The Isle of Man’s badminton players narrowly missed out on a team bronze at the NatWest Island Games in Guernsey on Monday evening.
The IoM contingent of Jess Li, Kim Clague, Matt Nicholson, Philippa Li, Neal Harding, Tobey Cheng, Alex Buck, Leah Brennan, Mia Kirk and Steven Quayle had enjoyed a superb - if tiring - opening day on Sunday when they won their first four games of the tournament in emphatic style.
They kicked off the action with a resounding 5-0 win over Bermuda then followed it up with further 5-0 successes against the Falkland Islands and Froya, before seeing off the challenge of the Isle of Wight 4-1 in the evening to round off an intense but successful day in the heat of the Rohais Badminton Hall.
That ensured their progress to the semi-finals the following day where they were pitted against Greenland on Monday afternoon.
It proved to be a rollercoaster match which swung this way and that. Cheng put the Isle of Man 1-0 early on in the men’s singles but Greenland bounced back and went 2-1 thanks to wins in the women’s singles and men’s doubles, only for the Manx side to hit back in kind through Jess Li and Clague in the women’s doubles.
That set up a thrilling decider in the mixed doubles but, despite a determined effort by Clague and Cheng, the Greenland pair edged the contest 21-15, 21-18 to seal their place in the final.
The result of that for the Isle of Man was a bronze medal play-off against hosts Guernsey in front of a raucous home crowd.
In a reverse of the previous match, Cheng lost his singles contest but Jess Li won hers to leave it 1-1 overall.
Again though, their opponents came out on top in the men’s doubles, only for Jess Li and Clague to win the women’s doubles.
Another decider followed, with Cheng and Clague doing battle in the mixed doubles and winning the opening contest 21-18.
Unfortunately the home pairing hit back and won the next two 17-21, 17-21 to clinch the bronze and deny the Isle of Man a medal.