Finals

Individual Handicap Knockout Tournament 2026

Finals

The Braintree District Badminton League Finals took place on Saturday 30th May 2026 at Earls Colne Recreation Centre.

Everyone who attended were treated to some excellent badminton throughout the evening. Trophies were presented by Paul Butcher of LBC Badminton Club who has been an outstanding contributor to the League both as player and Committee member over many years.

Back to Tournaments

On this page;

Order of Play and Results

Presentation of Trophies

Previously Decided Finals - Individual

Previously Decided Finals - Team

League Winners

Thanks go to.....

Order of Play & Finals Results - Saturday 30th May 2026 - 6:15pm

Approx Time	Court 1	Winner/s
6:15pm	Mens Singles Final Umpire: Nicola Hutchins Graham Bowerman (0) (Bishops Stortford) vs Adam Neale (-2) (Bishops Stortford) Games to start at (0), (-2)	Adam Neale (-2) 21-19, 19-21, 18-21
7:00pm	Senior Veterans Mens Doubles Final Umpire: Sreram Subbaraman Paul Butcher/Melvin Hutton (-2) (LBC) vs Mike Digby/David Poole (+2) (Notley) Games to start at (-2), (-2)	Mike Digby/David Poole (+2) 16-21, 21-20, 20-21
7:45pm	Ladies Doubles Final Umpire: Brett Smith Maria Palieva/Madhura Kale (-6) (Bishops Stortford) vs Melissa Tang/Jessica Tang (-3) (Stanway) Games to start at (-3), (0)	Melissa Tang/Jessica Tang (-3) 10-21, 21-15, 19-21
8:30pm	Mens Doubles Final Umpire: Sue Graeme Bowerman/Tom Tongue (-3) (Bishops Stortford) vs Carl Ng/Tim Yau (-3) (Bishops Stortford) Games to start at (0), (0)	Cark Ng/Tim Yau (-3) 17-21, 12-21
Presentation of Trophies for Leagues & previously decided events
9:30pm	Mixed Doubles Final Umpire: Caitlin Hinstridge Vanessa Tarrant/Casey Mills (-1) (Earls Colne) vs Louise Digby/Arun Jayaprakash (-5) (Notley) Games to start at (0), (-4)	Louise Digby/Arun Jayaprakash (-5) 19-21, 19-21
Raffle

Presentation of Trophies 2026

Tonight the trophies will be presented by a familiar face to many: Paul Butcher of LBC Badminton Club. Paul, who is also our League Website Guru, has been a long-standing member of the league and been involved in local badminton for more than 40 years. Paul started his league career back in the early 1980's at Bramston Crusaders in Witham, playing in the Braintree and Chelmsford Leagues together with a few years in the County League, before joining LBC back in 1999. Paul continues to play an important role through the League and Tournament Committees, as well as the league website he started nearly 20 years ago. We should also note this is the first time Paul is competing on Finals night as well as presenting the trophies.

Mens Singles Winners of the Mens Singles was No 1 seed Simon Gilhooly (Stanway). Simon is pictured here receiving his the Mens Singles Trophy from Carol.
Ladies Doubles Winners of the Ladies Doubles Final were Vanessa Tarrant and Harriet Miller (Earls Colne). Vanessa and Harriet are pictured receiving their trophies from Carol.
Mens Doubles Winner of the Mens Doubles Final was were Richard Pipe and Jamie Curtis (Old Maldonians). Richard and Jamie are pictured receiving their trophies from Carol.
Veteran Mens Doubles Winners of the Veteran Mens Doubles Final were Carl Ng and Cong Peng (Bishops Stortford). Carl and Cong are pictured receiving their trophies from Carol
Youth & Experience Mixed Doubles Final Winners of the Youth and Experience Mixed Doubles Final were Julie Shelter and Mike Meepanya (LBC). Juile and Mike are pictured receiving their trophies from Carol
Not content with winning the Youth & Experience Mixed Doubles Julie and Mike went on to win the Mixed Doubles as well beating the No 1 seeds in arguably the best game of the night. Julie and Mike are pictured receiving their trophies from Carol

Mens Singles Final

Winner of the Mens Singles was Adam Neale of Bishops Stortford Badminton Club. Adam is pictured here being presented with the Mens Singles Cup and trophy by Paul.

Ladies Doubles Final

Winners of the Ladies Doubles Final were Melissa Tang and Jessica Tang of Stanway Badminton Club. Melissa and Jessica are pictured here being presented with the Ladies Doubles Cup and trophies by Paul.

Mens Doubles Final

Winners of the Mens Doubles Final were Carl Ng and Tim Yau of Bishops Stortford Badminton Club. Carl and Tim are pictured here being presented here with the Mens Doubles Cup and trophies by Paul.

Mixed Doubles Final

Winners of the Mixed Doubles Final were Louise Digby and Arun Jayaprakash of Notley Badminton Club. Louise and Arun are pictured here being presented with the Mixed Double Cup and trophies by Paul.

