League badminton gets underway

Not surprisingly the host club shows its strength in depth with seven teams in action with two teams in Division One, Alpha Armadillos and Alpha Avengers. 1st Donegore also have two sides in the top division and they are joined by CBC Greenwell Street and Ballyclare Tornadoes.

In the opening round of matches 1st Donegore will be taking on Alpha Armadillos with Stuart Lightbody, Ciaran Chambers, Sinead Chambers and Caroline Black heading up one of the two teams from the Lisburn club while the Alpha Avengers meet Ballyclare Tornadoes with 1st Donegore B meeting ACBC Greenwell Street on 14th October.

The Avengers have a strong side with Jonny Marron, Ross and Matthew Lightbody supporting top Ulster players Tony Stephenson and Tony Murphy while Keady Smith, Ruth Roddis, Susan Stephenson, Kerry Scott and Caitlin Steele will be keen to show they are a match for any side.

Division Two sees 1st Donegore C, Alpha Cougars, Ballyclare Hurricanes, plus the A teams from Clogher, Sandelford and Whiteabbey in action with Stephen Galway and Paul Devlin joining Nina Boyd and Jenny Ryan in the Cougars team. Jeff Kearon, Davy Rice, Ashleigh Davidson, Alison Topping, Doreen McClements and Sandra Orr complete the Cougars squad.

Alpha Leopards include in this season’s squad William Hill, Jim King, Curtis Presho, Matthew Steele, Jason Elmore and Jon McCreedy with Jenny Stephenson, Lyn Nesbitt, Lisanne Kennedy and Fiona McCormick. They will be facing 1st Donegore D, ACBC Strean, Ballyclare Typhoons, Lissara A and St Annes for the Division Three Title while Alpha Panthers side captained by Mathew Irwin will be meeting Clogher B, Glenmore A, Queens A, St Andrews, St Johns and Whitehead/Holy Trinity A in Division 4.

Division 5 is the only one without an Alpha side competing but 1st Donegore E, 2nd Saintfield Warriors, Ballyclare Cyclones, Clogher C, Lissara B and Whiteabbey B will be battling it out for honours.

Alpha Lions will include club chairman, the evergreen Brian Chambers in their squad and they will have to stave off the challenge from 2nd Saintfield Scholars, Ballyclare Whirlwinds, Banbridge District, in addition to Glenmore B and Queens B while Alpha Tyros and Alpha Wizards may not find it too easy against the A and B sides from Loughbrickland, the Pan Disability side led by world champion Niall McVeigh and Whitehead/Holy Trinity B.

No titles for Alpha Players in Connacht Open

Whilst there were no titles for the Alpha players in last weekend’s Connacht Open there were a number of young players with noteworthy performances. Colin Watson for example reached the quarter-final of the Mens Singles only to go out to the No1 seed Liam O’Leary 21-13 21-17.

Norman Lau, the Ulster Under 17 champion had a 21-14 21-16 victory over Mark Cobbe of Stamullen in the opening round and followed this up with a straight sets win over Adam Mcallister before meeting the seeded David Walsh in the third round. Lau could have taken a one set lead instead of finding himself behind having lost the opening set 21-19 it was the player from Sligo who booked his place in the quarter finals taking the second 21-12.

Lau’s Alpha colleague Ryan Getty knocked out the seeded Brian Dignam 21-17 21-19 and then brought an end to the challenge of Jack O’Brien 21-10 21-17 only to go out to one of the top young players in the country - and eventual champion - Jonathan Dolan 21-8 21-13.

John Amond knocked out Paul Reynolds to book a place in the third round after a fine 21-16 6-21 21-15 performance but he was to come up against the seeded Mark Brady who was to eventually lose to the No2 seed Joshua Magee.

In the Mens Doubles Ian Suffern and Colin Watterson were seeded ¾ and after a bye they were to have a 21-13 21-19 victory over Adam Mcallister and Matthew Povolotski and followed it up with a 21-18 21-12 win over John Finnegan and Jack O’Brien which gave them a place in the semi-final against top seeds Daniel Magee and Niall Tierney. The Alpha pair can be well satisfied with their performance against the pair from Mount Pleasant 21-6 21-14 even though theyin turn were to narrowly lose the final going down 21-17 21-19 to Jonathan Dolan and David Walsh, who had earlier knocked out Mark Cobbe and Eddie Cousins, victors over Alpha’s Ryan Getty and Norman Lau.