Last weekend saw the University of Limerick play host to the 2011 Irish Badminton Intervarsities Tournament which saw 13 teams from all four provinces representing their university in the competition.

This spectacular three day event began with a group stage, run on a round-robin format, with the top two teams from each group progressing to the quarter-finals on Saturday along with the two best runners-up. University College Cork ‘A’, Trinity College Dublin ‘A’ and University of Limerick ‘A’ each won their respective groups convincingly to progress to the quarter-final knockout stage where they were joined by NUIG, QUB ‘A’, University of Ulster, DCU and UCC ‘B’. The plate competition saw QUB ‘B’, TCD ‘B’, UL ‘B’, RCSI ‘A’ and RCSI ‘B’ play around robin with QUB ‘B’ winning and TCD ‘B’ finishing as runners-up.

The quarter finals saw strong performances from UCC ‘A’, beating University of Ulster 7-1, NUIG winning 8-0 against UCC ‘B’, TCD ‘A’ overcoming DCU 7-1 and QUB ‘A’ seeing off the challenge of the hosts UL ‘A’ on a scoreline of 5-3.

The semi-finals saw UCC ‘A’ pitted against QUB ‘A’ and NUIG up against TCD ‘A’, with UCC ‘A’ and TCD ‘A’ winning on scorelines of  5-0 and 5-1 respectively to set up an eagerly awaited Cup Final between the two top seeds for the tournament.

With over 100 spectators staying around to watch the final on Sunday afternoon, all were treated to some exquisite games of badminton. With the tie delicately poised at 2-2 after the doubles, UCC ’A’ pulled away in the mixed with some classic three set matches at 1^st and 2^nd mixed. UCC ‘A’ consolidated the win with player of the tournament Colm Kelly and Jessica Guinn taking 4^th mixed to win the cup in fantastic style on a scoreline of 6-2.

The University of Limerick would also like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Muriel Moles for all her help over the course of the weekend. Also, all players must be credited for their enthusiasm and competitiveness and impeccable sportsmanship over the weekend.

Next year’s Intervarsities will be held by National University of  Ireland Galway (NUIG) which will be without doubt another great varsities weekend.

Come onnnn Galway!

Report with thanks to Damian Hehir