This year’s Yonex East of Scotland Championships were held at the Jack Kaane Centre. We were once again delighted to have a very good entry in the tournament and there was an extra special feel to the tournament as the men’s doubles draw featured Marcus Ellis who along with Chris Landgridge, memorably won a bronze medal in the Rio Olympics. It was a fantastic experience for spectators to see a player of his quality perform at close quarters and also a wonderful experience for his opponents to compete against him. Playing with the promising junior, Luke Parkinson, Marcus and Luke won a well contested semi final against Glen Lewington and Ciar Pringle who had earlier defeated the No 1 seeds Callum Crangle and Josh Taylor. In the final, they faced No 2 seeds Calum Flockhart and Jack Riddell, and while Calum and Jack gave a very good account of themselves, Marcus and Luke ran out 21-14, 21-16 winners.
In the men’s singles, Matthew Waring, who won a silver medal in the European Junior Championships at the end of last year, faced the holder, Angus Meldrum in the final. Matthew’s recent excellent form continued, and he was able to pick up his first East of Scotland title with a confident 21-15 21-12 victory.
The women’s singles final was an all Lothian affair with holder, Vibha Raman, facing the unseeded Deepti Vijayakumar. Vibha proved too strong for her younger opponent, winning 21-7 21-14. Lothian players also featured prominently in the women’s doubles final with the top seeds Ishbel McCallister and Brooke Stalker facing 3/4 seeds Deepti Vijayakumar and Qing Yang Xiao. Ishbel and Brooke proved were too experienced and strong, taking the title with a 21-14 21-14 win.
The mixed doubles final once again featured Jun Cheah, who had won the title last year with Zach Wong, but this time with a new partner in Calum Flockhart. Calum and Jun gave an impressive performance, running out 21-17 21-18 winners over Josh Taylor and Katie Stewart who had won a very entertaining semi-final against Evan Kenny and Brooke Stalker.
The consolation events for players who lost their first match in the main event, again provided some very competitive matches. The winners of the consolation events were:
Men’s singles – Ewan Stewart
Women’s singles – Jody Groundwater
Men’s doubles – Shubhander Deshpande and Aditya Patil
Women’s doubles – Anshita Jaiswal and Chloe Mackenzie
Mixed doubles – Luke Parkinson and Ingrid Wang
Complete results from the tournament can be found at:
Yonex East of Scotland Championships 2025
Prizes were presented by Lothian and Scotland legend, Christine Black. Tournament Referee and current Badminton Scotland President, Colin Campbell, thanked the Court Officials of Badminton Scotland, the staff at Jack Kane Centre and the players for the excellent quality of play and their co-operation throughout the weekend. He also expressed his thanks to Yonex for their ongoing and much appreciated support of the event as well as the continuing support from Gannon Sports who once again provide the prizes for the consolation events.
We are also very grateful to the City of Edinburgh Council for the additional support which they have provided to several of our events this season. This support provides a huge assistance in making these events viable.
Prize winners from the Yonex East of Scotland Championships 2025.
