It was ‘almost’ a clean sweep for the Magee family at the 2015 Carlton Irish National Championships held at the weekend in the National Badminton Centre, Lisburn.
Double Olympian Chloe Magee (1) once again demonstrated why she is queen of the badminton court during the women’s singles event beating Moya Ryan in the semi-finals 21-11, 21-12. Magee’s niece Rachael Darragh (2) took victory over Laura Butler 21-7, 21-11 making it a Magee family final. Darragh (2) gave her aunt everything she had in a valiantly fought match but she will have to wait her turn in the family line for a national title as Magee retained her title in two games 21-15, 21-14.
In the men’s singles reigning champion Jonathon Dolan (2) took the first game of his semi-final against Tony Stephenson 21-12 but Stephenson upped his game to take the next two 21-15, 21-8. Badminton Ireland Academy player, 14 year old Nhat Nuguyen, gave a promising performance against Joshua Magee but it was the older player’s experience that gave him the match in two games 21-14, 21-10. Stephenson was on fire when he faced Joshua Magee in the final, Magee fought hard in an exceptionally tight three game match but on this occasion Stephenson took the title in 21-15, 12-21, 21-17.
It was success again for the Magee family when brothers Sam and Joshua Magee (1) took to the court for the men’s doubles taking a comfortable victory in the semi-finals against Stuart Lightbody and Tony Murphy (3/4) 21-9, 21-13. Older brother Daniel Magee and partner Niall Tierney faced Jonathon Dolan and Tony Stephenson (3/4) but despite a bravely fought 3 game match lost out to the seeded pairing 21-13, 16-21, 21-19. Stephenson and Dolan took the first game in the finals and gave the Magee brothers a real challenge for the title but it was the Magees who finally took the title 19-21, 21-19, 21-14
