Woods sisters claim Irish crown

The Woods sisters may have been disappointed to only lift the one title but their domination of this level was there for all to see in front of dad Trevor, who is recovering from knee surgery.

Rachael and Rebecca recorded a 21-12 21-19 victory over Julie Duggan and Rebecca Wallace in the semi-final and were in total control in the final against number two seeds Kerry Fallon and Alexandra Troy, winning 21-17 21-9.

Both girls, however, were disappointed with their singles performances. Rachael, seeded number one, dropped only a handful of points on the way through to the final, seeing off Aime Butler and Sarah Cherry.

Meanwhile, Rebecca had to fight her way through a three-setter, having lost the first 21-19, to book her place against number two seed Niamh Gannon in the semi-final.

She made an encouraging start, putting her seeded opponent under a great deal of pressure and led 11-9 at the first break. Although there was never more than two points between both players, the Alpha girl maintained her lead and was well worth her one set advantage, claiming a 21-18 victory.

However, she could not have made a worse start to the second set when Gannon raced in to a 6-1 lead that allowed her to grow in confidence to take the second set 21-13.

Rebecca was always playing catch-up in the deciding set. She fell 6-4 behind and that gradually became 11-6 as the number two seed went on to book her place in final with a 21-15 victory.

After that near exit, Gannon was not going to let that happen against the other Woods sister. On this occasion, Rachael did not have the control to prevent her opponent from taking the coveted Under 13 Irish National title.

Rachael was to later face Gannon on the opposite side of the net when, with their respective partners, they clashed for a place in the final of the mixed doubles with Rachael teaming up with Thomas Cherry.

They lost the opening set to number seeds Mark Kinnerk and Niamh Gannon 21-9 but really took the game to the seeded pair in the second. However, they couldn’t do enough, coming out second best 27-25 but in the final Kyle Magee, who walzed off with three titles in all, and Julie Duggan comprehensively took the title 21-16 21-14.