, 21-18 before losing to 14-21, 19-21 Christian Doyle and Sebastian Grove Surrey) in the semi-finals.

Badminton England National Schools Team Championships Finals

Three Sheffield schools competed in the Badminton England National Schools Team Championships finals at the National Badminton Centre, Milton Keynes..

Silverdale (Krithicck Sivakumar, Alex Speakman, Hugh Simpson, George Camp) beat King Edward VII Camp Hill School for Boys, Birmingham 4-1 and Bedford School 5-0 to qualify for the second round group playing for places 1-3. They defeated Coopers Company and Coburn School (Upminster, Essex) 5-0 but lost 1-4 to The Webber Independent School (Milton Keynes) to finish runners-up in the Key Stage 3 Boys competition.

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In the Key Stage 3 girls event Sheffield High School (Mara Sergienko, Charlotte Wadsworth, Alex Lam, Ananya Gaitonde, Kashish Kapoor) beat Nonsuch School (Cheam, Surrey) 3-2 but lost 1-4 to Ardern Academy (Solihull). In the play-off for places 4-6 they finished in 5th place after defeating Queen Elizabeth’s School (Crediton, Devon) 3-2 and losing by the same score to Iveshead School (Shepshed, Leics).

Tapton (Archit Sachdeva, Josh Williams, Jamie Atkinson, Jon Wilde) were taking part in the Key Stage 4 Boys competition for the third year running. They beat William Farr (Lincoln) 3-2 but Lost to Manchester Grammar School 0-5. In the second round they defeated both Isaac Newton Academy (Ilford, London) and Bedford School 4-1 to finish in 4th place.