International badminton recently made a welcome return to the local sports scene with the sixth edition of the Friendship Trophy, held over three days at St. Martin’s College, Swatar.
In its previous editions, this tournament had seen the participation of club teams from Italy, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Sweden and Germany.
For this year’s edition, the tournament hosted three foreign teams: Gotland (from Sweden) as well as the national teams of Gibraltar and Turkish Cyprus.
Local opposition was provided by Pawla Wolves BC which, captained by Kenneth Vella, was made up of the following players: Anna Galea, Jo’Anne Cassar, Catherine Dimech, David Cole and Anthony Xuereb.
The tournament was run in strict accordance with the rules of the International Badminton Federation. On the first two days of the event, the four squads played each other on a league basis over a single round. Each fixture consisted of five separate games: Men’s Singles, Ladies’ Singles, Men’s Doubles, Ladies’ Doubles and Mixed Doubles.
Gotland won the Team event, having preserved their unbeaten status in the three matches played against Turkish Cyprus (4-1), Pawla Wolves (4-1) and Gibraltar (5-0).
Despite the somewhat drastic negative scoreline sustained by the Wolves against the Swedes, it is relevant to highlight the fact that, with the match provisionally tied at one-all, the Maltese side was leading 9-1 in the first set of the Ladies’ Doubles when Jo’Anne Cassar sustained a serious ankle ligament injury.
Though the medical treatment applied on court enabled Cassar to somehow finish the game, she had to withdraw from the tournament.
Despite this setback, the Wolves managed to clinch the runner-up berth after winning their encounters against Gibraltar (4-1) and Turkish Cyprus (3-2).
The latter match will be remembered for a memorable feat by the locals. With the provisional score at two-all, the K. Vella/D. Cole duo reversed a 2/13 second set deficit in their decisive Men’s Doubles game to win the set 17/14, thereby securing a 3-2 final score for the Wolves.
Gibraltar placed third in the Team event after defeating Turkish Cyprus 5-0.
In the third day of the tournament, the participating players took part in separate Men’s Singles and Ladies’ Singles competitions played on a knockout basis.
The Men’s Singles final was won by Jonas Anderson who had the better of his Swedish team mate Jim Granberg over three sets. Having lost the first one 13/15, Anderson ably bounced back to take the remaining two sets 15/8 and 15/4.
The Ladies’ Singles final was similarly a Swedish affair in which Anneli Gate defeated Maria Eklund 11/5 11/3
A spokesman for the local Badminton Association expressed satisfaction at the positive result obtained by the Pawla Wolves squad.
He also expressed the association’s gratitude to Emirates Airlines, Island Beverages Co. Ltd, Deutschland Minibus Services and St Martin’s College for their valuable assistance and support.