Previously Decided Finals - Individual

Ladies Singles
Winners:	Georgia Thomas
Runners Up:	Sakeena El Diwany

Veteran Ladies Doubles (over 45s)
Winners:	Louise Murphy/Julie Shelter
Runners Up:	Melanie Goodison/Gigi Ling

Senior Veteran Ladies Doubles (over 55s)
Winners:	Nicola Hutchins/Carole Hannah
Runners Up:	Louise Murphy/Julie Shelter

Veteran Mixed Doubles (over 45s)
Winners:	Vanessa Tarrant/Paul Barradell
Runners Up:	Melanie Goodison/Duncan Easley

Senior Veteran Mixed Doubles (over 55s)
Winners:	Nicola Hutchins/Melvin Hutton
Runners Up:	Louise Murphy/Paul Butcher

Veteran Mens Doubles (over 45s)
Winners:	Scott Brocklehurst/Mark Smith
Runners Up:	Graeme Bowerman/Carl Ng

Mens Singles Plate
Winner:	Tyler Rolfe
Runner Up:	Tom Boddey

Mens Doubles Plate
Winners:	Ben Haythorpe/Aaron Yeo
Runners Up:	Craig Ramsey/Arun Jayaprakash

Mixed Doubles Plate
Winners:	Claire Haythorpe/Aaron Yeo
Runners Up:	Caitlin Hinstridge/Richard Stybar

Youth & Experience Mixed Doubles
Winners:	Georgia Thomas/David Poole
Runners Up:	Carole Hannah/Tyler Rolfe

Youth & Experience Mens Doubles
Winners:	Vinod Agole/Sirim D
Runners Up:	Sean Bunch/Ben Harrington


Previously Decided Finals - Team
The Danny Jones Trophy (Mixed 4's Handicap Knockout)
Winners:	LBC 1
Runners Up:	Witham Badders


League Winners
Ladies 4's Division 1
Winners:	LBC-Pioneers
Runners Up:	Old Maldonians

Mens 4's Division 1
Winners:	Notley 1
Runners Up:	Earls Colne

Mens 4's Division 2
Winners:	Notley 2
Runners Up:	Witham Badders 2

Mens 6's Division1
Winners:	Earls Colne
Runners Up:	Witham Badders


Mixed 4's Division1
Winners:	Notley
Runners Up:	Earls Colne 1

Thanks go to ..........

Me, Paul Butcher

For presenting all the trophies to the individual tournament finalists, team tournament finalists, the league winners.

and for continuing to keep this Website as up to date as humanly possible!!

Tournament Committee

A huge thank you to our Tournament Committee for all the hard work undertaken to put on this event including Website Maestro, Paul Butcher (that's me folks) for all the Tournament and League updates during the season.

Gina Smith and Nicola Hutchins

Thanks to Gina and Nicola for lugging around the boxes of trophies and setting up the presentation table while Michelle was out of action.

Gina Smith

Thanks to Gina for putting together the fruit packages and running around during the evening with the raffle tickets.

Chris Fox

Thanks to our Chairman Chris for announcements during the evening and calling the raffle.

Nicola Hutchins

Thanks to Nicola for calculating the league tables and chasing up missing results.

Louise Murphy

Thanks to Louise for taking all the Winners photos for me while I was presenting the trophies.

As we can only include the Winners photos on the night, we did take all the winners and runners up photos of all the Plate and Restricted Events so if anyone is after their photo, please contact me. We may still have it!

Umpires and Lines Persons

Many thanks to all those who acted as either Umpires or Lines Persons on all the matches that took place tonight.

Mike George

Thanks to Mike for setting up and putting away about 100 seats at the beginning and end of the evening and arranging the use of the Umpires high chair.

Earls Colne Recreation Club

Our thanks go to Earls Colne Recreation Club for the use of the badminton hall. It was good to get the Finals back to our original venue.

And finally.......

Many thanks to all you badminton club members out there for your continued support of the Braintree District Badminton League. Without you, none of this would be possible. Hopefully, see you all again next year!

Now! I don't usually add any photos of the winners of the Plate and Restricted tournament finals as these are usually played on the Semi Finals night when we have both courts in action. But this year I'm making an exception because, for the first time ever, the Senior Veterans Mens Doubles Final was actually played tonight on Finals night. Thanks go to Nicola and the rest of the Committee to caving into my relentless pressure to finally, after some 40 odd years, to let me play on Finals night. As you can see from the match score it was a great game and all those watching were treated to a fantastic match full of Melvin's 'between the legs' clever stuff and loads of in-play banter between the four of us as well.

Before you view the photo below, have a guess at our combined age. Nobody can say that us old guys can't produce an excellent, entertaining and fun game!

Senior Veterans Mens Doubles Final

Winners of the Senior Veterans Mens Doubles Final were Mike Digby and David Poole of Notley Badminton Club. Mike and Dave are pictured here being presented with the Winners trophies by Nicola.