Lothian Group Successes
As mentioned last season, the busy international programme that many of our players now participate in, has made the end of one season and the start of the next one less clear-cut than in years gone by. This report covers the period up to the end of August to reflect the 17/18 season. As always, we have had many reasons to be proud of the achievements of Lothian badminton players from junior through to ‘masters’ level. I have tried to summarise the most notable ones within this report but I am sure there will be other noteworthy achievements which would also have been worthy of inclusion and so I will apologise in advance for any omissions.
During the season, the following players all won National titles at different levels.
Scottish National Champions:Women’s doubles – Julie MacPherson and Eleanor O’Donnell (Beith)
Junior National Champions:
U11 Girls’ Singles – Deepti Vijayakumar
U11 Girls’ Doubles – Deepti Vijayakumar & Qing Yang Xiao
U13 Boys’ Singles – Ben Riddle
U13 Boys’ Doubles – Ben Riddle and Joseph O’Neill Ferrero (Stonehaven)
U13 Mixed Doubles – Ben Riddle and Brooke Stalker (Dunfermline)
Scottish Schools Champions:
Primary Girls’ Singles – Vibha Raman
Primary Girls’ Doubles – Vibha Raman and Deepti Vijayakumar
Junior Mixed Doubles – Ben Riddle and Lois Turnbull
Intermediate Girls’ Doubles – Jess Rae and Lois Turnbull
Senior Boys’ Singles – Alastair Campbell
Senior Boys’ Doubles – Michael Farnood and Ewan Mathieson
Senior Girls’ Doubles – Eilidh McCallister and Agathe Petillot
Scottish Masters National Champions:
Over 40 Men’s Doubles – Craig Lamb & Mark Mackay (Thurso)
Over 60 Women’s Doubles – Margaret Robertson & Loraine Bennett (Glasgow)
Over 60 Mixed Doubles – Margaret Robertson & Andy Muirhead (Stranraer)
Scottish Masters International Champions:
Over 40 Women’s Singles – Carolyn Young
Over 40 Men’s Doubles – Craig Lamb & Mark Mackay (Thurso)
Over 40 Mixed Doubles – Carolyn Young & Mark Mackay (Thurso)
We also were delighted to see many of our players awarded international honours during the season:
Full Internationals:
Commonwealth Games – Martin Campbell and Julie MacPherson
Junior Internationals:
Under 15 Home Countries Quadrangular – Logan Ireland, Hamish McCallister and Mary Kong
Under 17 European Junior – Alistair Campbell, Rachel Andrew and Rachel Cameron
Under 19 European Junior – Rachel Andrew
Masters Internationals:
Robert McCoig Veterans International –Carolyn Young, Craig Lamb, Ross Gladwin, Christine Black, Jill Gladwin Greig and Margaret Robertson.
Round up
A special mention must be made for Rachel Andrew who won two bronze medals in the European Under 17 Junior events, one in the team event and the other in the mixed doubles with Adam Pringle (Giffnock). Rachel was not the only Lothian player to win a medal in the team event, though, as Rachel Cameron and Alistair Campbell were also part of the successful Scottish team. Rachel and Adam also recently won the mixed at the U19 Irish Open.
On the local senior circuit, Julie MacPherson won 3 titles at the West retained her ladies’ singles titles at the West Championships, winning the women’s doubles with Eleanor O’Donnell (Beith) and the mixed with Adam Hall (Mauchline) with whom she has now struck up what looks like being a highly successfully partnership on the international scene. Matthew Carder won the men’s singles title at the Glasgow Championships and the men’s doubles with Steven Stewart (Glasgow). Britt Ashton had a very good year, winning her first senior title at the Dunfermline Open, with Rachel Andrew and Rachel Cameron also winning their first senior title at the Glasgow Championships.
In the Scottish National Championships, Matthew Carder reached the final of the men’s singles. Martin Campbell and Patrick MacHugh reached the final of the men’s doubles while Julie MacPherson again reached all three finals. Julie retained her women’s doubles with Eleanor O’Donnell and reached the final of the mixed with Martin where they held multiple match points in a nail-biting encounter before eventually losing out to Eleanor and Alex Dunn.
On the senior international scene, Martin Campbell and Julie MacPherson enjoyed more success on the European circuit. In the men’s doubles, Martin and Patrick MacHugh reached the final of the Swedish Open and the semi-finals of the Portuguese International. Julie and Eleanor O’Donnell had an excellent set of results, reaching the semi-finals of the Swedish and Estonian events before winning their first international tournament in Iceland and then reaching the final at the Portuguese International. Their achievements led to their selection for Team Scotland in the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast where they performed with distinction, being part of the Scottish team which reached the quarter finals of the team event, losing to Malaysia.
On the Para Badminton circuit, Lothian players enjoyed great success. In the Scottish 4 Nations Para Badminton Championships, Michael McCraw won the LD men’s singles division 1, Colin Leslie won the SL men’s singles, Mary Wilson won the standing women’s singles and then Colin and Mary won the standing mixed. Bobby Laing won the SS6 men’s singles and Fiona Christie won the Wheelchair Women’s singles. Michael McCraw also won the men’s singles class 1 title in the Special Olympics GB National Games in Stirling.
On the international scene, our para badminton players enjoyed some fantastic successes. In particular Mary Wilson won a string of medals, competing successfully in Spain (gold and bronze medals), Japan (bronze medal), Peru (gold and bronze medals), Uganda (3 gold medals) and Dubai (2 silver and 1 bronze medals).
In the Irish International, Bobby Laing won a gold medal in the mixed doubles, Fiona Christie secured a bronze medal in the women’s doubles and Mary Wilson also won a bronze medal women’s doubles. Bobby Laing also won a bronze medal in the Spanish Para-Badminton International. We wish our para badminton players the best of luck as they strive to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
On the ‘masters’ circuit, there was yet more success for Christine Black who won 3 silver medals at the World Senior Championships in India, winning medals in the singles, women’s doubles with Christine Crossley (England) and the mixed doubles with her regular partner, Dan Travers. Hot off the press, Christine has had yet more success at the recent European Senior Championships – details will be provided in next year’s report! Ross Gladwin also enjoyed international success, winning a gold medal at the Australian masters in the over 45 men’s singles and a gold (over 55) and silver (over 45) in the men’s doubles with his cousin Mark Storey.
In the Inter County Championship, our first team finished second in Division 2, losing out on games difference by a very small margin. The second team finished 6th in the 3rd Division. In the Scottish Inter Group, Lothian finished in 2nd place, losing out to a very strong West of Scotland team.
As always, we wish all our players the best of luck for the forthcoming season and look forward to their continued success in the 18/19 season.
On a final note, the 2018 Commonwealth Games signalled the end of the international career of Martin Campbell, as he followed his doubles partner Patrick MacHugh into retirement. Lothian is extremely proud of Martin’s achievements. Following a glittering junior career, which included a Commonwealth Youth Games bronze medal as well as a host of titles won across the UK and Europe, within the senior ranks, Martin won 4 international men’s doubles titles and 2 international mixed titles, as well as 2 national doubles titles. He represented Scotland on 29 occasions including competing in 2 Commonwealth Games and in 5 World Championships. Lothian is very proud of Martin’s achievements and we wish him well in his future career and hope he continues to be involved in Lothian badminton.