With the busy international programme that many of our players now participate in, it has become increasingly difficult to determine where one season ends and another begins. This report covers the period up to the end of August to reflect the 16/17 season. As has become the norm, we have had many reasons to be proud of the achievements of Lothian badminton players from junior through to ‘masters’ level. While I have tried to summarise the most notable ones within this report, I am sure there will be many other noteworthy achievements which would also have been worthy of inclusion and apologise in advance to anyone whose achievements have not been recorded.
During the season, the following players all won National titles at different levels.
Scottish National Champions:
Men’s doubles – Martin Campbell and Patrick MacHugh (Kinross)
Women’s doubles – Julie MacPherson and Eleanor O’Donnell (Beith)
Junior National Champions:
U11 Boys’ Singles – Ben Riddle
U11 Boys’ Doubles – Ben Riddle and Karan Shah (Glasgow)
U13 Girls’ Singles – Lois Turnbull
U13 Mixed Doubles – Hamish McCallister and Lois Turnbull
U17 Girls’ Doubles – Rachel Andrew and Rachel Cameron
Scottish Schools Champions:
Primary Boys’ Singles – Finlay Jack
Primary Girls’ Doubles – Hannah Carlyle and Ishbel McCallister
U14 Girls’ Doubles – Jess Rae and Lois Turnbull
U14 Mixed Doubles – Ben Richmond and Aafreen Khan
U16 Boys’ Singles – Alastair Campbell
U16 Girls’ Doubles – Rachel Andrew and Rachel Maclean
U19 Boys’ Doubles – Calum Atterbury and Ewan Mathieson
Scottish Masters National Champions:
Over 35 Men’s Singles – Craig Lamb
Over 50 Men’s Doubles – Ross Gladwin & Steve Thomson (Stonehaven)
Over 55 Mixed Doubles – Christine Black & Dan Travers (Perth)
Over 60 Mixed Doubles – Margaret Robertson & Andy Muirhead (Stranraer)
Scottish Masters International Champions:
Over 40 Men’s Doubles – Craig Lamb & Mark Mackay (Thurso)
Over 50 Men’s Doubles – Ross Gladwin & Steve Thomson (Stonehaven)
Over 60 Mixed Doubles – Christine Black & Dan Travers (Perth)
We also were delighted to see many of our players awarded international honours during the season:
Full Internationals:
European Mixed Team Championships – Martin Campbell, Matthew Carder and Julie MacPherson
Sudirman Cup – Martin Campbell and Julie MacPherson
Junior Internationals:
Under 15 Home Countries Quadrangular –Eilidh McCallister
Masters Internationals:
Robert McCoig Veterans International – Colin Campbell, Ross Gladwin, Craig Lamb, Christine Black, Jill Gladwin Grieg and Margaret Robertson.
Round up
Once again, the two Rachels (Andrew and Cameron) have excelled in junior international competitions. In the Yonex France Under 17 championships, they reached the semi finals of the girls’ doubles with Rachel Andrew going one stage further by reaching the final of the mixed doubles with Adam Pringle (Giffnock). In the Olve JOT under 17 tournament, the girls reached were runners up in the girls’ doubles and this time Rachel Andrew and Adam were victorious in the final of the mixed doubles. The girls were also extremely successful in the Estonian Junior U17 tournament with Rachel Cameron winning the singles and Rachel Andrew again winning the mixed doubles with Adam Pringle.
Rachel and Adam also recently won the mixed doubles at the Babolat French U17 International then reached the final of the mixed doubles at the Irish U19 Open.
On the local senior circuit, Julie MacPherson retained her ladies’ singles titles at the West and Dunfermline Championships. Julie also won the mixed at the West with Adam Hall (Mauchline)
In the Scottish National Championships, Matthew Carder reached the final of the men’s singles. Martin Campbell and Patrick MacHugh (Kinross) regained the men’s doubles title while Julie MacPherson reached all three finals. Julie won her first national title in the women’s doubles with Eleanor O’Donnell and reached the final of the mixed with Martin.
On the international scene, Martin Campbell had another successful season in the men’s doubles with Patrick MacHugh, consistently reaching quarter finals of International Challenge events and reaching the semi-finals of the Hungarian International Challenge. As a result, they have now reached 53 in the world ranking which is their highest position to date.
Julie MacPherson also achieved a career best world ranking of 58 in the women’s doubles along with Eleanor O’Donnell, helped by semi-final appearances in the Dutch and Portuguese Internationals. Matthew Carder started off the season with a win at the Slovak Open and recently came tantalisingly close to retaining his title losing out in the 2017 final by the closest of margins.
As a result of these successes, Martin, Matthew and Julie all qualified for both the European and World Individual Championships with Martin and Julie qualifying in both level and mixed doubles. They all performed with distinction in both of these high standard events with Martin and Patrick’s victory over a very strong Dutch pair in the men’s doubles is a particularly memorable performance from the world championships in Glasgow.
In the Scottish 4 Nations Para Badminton Championships, Fiona Christie won two titles, winning the Wheelchair Women’s singles and the mixed doubles with David Follett (England). Fiona also won a bronze medal with Laura-Lee Jenkins (Ireland) in the Wheelchair women’s doubles. In the Irish Para Badminton International, Colin Leslie won a bronze medal in the SL3 event and Bobby Laing partnered Isaak Dalglish to a bronze medal in the SS6 men’s doubles. In the Special Olympics GB National Games in Sheffield, Michael McCraw won the men’s singles title and together with Jenny Gray won a silver medal in the mixed doubles.
Of course, it would be an unusual season if there was not another fantastic achievement to report on regarding Christine Black. This year, Christine received the honour of being voted the Senior Player of the Year at the Badminton Europe’s 5th Gala Awards dinner in Prague. Perhaps it wasn’t too surprising when you consider that this season Christine won the silver medal in the women’s over 60 singles, the gold in the over 60 women’s doubles with her Dutch partner Marjan Ridder and the gold in the mixed doubles with regular Scottish partner Dan Travers. Well done once again, Christine. Also well done to Colin Hepburn who travelled to New Zealand for the World Masters Games and won a silver medal in the over 70 men’s doubles with David Barr. For good measure, Colin and David also won a bronze medal in the over 65 men’s doubles.
In the Inter County Championship, the new format is still proving challenging for the Lothian teams as we continue to struggle to field our strongest teams due to matches clashing with other commitments for many of our top players. However both teams improved on last year’s position with our 1st team finishing 6th in Division 2 and our 2nd team 4th in Division 3. In the Scottish Inter Group, Lothian again finished in 4th place.
As always, we wish all our players the best of luck for the forthcoming season and look forward to their continued success in the 17/18 season which will of course include the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia’s Gold Coast.
Finally, we are delighted to congratulate former Lothian Convenor, Ian Campbell on being elected President of BADMINTONscotland and we wish him every success in his 2 year tenure in that position!