A few upsets unfolded at the Irish U/19 Badminton Tournament in the Terenure Badminton Centre. Wallace High’s Tony Stephenson caused the biggest upset by firstly beating the number 2 seed Gavin Mc Auley in the semi final, then Stephenson took on Royal and Prior’s (Donegal) Sam Magee (No.1 Seed) in the final. Stephenson took the opening set 21-17, but Magee used his wealth of experience and took the middle set 21-15, this left the supporters with a thrilling final set with Stephenson only 16 years of age taking the last set 21-17 and the national title.

An electric atmosphere descended on the Terenure Badminton Centre, when 200 students from St Colmcille’s, Knocklyon came to support the Irish U/23 team in their opening midday match against Scotland. The pupils brought their excitement of having the afternoon off school to watch Badminton into a very highly charged match. With the very experienced master of ceremony David Tutty raising the crowd into frenzy of support and of course many circulating “Mexican Waves”. There were some very close matches but Scotland were victors 6-1 with Ireland’s recent senior national doubles champions Sam & Danial Magee the only pairing to win their match.

Ireland’s top professionals Scott Evans and Chloe Magee showed their expertise in the men’s and ladies singles events in the Shires Leinster Open in Carlow last weekend. Neither Scott nor Chloe dropped a set to win their singles titles, although there were some English, Scottish, Welsh and Belgium competitors, they were never really stretched on court. Scott’s next tournaments are the Austrian, Croatian Internationals with the All England’s in early March, were as Chloe must be one of the favorites in the singles event, in the upcoming Junior European Championships.