Alpha’s Alannah gets her hands on Irish Under 19 title

In a close semi-final against the seeded Mexican Gaitan Haramara she had taken the opening set 21-18 but soon found herself 16-11 in arrears and although she pulled it back to 20-18 it was never going to be enough. In the third set Alannah was 11-6 down before getting back into the game at 12-12. The Mexican stretched her lead again to lead 20-15 but the Irish international showed tremendous character to come back again at 20-20 and was not deterred when Haramara held a match point to win 23-21. Alannah may have shown many attributes in winning her first Irish cap at the tender age of 15 but by turning defeat into victory in this semi-final may prove valuable as she advances through her badminton career.

Meeting her in the final was Rachael Darragh. The Raphoe player was largely second best in the opening set with Stephenson winning 21-11 but it was a totally different affair in the second with Darragh always in control but one did not believe that she could be caught. When Stephenson took a 2-1 lead in the final set this was the first time she had led since midway through the second set but from this point on there was only one player going to lift the coveted singles title and that was Miss Stephenson 21-8.

The men’s singles was dominated by Garrido Ramon (Mexico) and Austrian Wolfgang Gnedt with the former lifting the title. However there were a number of noteworthy performances from some of our local players especially Norman Lau who had a straight sets victory over Colin Pauloin-Valory. This gave him a clash with his Alpha clubmate Jonathan Harron. Harron took the opening set 21-15 but Lau levelled by taking the second set 21-16 and it was Lau who was to book his place in the quarter-final against Scotland’s Euan Watson with a 21-16 final set.

The Lisburn player was to be rarely troubled and gave himself a semi-final against Wolfgang Gnedt which proved on this occasion to be a step too far at this point for the Alpha youngster.

Ryan Getty also acquitted himself well with straight sets victories over James Buckley and Stephen Walsh and although he was to go out to the seeded Mark Brady his performance in his first set was worthy of note and should give him confidence for the rest of the season.

There was an upset in the men’s doubles when top seeds Jonathan Harron and Ryan Stewart lost out to clubmates Matthew and Ross Lightbody in the semi-final. With the number two seeds Mark Brady and Nicholas Murphy going on to claim the title but it could all have been very different as they were taken to three sets in the quarter-finals by Alpha’s Ryan Getty and Norman Lau. The mixed doubles saw top seeds Ryan Stewart and Keady Smith take the title but Brady and McCourt were knocked out by Matthew Lightbody and Moya Ryan though Norman Lau and Rebecca Getty extended the beaten finalists to three sets .

There was a titanic struggle in the doubles with top seeds Alannah Stephenson and Keady Smith dropping the opening set 21-19 to Sara Boyle and Rachael Darragh but it was the direct opposite in the second set as the top seeds led throughout to square the match 21-15. But with the score at 19-19 it was anybody’s match but having lost in the final of the singles to Miss Stephenson, it was the Boyle/Darragh partnership who took the title 21-19.