Report on the Hertfordshire Senior Silver (“Open”) 2022
After a three year hiatus because of Covid, this season’s Hertfordshire Senior Silver (“Open”) tournament took place on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 August at the Hertfordshire Sports Village. Over 120 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. This was the first time all events were scheduled to be played up to and including the quarter finals on the Saturday. Not everything went to plan but there were still over 150 matches played on the Saturday.
On the Sunday, play started with the remaining mixed games from the previous day and then the semi-finals and finals of all events. In the mens’ singles Ollie Baczala (Hants) met Dinuka Karunaratne (Middlesex) in a top-quality final with Dinuka winning 21-16, 21-14 The ladies singles final was between Tashvi Parab (Bucks) and Katie Scott (Suffolk) with Tashvi winning a really close match 21-9, 16-21, 21-19.
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| Dinuka Karunaratne | Tashvi Parab |
In the mens’ doubles the number one seeds Victor Liew and Robert Golding (Middlesex) dominated the event eventually beating Robin Harper and Ethan Van Leeuwen (Warks) 21-11 21-18 in the final. In the ladies’ doubles Hertfordshire’s Abbie Smith paired up with Jessica Allen (Leics) and met Annie and Natasha Lado (Hants) in the final where the Lados ran out the winners 21-15, 21-19. In the mixed doubles there was more Hertfordshire representation with Harry Goode and Olivia Clark pairing up with Caitlin Harper (Warks) and Jack Taylor (Norfolk) respectively. It was Harry and Caitlin that prevailed in a tight match winning 21-16, 12-21, 21-18.
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| Victor Liew & Robert Golding | Annie & Natasha Lado |
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| Harry Goode & Caitlin Harper |
Overall, it was another successful Herts Open tournament, generally played in good spirit with lots of excellent badminton. I would like to thank the referee, Mike Newlove, and Jo Williams, Simon Gouldstone, Tim Jalland and Graham Hall for all their help over the weekend which ensured the tournament ran as smoothly as possible.
Eddie Lintott
8 October 2022