Gravenhurst Falcons Badminton Club

Six Falcons participated in the last GBDBA tournament enjoying the badminton-only facilities of the Machi Training Center.  Black walls, high ceilings, indirect lighting and badminton lines only make playing at Machi a special event for our players.

In his rookie tournament Aiden Courville was D Finalist winning a true character match 22-20, 23-21. He showed a real ability to stay cool under pressure and to aim his shots.  As his technique improves these qualities will make him a formidable opponent.

His younger brother Colton won his first match in a tournament 21-19, 21-11 and lost some very close matches.

The Patel brothers, Shrey and Om, each won their respective age categories – Shrey winning U19 and Om U13. Each had to survive one very tight match to finish with the gold.  Om’s first match was won in 3 against an opponent from Machi.  The rallies where long and the game well played and kept the spectators on the edges of their seats right to the end.  Shrey’s second match against an opponent from Alliston also went 3 and was decided in the last few rallies.

William Nunnemacher won his first match moving to B where he played probably the hardest match of his young career losing in 3 to a Machi opponent.  He couldn’t have worked harder and never quit running until the final shot hit the floor.  His next match came very quickly and he just couldn’t recover both physically and emotionally quickly enough to play like he had in his marathon match.

Cameron Bird is U13 but played in the U15 event.  He came within a hair of taking the gold. His first match was against the eventual champion once again against a Machi opponent.  Cameron took him to 3 games and some smart strategy by his opponent made the difference in the third game.  Cameron had to work to win his remaining games but no one came as close to defeating the champion as Cameron.

Congratulations to our 6 Falcons.  It was great to watch everyone pushing so hard and playing so well!

Cameron Bird and Om Patel attended their first ever sanctioned Provincial B tournament in Bowmanville.  Both Falcons worked very hard and played up to the higher level of competition.

In Singles Cameron won his first match in 2 games and then faced the eventual champion.  He hung in very well in the first game and was ahead at 17 points but then his opponent made some very good shots and stole that game.  This rattled Cameron a little and the score wasn’t as close in the second game.  Om lost his first two matches but the second match was extremely close and both games not being decided until the last few points.

In Doubles the boys got a break when their first round opponents, the number one seed, withdrew.  The boys took advantage of this and squeezed by two very close matches to move into the finals.  There they played a very strong team who were very accurate with their shots as well as keeping our boys off balance.  Cameron and Om did come home with the Silver Medal – no trivial achievement for their first ranked Junior B tournament.

Playing this tournament gave Cameron and Om experience that only this level of competition can give you.  By the end of the day they were playing with more confidence and were reacting to strength in their opponents with strategy rather than panic.

William Nunnunmacher and Desmond Gauthier were the only Falcons competing in the third tournament of the GBDBA circuit. This was a doubles event and this young team has become one of the best GBDBA U13 teams.
As they were the only U13 boys teams entered in this event they were entered in GDU15. The girls gave them good games but couldn’t manage to win any matches against our young team. William and Desmond are beginning to play very good doubles with strong service and service return as well as looking for the holes in their opponents defense. Well done!

Great year for the Falcons!

Winter Games: Dhir and Shrey made the team and the team finished 4th.  This was an all time high for GBDBA in recent memory.  The 3-4 Tie was played against TDBA and was lost 5-4.  How close can you come to winning a medal!!  Well done to Dhir and Shrey and to all the members of the GBDBA team.

GBDBA Championships:  Dhir and Shrey won U19 Doubles without really being challenged. Then they finished one-two in Singles with Dhir withholding excellent play by Shrey who forced many very tough rallies.

Cameron and Om won U13 Doubles while our new youngster team of Desmond (Gauthier) and William lost their first match and then won the rest finishing first in C flight.  In Singles there were 3 Falcons in the semifinals – Cameron, Om and Desmond.  The eventual champion was the Machi player.  He defeated Cameron first and then Om in the Finals.  Desmond went on to finish 2nd in the B flight.

Cameron teamed up with Kate Wang of Midland and finished as B Champions.

Our sole competitor in U17 was Morgan Gillan.  Partnering with Knight Hawk’s Ashley Smith in Mixed and Winston Young in Doubles he finished first in B flight  Mixed and third in Doubles.

School teams:  Shrey was the only Falcon to play for GHS.  Playing Singles he won MPS and GBSSA which qualified him to travel to Windsor to compete at OFSSA.  In his first 3 matches he lost, won and lost and was not permitted to compete at the C level because he was considered a club player — a new and very controversial rule for singles players at OFSAA.

Morgan teamed up with Ashley Smith and won both MPS and GBSSA at the junior level.

Om and Cameron surprised everyone.  They played Intermediate division (Grades 7 & 8) despite only being in Grade 4 ….. and they won!!

Desmond Gauthier won the Junior Boys Singles in his rookie season!

WELL DONE FALCONS!