Guernsey Badminton Association president John Cook welcomed a bumper field, containing 107 competitors, over to the Rohais for the three-day event.
‘We were particularly pleased with the numbers on both sides of the tournament – the Senior Silver and Masters Bronze,’ he said.
‘And extremely pleased with the numbers of visitors who attended who came with players. There was one guy [singles runner-up Krish Mahbubani] who turned up with his whole family – mother, father, and siblings – excellent. The dinner on Saturday night went really well too.’
Around two-thirds of the total field were visiting for the tournament with the bulk accommodated at St Pierre Park or Les Rocquettes Hotel.
The Tourism Management Board funding allocated £50 apiece for up to 100 visitors, but as entries did not reach that ambitious figure, they instead gave £64 cashback to each on arrival.
‘This was given in Guernsey pounds, so they would spend it in the island,’ Cook added.
‘The Tourism Board took a bit of a gamble with that, but it seems it paid off.’
He also praised ‘some good individual results’ and especially the performance of 15-year-old Medha Vallapureddy.
The Orkney 2025 Island Games debutant and water carrier defeated several senior opponents, including a three-game thriller against Anne Hubscher in the semi-final, and was topped only by adopted Sarnian Cara Collins.
‘Medha did extremely well to get though to the final.
‘Even if she could not beat Cara, who has just moved to the island and also won last year... she had played a semi-final just before.
‘For her age, for Medha to get to that final was fantastic.’
Aside from Collins, who also won the women’s and mixed doubles, Sarnian success was rare.
Paul Le Tocq did reach the final of the men’s doubles alongside the singles champion, Anthony Peverell, following the withdrawal of his partner. But the Goode cousins proved too much for him.
However, masters international Le Tocq did succeed in winning the men’s and mixed doubles at over-40s level.
In the over-40 women’s singles, the GBA president described Maxine Fitzgerald and Sarah Garbutt’s final against Betty Blair and Susan Godfrey – where the Sarnians were edged 18-21, 21-18, 20-22 – as particularly exciting.
Cook had gone into the event hoping that it would not be a one-off but a catalyst for popular events in future years.
Now that it has happened and lived up to the high expectations, he is hoping to take this triumph and run with it.
‘It’s no good just boosting the tournament for one year.
‘We want to boost it in subsequent years as well.
‘Our target is to replicate the same numbers or better for the Easter Open.
‘The Junior Open, four or five weeks before, we want to really start promoting that as well.’
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