Teenage Hunterhouse student Paige Woods wins U17 Irish Nationals title

Paige Woods (Alpha) on her way to lifting the Mixed Doubles title with Dylan Noble in the U17 Irish Nationals at Alpha Badminton Club last weekend.

It was very much a weekend of mixed emotions and fortunes for a number of local players in the U13 and U17 Forza Irish Nationals at the home of Alpha Badminton Club but the real winners were tournament referee Billy Martin and his team as they faced the daunting prospect of the biggest entry since the end of the lockdown.

For local girl Paige Woods it was to be her final U17 Irish Nationals and the 16 year-old Hunterhouse pupil was seeded No3 in the Girls Singles.

Having eased her way through the early rounds with victories over both Liva Prakas 21-8 21-4 and Orlaith Evans 21-10 21-18, in the semi-final Paige was to come up against the top seeded Michelle Shochan, who was in imperious form and was to go on to lift both the Girls Doubles and Singles titles recording a 21-13 21-12 victory over No2 seed Nicole Joy.

Alpha clubmate Roisin McKenna teamed up with Chloe McGrane in the semi-final of the Girls Doubles and they were to cause an upset by ending the hopes of top seeds Paige and Kimberley Pearson 21-9 21-19 but it was always going to be in the Mixed Doubles competition that Paige was the favourite to lift a trophy.

Roisin McKenna (Alpha) partnered Chloe McGrane to reach the final of the U17 Irish Nationals at the weekend. They lost out to the top seeds Siofra Flynn and Michelle Shochan 21-9 21-19.

Dylan Noble and Paige have been in outstanding form pitting their wits and talents against some of the fines under-age players on the Mainland and are certainly a partnership to look out for in the future.

It was in the semi-final that they recorded a straightforward 21-9 21-8 victory over Fionn Dowling and Chloe McGrane before coming out on top in a real nailbiter against Pranav Erukattil and Siofra Flynn 21-19 21-18.

In the final of the U17 Girls Doubles Alpha's Roisin McKenna and Chloe McGrane were to give the top seeds Siofra Flynn and Michelle Shochan some cause for concern, despite winning the opening set 21-9 the second set could have taken the unseeded pair into a deciding set before conceding 21-19.

The unseeded Chris Chee and Callum Laird were to completely upset the seedings in the U17 Boys Doubles and will no doubt be asking themselves how they came from an unseeded position to losing out against the top seeded pair of Fionn Dowling and Senan O'Rourke 15-21 22-20 22-20 and having earlier knocked out the fancied no 3/4 seeds Eoghan Cooney and Dylan Noble 21-11 21-19 a truly remarkable performance.

Chris Chee (Alpha) on his way to runner-up in the Boys Doubles in the U17 Irish Nationals with his partner Callum Laird.

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It was though in the U13 Irish Nationals that we had some OUTSTANDING performances from our local young players with Alpha's Conor Blakeman seeded No2 in the singles giving the top seed Corey Chambers more than the proverbial run for his money in the final of the U13 Boys Singles.

On so many occasions this pair have battled it out in the final of competitions but Conor again came out runner-up but this time the score was a mouth watering 16-21 21-14 21-14.

The singles finalists then teamed up yet again to be crowned doubles champions beating Luke Marks and Lochlann O'Rourke 22-20 21-12.