On the 2nd of April, we began preparing the 2019 club championships. It began with appointing Tim as our chairman, who was not even in the committee. However all was fine, and Tim gracefully took the job. After finding the only available date for this to-be-spectacular day, we created a subscription form and told everyone about our event. 2019 desperately wanted us to be aware of the fact that there is a lot of technology available, so we lost our paper subscriptions. An online form and WhatsApp group was the result, and so our tournament could take place. The subscriptions soon came in, and it promised to become a wonderful day with lots of competitors. We were going to be with so many, it was not possible to have dinner in the Trafalgar pub afterwards. A club championship without dinner after is not a club championship, so many restaurants were named as a replacement, however none fulfilled our wishes. A BBQ is what we were opting for, and the competitors seemed to agree.
And then it was July 6th. D-day. At
10 in the morning sharp we started with our first of many matches. As always
doubles was played with random partners. Given the low amount of subscriptions
for the nylon category, doubles contained both nylon and feather shuttle
players. To make sure many matches could be played, it was decided to only play
2 sets until 21 (like at an ISBT), which meant that everyone finished their
match around the same time. After 5 rounds of random doubles, the 8 best
players made it to the (semi) finals. Here we would play by the regular rules
of 3 sets, including a possible extension until 30. For singles, the Swiss
ladder system was used in the feathers category, while the nylon players played
one big poule. All together everyone got to play a lot of matches and was super
tired in the end.
Only the award ceremony was left. For 2 out of
the 3 categories we played, the winners were known before the ceremony began.
Pascal den Boef managed to win all his matches in the nylon singles, and
therefore was crowned champion, with Markus Gerlofsma as his respectable runner
up. Due to the presence of (semi)finals in the doubles, it was immediately
known that Bas Janssen and Annelieke van Bergen, and Tim Koenis and Judith van
Huijstee would fight for the title. With a 4-year running streak for Tim on the
line, it promised to be an exciting match. Eventually Bas and Annelieke took
home the win in the third set, and became champions. For the feather singles,
some calculations had to be made. With a difference of only 5 points across the
day, it was Tim who became champion, with Sheng Li as a very close runner up.
For some this meant they went home, while
others joined us in the Trafalgar pub for dinner. Yés, we did eventually get to
eat at the Trafalgar pub, as many decided to not join dinner after all. While
enjoying (mostly) burgers and fries, and a few earned beers, we had a good
laugh over dinner. As everyone was quite
tired, all that was left was a cycle home, brushing your teeth, and falling
asleep.
On behalf of our entire committee (Tim Koenis,
Bas van Hoof, Tom Peters and myself), I would like to thank all competitors of
the day for making our club championships a success. I hope you all have had a
great day like myself. Onto the next!
Love,
Kady
