The first tournament of the year is now a memory but what a weekend! 60 players in total, the most we have ever had as far as I can remember which included a record number of new players, old faces we hadn’t seen for a while plus our regulars. It certainly had the ingredients for a very interesting tournament.
The break up of competitors worked out to be 5 teams with 12 players in each. Instead of four games each, because of the high numbers in each team, each player played 3 games per round and a total of 12 for the weekend. It certainly proved to be a good decision as it allowed each round to be completed within our usual time frame.
Injuries were few but even a few is a few too many. Margie Giles pulled out of the Sunday event as she unfortunately twisted her ankle in the last game on the Saturday afternoon seesion. I hope she has a speedy recovery. Judy Van Camp sprained a leg muscle but was able to keep on playing. Certainly was indicitive of her teams tenacity which at the end of the tournament took out first place with a massive total of 2050 points. Second place went to Team Winson with a 40 point difference in the scores. The difference between 1st and 5th place worked out to be 147 points which, considering it is always difficult to place newcomers at their natural skill level, is not a bad result overall.
The AGM went off without a hitch and with the implementation of a new committee we look forward to an exciting 2014. Outgoing president Graham Bonnett decided not to seek re election and after 6 years at the top we thank him for the tremendous effort he put in during that time to make sure that our association would be a viable choice to turn to for those wanting to keep playing badminton at a level that is not so demanding as we get older. A motion was also passed at the AGM to increase the number of games from 5 to 6 per year although this probably won’t be implemented until next year.
Next tournament will be staged at Tallebudgera and for those wanting to promote the event at their club level an A4 poster is available for downloading which can be placed on their notice boards.
See you all at Tallebudgera.
