Successful BME tournament in Pill Millennium Centre, Newport

Posted by Angela Stevens at 12:06 on 26 June 2014


BME Badminton Tournament at Pill Millenium Centre, Newport

Badminton Wales and Communities First worked in partnership to deliver a very successful BME tournament in Pill Millennium Centre, Newport.

The tournament was preceded by free practice sessions which run for the 6 weeks leading up to the event.

Exclusively a doubles tournament, 19 pairs entered. The tournament started with a group stage competition consisting of 3 groups of 5 pairs and 1 group of 4. The players played 1 game, first to 15 points. The matches were umpired by Badminton Wales leaders and coaches and all games were played to a very high standard.  

The top 2 teams of each group then went through to a quarter finals which involved best of 3 matches, first to 21. The 4 winning teams then went on to the semi-finals. The semi-final stage proved to be exciting as the quality of play was very high and the games were very close. 

Once the semi-finals were played and the finalists were in place, there was a 3rd/4th place playoff to determine the bronze medalists. This was a very intense match with all players giving 110% effort however Shekul Khan and Rafiq Miah were to claim victory, winning the match 21-12.

The finals saw Juber Boksh and Vu Trong Mieu against Zethu Miah and Emon Khan. The game was extremely close with Zethu and Emon taking the first set 21-14 and Juber and Vu Trong taking the second, 21-16, making it one game each and setting the scene for an exciting third game. The third match could not have been any tenser with players battling for each and every point whilst starting to struggle with the onset of cramp and exhaustion.  There was very little between the two pairs but Juber and Vu Trong managed to clinch the third set 21-19, earning themselves the top spot. Eddie O’Neill, Chief Executive for Badminton Wales, and Nathan Davies, Communities First, presented the awards.

After an excellent day of badminton the aim is now to carry on the success of the tournament by creating a BME badminton association based in Pill Millennium Centre.  With the help of Shajan Miah (BME Community Development Officer) and Angela Stevens (Badminton Development Officer for South Wales), a BME badminton association meeting has been planned for 1st July 2014 and will take place in Pill Millennium Centre.  The aim of this meeting is to get the players who participated in the tournament to carry on its success by organising weekly badminton sessions in Pill Millennium Centre.  

Shajan Miah commented,

“By doing this we hope that it can develop into an adult club and also include a junior session so that all of the community can have the opportunity to play.”