The defending champion was last defeated in the Island tournament way back in 1989 when he lost to close friend and long term doubles partner Steve Watson.On his way to the final Hardwidge produced a most impressive straight sets victory over Clive Dunford who, following Coombs-Goodfellow’s retirement from the Island Games, spearheaded Jersey’s campaign in the men’s singles in the 2003 Games in Guernsey.However in the Jersey final the talented 17-year-old found the daunting task of dislodging the master simply too much.
Although the early exchanges were even, with the serve changing hands on several occasions, once the favourite opened the scoring he gradually pulled away and the teenager struggled to match the consistency and variety of shot shown by the No 1 seed.Although Hardwidge, whose head never dropped, managed to win the serve on numerous occasions he was unable to put Coombs-Goodfellow, who has hardly trained this season, under any real pressure as the champion was still very quick to make him pay for the slightest error.In the absence of the pregnant Kerry Coombs-Goodfellow, who has won ladies singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles for the last few years, England junior international Mariana Agathangelou secured her first Island senior singles title after defeating Kim Ashton 11-2, 11-2.The talented left-hander, who has recently had some excellent results while on England duty, never looked in danger of losing the encounter and although Ashton, as always, put up a very gutsy performance she was unable to really trouble her opponent.The new champion continues to improve under the watchful eye of her Jersey based coaches Kerry Coombs-Goodfellow and Steve Watson and is gaining a wealth of experience from her travels overseas.Steve Watson and Ian Coombs-Goodfellow took their 15th men’s doubles title.
In the final they defeated Jamie Smith, the hero of Jersey’s 1999 Island Games team in Gotland who has recently returned to the sport, and Colin Hardwidge.The first set, as the 15-1 scoreline suggests, was comfortable but in the second it was far more challenging as the talented Smith, a good all round sportsman with great speed and power, and Hardwidge, who is improving all the time, started much more positively.It resulted in putting their veteran opponents under pressure and, producing some excellent badminton, they – somewhat surprisingly – led for most of the set, only for Coombs-Goodfellow and Watson to come back strongly with the latter taking control to secure the set 15-10.The closest final was the ladies doubles where Trish O’Brien and Corrine Le Feuvre overcame the youthful partnership of Kim Ashton and Olivia Higgins in an exciting three setter 15-11, 8-15, 15-9.Despite losing a close opening set that could have gone either way, the youngsters fought back to take the second and force a decider.
O’Brien’s craft and flair in the forecourt was a feature as was the strength and power of Higgins and the strong defence and attacking play of Le Feuvre.With the match entering the third set many expected victory to go to the younger pair but full credit to O’Brien and Le Feuvre as they built a steady lead towards the second half of the decider and restricted their opponents to few opportunities during many long rallies.The mixed doubles final saw the highly experienced Steve Watson, gold-medallist in the mixed at the first four Island Games’, partner Trish O’Brien against Jamie Smith and newcomer Christine Powell.Although early exchanges were even, more consistent play from Watson and O’Brien began to tell and, as Watson pushed and probed, O’Brien took control at the net.Smith, who played extremely well throughout the night considering his absence from the sport, was able to penetrate his opponents’ defence on a number of occasions and Powell performed well in her first final in the Island.However it was not enough as Watson and O’Brien combined to great effect to win the title 15-7, 15-6Before presenting the trophies JBA president Val Wood thanked Gavin Carter and Carmen Cann for organising the tournaments.
