Gravenhurst Falcons Badminton Club

Gravenhurst Falcons performed amazingly well at the first GBDBA tournament of the year.  As well, we had a record number of Falcons participating….10 in total!

A special congratulation to the rookies who played a GBDBA tournament for the first time.  Claire Lim (U15), younger sister Alicia (U13) and Matthew Montross (U15) all displayed plenty of enthousiasm, the rookie’s best weapon.  Both Alicia and Matthew managed victories while Claire came close in a very competitive group.

Morgan Gillan (U15) played his personal best and lost in the semi-finals to the eventual champion giving him his toughest match of the day.  Another personal best tournament was played by Thomas Battistini (U15) who also won his second match of the day and looked very strong despite being extremely tired following his participation in the 24 hour vigil at the Bracebridge cenotaph.

There were 3 Falcons in the U13 category.  All of our boys are actually U11s (born in 2008) while the U13 is for those born in 2005/06.  Unfortunately for our boys there the eventual champion was a strong player from Machi who actually took out our entire team at this level – William Nunnenmacher in the first round, Cameron Bird in the semis and Om Patel in the finals.  This trio all played tenaciously with William ending up with one victory, Cameron with two and Om with two.

In the U19 category we had Dhir Patel, actually a U15 player, who appears to be in a category by himself as he won this category without losing a game.  Shrey Patel, a U17 player also playing up, ended up as the B Champion after losing one match in the A round and winning an exciting 3 game match in the B final.

WAY TO GO FALCONS!

While most have been enjoying other sports and summer fun Dhir has been working hard at his badminton skills practicing 2 or 3 times a week and has successfully made it to the top 5 who will be competing as part of the GBDBA Summer Games Team. He is currently ranked 2nd out of the six who were chosen to try out for the top 5 positions.  (The 6th is on call in case an emergency replacement is needed but is normally not permitted to compete at the games.)

This is quite a remarkable achievement for someone who is only 13 and initially was considered too young to even try out!

This tournament is an amazingly FUN experience from a spectator point of view as there is ample cheering because of the team aspect.

If you able to and are at all interested it would be great to see support for Dhir at the Games.  It is a bit of a hike but I’m sure that you would really enjoy the experience.   It sheds a different light on the world of badminton.

The tournament runs Friday, Aug. 12 through Sunday, Aug. 14 at the Mississauga Valley Community Center.  Details can be obtained by going to: http://www.gbdba.ca/
click on Ontario Summer Games and follow the directions from there.

If you’re interested in going and have any questions at all give me a phone call at 705 687 5619.

Warren

Competition was very tough but Dhir and Shrey played very well and came away with victories in both Singles and Doubles.

For Shrey these are his first wins at the Junior B level and to break the ice is always an accomplishment at this level.  In U17 Singles Shrey lost his opener against a KCBC player.  In the Consolation round he defeated a player from North Bay 21-17, 21-17.  Then he lost to another KCBC player 21-18, 21-11.  In this tournament if you lose your second match, whether in main round or consolation you are finished in that event.

In U15 Singles Dhir defeated his first opponent from KCBC 21-14, 21-6.  Then he had a very long, closely fought match against a player from Lee’s BC.  Dhir eventually lost 22-20, 21-23, 21-19.  The match could have gone either way and his opponent continued on to the semi-finals.

In U17 Doubles Dhir and Shrey lost their opener to the number 1 seeds and eventual champions, 21-11, 21-6.  In the consolation round Shrey strained his ankle in the warm up and despite restricted mobility the boys managed to defeat a team from Loker BA 18-21, 21-16, 21-14.  Then they lost a good battle to a team from Mandarin 21-18, 21-9.

Nine Falcons competed in the Barrie region at this year’s Junior Championships with excellent results that show promise for Falcons in the future.

In the U11 category we had 5 competitors.  William Nunnenmacher was our youngest player and came away with some great experience that will pay off in the future as he still has 3 years in this age category.

Om Patel finished 2nd to a Machi player who was considered to be unbeatable but Om almost did the unthinkable taking him to 25-23 in the final game.  In Doubles Om teamed up with Cameron Bird and once again played a very tough final losing 21-19 in the 3rd game and taking 2nd place.  Cameron played the longest singles game of the tournament in placing second in B – 21-17, 23-25, 21-15.

Carter Pallister and Nolan Harbridge, partners in doubles, had to face each other in the semi-finals of C with Carter hanging on by a whisper with a 23-21 victory in the 3rd game.  Carter went on to win the C with an easy victory over a Machi opponent.  In Doubles Carter and Nolan finished a strong 3rd.

Morgan Gillan drew nothing but tough opponents.  In the first two draws he met the eventual winner in the first round.  Finally he was able to gain a victory in the D draw.

Dhir and Shrey Patel each did very well in U17 Singles and Doubles.  Dhir collected the Gold medal in each event partnering with Shrey in Doubles.  The Doubles final was a very exciting, well played match going 3 games.  Dhir defeated the same, somewhat tired, opponent in the finals that Shrey had lost to in the semis.

Julianna Richardson had the shortest tournament having to withdraw after her first match due to illness.