University Badminton The 2010 Welsh Badminton University Cup was held at Swansea University Sports Centre over the weekend of 1st-2nd May. It was the biggest Welsh Badminton University Cup event yet with teams from the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Glamorgan and Swansea all taking part in what amounted to over 21 hours of badminton being played over 2 days!

Day one was the Team event with all Universities playing each other in Mixed doubles, Level Doubles and Singles to see who would be crowned champions for 2010. After many gruelling group matches, it was Cardiff and Bangor who forced their way though to the show-piece final. In a repeat of last years team final, Cardiff edged the mixed doubles in 3 tight games to go 1-0 up. The women’s singles proved to be just as tight with Cardiff winning 21-19 in the 3rd game to gain a 2-0 advantage. On to the men’s doubles and another 3-game encounter with Bangor the victors this time – 24-22 in the 3rd game. With the score-line now 2-1 to Cardiff, it fell to Cardiff Captain Dom Brown to seal a 4th straight WUC team title for Cardiff and he duly obliged, coming through to win in two close games to give Cardiff an unassailable 3-1 lead.

Day two was the Individual Events day with group matches followed by semi-finals and then finals. The mixed doubles final was a tighter affair than the score-line suggested with Glamorgan’s Craig and Nicole Walkley winning 21-15 over Christina Shiels and Rich Morrissey of Bangor. In the women’s singles final, Alyssia Broomfield sealed her 2nd successive WUC singles title with a 21-16 victory over Jackqueline Tsang of Glamorgan. The match of the day was undoubtedly the men’s doubles final between Glamorgan pairings Craig Walkley & Vipul Bindal and Chris Pickard & Tom Spurrier with Craig & Vipul eventually claiming gold after a high-quality epic encounter – 28 -26! In the women’s doubles final, Bangor’s Christina Shiels & Hannah Stephenson successfully defended their WUC title with a 21-18 win against Alyssia Broomfield and Rachel Nurse of Cardiff. The last final of the day was the men’s singles but in a cruel twist of fate, it was marred by a severe attack of cramp to Craig Walkley forcing him to retire just a few points shy of an historic individual treble, thus leaving his Glamorgan compatriot Vipul Bindal to claim the title in the most awkward of circumstances.

This year’s tournament was yet another resounding success with all the students’ displaying not only great badminton skills on the court but also showing great sportsmanship and respect for each other off it. The success of these tournaments depends entirely on the collective will and efforts of all the participating students and once again everybody can be justifiably proud of their achievements and conduct throughout the weekend.