Locals in action at the National tournament

WITH a number of Ireland’s top players seeking to retain their National titles at the Baldoyne Badminton Centre last weekend it was the unseeded Stuart Lightbody from Lisburn who was the first player to upset the seedings by knocking out the No 2 seed Scott Burnside in the second round of the Mens Singles.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Feb 2012, 23:29 BST

Having enjoyed a far from distinguished first round victory over David Walsh 21-12, 21-19 Lightbody dropped the opening set of his clash with his clubmate Burnside 21-18 only to snatch the second 23-21 before securing a 21-17 victory in a tense, action packed decider with a quarter-final against Conor Hickland as his reward.

A 21-11, 21-18 victory saw Lightbody advance to the semi-final to face the seeded Joshua Magee, who had to come from one set in arrears to beat Andrew McKee 21-13 in the deciding set.

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With Lightbody booking his place in the Irish National final with a 21-18, 21-9 victory, his Lisburn clubmate Tony Stephenson only had to end the run of six successive Championship wins by Ireland’s top player Scott Evans if he was to ensure an all Ulster Mens Singles contest.

With straight set wins over Ryan Hamill, Nigel Boyne and Tony Murphy there was simply no way that Evans, with a world ranking at the moment of 65, was going to slip up and Stephenson went out 21-9, 21-14 with Evans securing his seventh successive national title beating Lightbody 21-5, 21-10.

The Womens Singles had a similar tale with two Alpha clubmates facing the outstanding player not only in the country but with a World ranking of 46 and going for a sixth successive National title.

Alannah Stephenson (15) played some great badminton in her semi-final against Catherine Coyle 21-11, 21-13 to secure a semi-final clash with the top seed Chloe Magee and can be justifiably pleased in her performance despite going down 21-14, 21-16 which left her clubmate Sinead Chambers having to first knockout the No2 seed Jennie Valerie King 23-21, 21-16 to contest the final.

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It is only through regular competition with the ever-improving Miss Magee that Ulster’s top players will continue to bridge the gap and this was again shown in the final with Sinead Chambers going down 21-10, 21-9 but there was a national title for Miss Chambers when she partnered Jeannie Valerie King to the Womens Doubles crown with a 21-14, 20-22, 21-18 victory over Fiona and Pauline Glennon.

In the Mixed Doubles world ranked No40 Sam and Chloe Magee took their 5th consecutive national title with a 21-15, 21-14 victory over the No2 seeds Daniel Magee and Fiona Glennon but worth a mention here were the sterling performances from Stuart Lightbody and Caroline Black and Ciaran Chambers and sister Sinead who contested the semi-finals.

Wallace High School year 11 pupil Ryan Getty won two National U15 Badminton titles at the weekend in Dublin.

He partnered Norman Lau, his Alpha clubmate to their second successive national doubles title beating Matthew and Ross Lightbody 21/15, 22/20. Ryan then partnered Rachael Darragh from Donegal to win their first national mixed doubles title beating Norman Lau and Rebecca Getty 21/11, 21/14.

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Earlier in the day Ryan missed out in a hatrick of titles losing in the final to Norman Lau.

This has been a great start to the second half of the season and Ryan looks forward to representing Ulster and Ireland at U15 in the forthcoming Quadrangular and Team Challenge in April.

Ryan was naturally delighted after his double haul commenting: “I have been working hard with my coach Andy Stewart and although I’m disappointed with my singles performace, winning the doubles and mixed titles more than made up for it”. He added his thanks to the Mary Peters Trust and Sport Lisburn for their support over the season.

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