Hampshire Ladies shine in local Challenger Tournament

hm Sun 6 Dec 2009

The Hampshire Open Challenger Tournament was held at the Westgate Badminton Centre over the weekend of the 5th - 6th December.

There was a large entry, particularly in the Men's Singles, where only 40 of the 60 entrants could be accepted. Players travelled from as far as Jersey, Guernsey, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Scotland, Kent, Devon and so on. Competition was intense with a high percentage of matches going to three ends.

The Hampshire men could not manage to get into the quarter-finals of the singles, but the Hampshire ladies filled three of the semi-final slots. Panuga Riou beat Hannah Littlecott 21-17 21-11 to reach the final, where she came up against Jo Dix who had knocked out Gemma Whiting (Kent) in her semi-final. In the final Panuga proved too strong for her more experienced opponent and ran out the winner by 21-15 21-12. Jo got her revenge in the final of the Ladies' Doubles. She teamed up with Gemma Whiting to win the title, beating Kathryn Gittins (ex-Hampshire, now Dorset) and Panuga Riou by 21-18 21-18. Chris Evans, playing with Adam Smith of Avon, fought his way through to the final of the Men's Doubles, but was defeated there by Matthew Sprake of Cheshire and Graham Hurrell (ex-Hampshire, now Dorset)by a margin of 21-12 21-14.

For a full set of results please go to the Seniors page.

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