Report on the Hertfordshire Senior Silver (“Open”) 2018/19
This season’s Hertfordshire Senior Silver (“Open”) tournament took place on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 August at the Hertfordshire Sports Village. 125 players from across the country took part and Hertfordshire was well represented with both juniors and seniors looking to get tournament practice early in the season. Over 140 matches played.
The mens’ and ladies’ singles were played on the Saturday using all twelve courts at times. In the mens’ singles Andrew Heinemann and Sam Lyle (both Surrey) met in the final with Andrew winning 21-12 21-13. The ladies singles final was a close three setter between youth in the form of Alexandra Oprisan (Surrey) and the experience of Caroline Westley (Essex) with Caroline eventually winning 18-21 21-9 21-19.
All the doubles events were played on Sunday starting with the level doubles and as the day progressed the mixed doubles were started. In the mens’ doubles the number one seeds Victor Liew and Robert Golding (Middlesex) met the unseeded James Bufham and Jack Alexander Smith (Oxfordshire) in the final with Victor and Robert winning 21-15 21-19. In the ladies doubles final the Hertfordshire mother and daughter partnership of Jo and Molly Goode beat the top seeds Laura Baker and Leanne Debenham (Hampshire). In the mixed doubles there was more Hertfordshire success with Matt Widdicombe teaming up with Caroline Westley to win the event beating the all Hertfordshire pair of Jo Goode and Zach Daniels in a close final 21-14 15-21 21-11.
Overall it was another successful Herts Open tournament, played in good spirit with lots of excellent badminton. A tournament of this size would not have been possible, nor would it have run so smoothly without the help of a number of people, and so I would like to thank the referees, John Herdman and Mike Newlove, Jo Williams, Bob Welsh, Graham Hall, Tim Jalland, Mike Wong and the staff at HSV for their time and effort over the weekend.
Eddie Lintott
4 October 2018