PANAJI: Aces edged out Wolves 147 -143 in an edge-of-the-seat thriller to be crowned champions of the Enthu Badminton 2020 League at Campal indoor stadium, Campal. The Aces team had a smooth passage into the finals winning 7 out of 7 rounds but the finals turned out to be a close, exciting contest.
With 7 pairs battling it out in an innovative 21 points relay format and scores being added up after each doubles game, Wolves took the fight to their fancied opponents. At the end of the 6th doubles game, the Wolves team trailed Aces 110 – 126. Trailing by 16 points was always going to be a huge task to overhaul, but the 7th Wolves pair of Raghavan Padmanabha / Parag Chauhan fought valiantly, displaying deft strokes and steeping smashes to narrow down the gap. However, R Prakash Prakash / Shiva Kumar (Aces) held their nerves in the closing stages to secure a slender 4 points win and take their team over the finishing line.
The play-off for the 3rd and 4th place was an equally close contest, won by Raging Rhinos who secured an identical 147-143 win over Royal Kings.
“In a world of sport with cut throat competition, this was an event that was refreshingly different. A get together of the members of the world’s largest Badminton Masters Whatsapp group “Enthu Buddies”, where group members descended from all parts of India and were jumbled up into 8 teams, competing in a fun carnival environment.”
Bibhash Chaterjee, Core-Founding Member, Enthu Group.
Digambar Kamat, MLA, V.M. Prabhudesai, Executive Director (SAG), Bibhash Chateerjee (Enthu Buddies), Sandesh Pawaskar (Sports Promoter), Laxmikant Kenaudekar (Retired Fire officer) and PBC members Sandeep Heble(Secretary), Parag Chauhan (Treasurer), Darwin Barreto (Vice President) and Deepak Mayenkar (Executive Member) graced the event. Enthu Buddies collaborated with Panjim Badminton club to conduct the event.
