A Bonanza of Badminton, Carn Brea Leisure Centre, Pool, 20 November 2022
Over 50 badminton players from all over Cornwall, Plymouth and north Devon, gathered at the 8 court Carn Brea Leisure Centre in Pool at the weekend to take part in Cornwall Badminton Association’s latest Bonanza, making a welcome return after a three-year break.
The idea of Badminton Bonanza tournaments is to give both social players and those who play league badminton a chance to try out and develop their skills against different players. The many regulars were joined this time by some very welcome new faces, some playing in a tournament for the first time, as the Bonanza goes from strength to strength, with any profits going towards developing badminton in Cornwall.
This year’s tournament at Pool was another great success, with some close fought battles in all the different disciplinesand a great day of badminton.
For the social players, the men’s doubles was a closely fought event, won by Camborne’s Karthik Siva and Simon Cheung with Joseph Tse and David Wong as runners-up. In the mixed doubles, the top slots were shared by members of the Choughs club, with Russell Tucker and Zelda Bennett coming first, followed by regulars Mark and Della Griffiths.The men’s singles saw Karthik triumph once again with the best results, with Russell Tucker as runner-up. The women’s social singles final title was won by Madalina Topor, who played in the combined mens and womens social singles. St.Austell’s Millie Bray came out top in the league women’s singles, having won several games against male opponents, with Sheila Wu as runner-up.
In the league women’s doubles, after many close games, players from the Tecans club based in Pool, came first and second. Topping the division were Paulina Sztukowska and Rachael Williams, who only dropped 2 points overall, closely followed by Anne Herlihy and Kay Bossenger.
The league events also had some hard fought, skilful badminton, and in the men’s singles the two group winners went through to the final, where reigning champion from St Ives, Tony Wong played Chulmleigh’s Ben Hamill in an absorbing game which Ben eventually won. Following some close semi-final games in the men’s doubles, the final was contested by Tecan’s Gary Braunton and Chris Ryan, and one of the pairs from Chulmleigh, Matthew Harvey and Ben Hamill. After two close games, Ben and Matt’s power won the day for the third successive year.
The mixed doubles final was between group winners Chris Ryan and partner Rachael Williams, and Ben Hamill, going for his hat-trick with Michelle Wylde – Ben and Michelle played some impressive badminton to win, and complete an excellent day’s badminton.
