The Wellington North Open 2021 was held 16-18 July and was the biggest tournament in Central Region for the last decade with 114 players entered from all around the country. The event was also live streamed again this year, the semi-finals, and all main draw matches of the finals on sky sport next. Despite the atrocious weather an amazing weekend of badminton was had for players and spectators alike. Umpires from around the country attended and officiated at matches. A huge thank you to Kelvin Tsui, Holly Cho, Vic Kim, Agustine Gritto, Jaime Swale, Basil Alias, Michael Liu and Megan Van Zyl for giving up their weekend to help us run a successful tournament. They did a fantastic job as did our referee Julie Carrell.

Thanks also to Johnathon Stone for his work ensuring we were able to live stream the semi-finals and finals matches to sky sport next. Commentary of finals matches was from Anona Pak and Rayna Phillips (not to mention their doggy assistants!) Our kitchen was run as a café this year with food prepared by our favourite chef Ming Ghee, we all enjoyed delicious hot cooked food.

 A big shout out and thanks to New World Tawa for providing healthy snacks free of charge for all the players to refuel and enjoy. Thanks also to New Zealand Community Trust for their funding support to enable our community development team to deliver such an amazing event; and finally our accommodation partner Willis Wellington Hotel for providing affordable accommodation options to our out of region officials and players.

Team WN was well represented in the finals with top seeds Luke Falvey and Caragh Alley winning the mixed doubles event. Luke also won the men’s singles and Caragh won the women’s doubles with her partner Tan Li Feng. The men’s doubles final was an upset win for Sunil Dahiya and Thomas Ellis beating the top seeds in a thrilling final match. Tegan Weston had a great tournament wining every match she played in and taking the title of women’s singles on the day.

The plates finals were just as exciting with Team WN players winning women’s singles, mixed doubles, and men’s doubles. Tracey and Leck Tham dispatched their opponents in just 13 minutes to win the mixed doubles plate.

The standard of play was excellent, with 239 entries over 5 events with plates rounds being played also. You can relive the action of the finals: https://youtu.be/hiec4SlwHA8

Winners were

Men’s Singles: Luke Falvey
Women’s Singles: Tegan Weston
Men’s Doubles: Sunil Dahiya and Thomas Ellis
Women’s Doubles: Caragh Alley and Tan Li Feng
Mixed Doubles: Luke Falvey and Caragh Alley

Men’s Singles Plate: Oscar Ho
Women’s Singles Plate: Chanmony Khieng
Men’s Doubles Plate: Justin Tay and Leck S Tham
Women’s Doubles Plate: Nikki Song and Jessica Zhang
Mixed Doubles Plate: Leck S Tham and Tracey Tham