In keeping with tradition, this report which looks back on some of the achievements of Lothian players over the past season, covers the period up to the end of August 2019. 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 as ever, 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 Holly Newall (Mauchline)
Mixed doubles – Julie MacPherson and Adam Hall (Mauchline)
Junior National Champions:
U13 Boys’ Singles – Blair Tait
U13 Boys’ Doubles – Lewis McDonald and Blair Tait
U13 Girls’ Doubles – Deepti Vijayakumar and Iona Muir (Renfrew)
U17 Boys’ Singles – Euan Campbell
U17 Boys’ Doubles – Euan Campbell and Nathan Macpherson (Stonehaven)
U19 Mixed Doubles – Rachel Andrew and Adam Pringle (Giffnock)
Scottish Schools Champions:
Primary Girls’ Singles – Deepti Vijayakumar
Primary Boys’ Doubles – Blair Tait and Logan Brodie
Junior Girls’ Singles – Vibha Raman
Junior Boys’ Doubles – Harry Bent and Finlay Jack
Intermediate Boys’ Singles – Euan Campbell
Intermediate Mixed Doubles – Joseph and Hannah Carlyle
Senior Girls’ Singles – Eilidh McCallister
Senior Boys’ Doubles – Alistair and Euan Campbell
Scottish Masters National Champions:
Over 35 Women’s Doubles – Carolyn Young & Suzanne Zwane
Over 35 Mixed Doubles – Keith Campbell & Suzanne Zwane
Over 45 Men’s Singles – Craig Lamb
Over 45 Mixed Doubles – Craig Lamb & Carolyn Young
Over 50 Men’s Singles – Ross Gladwin
Over 60 Women’s Doubles – Margaret Robertson & Loraine Bennett (Glasgow)
Over 60 Mixed Doubles – Margaret Robertson & Andy Muirhead (Stranraer)
Scottish Masters International Champions:
Over 35 Women’s Doubles – Carolyn Young & Suzanne Zwane
Over 35 Mixed Doubles – Keith Campbell & Suzanne Zwane
Over 40 Men’s Doubles – Craig Lamb & Mark Mackay (Thurso)
Over 40 Mixed Doubles – Carolyn Young & Mark Mackay (Thurso)
Over 55 Men’s Singles – Ross Gladwin
Over 55 Men’s Doubles – Ross Gladwin & Steve Thomson (Perth)
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 – Julie MacPherson
Junior Internationals:
Under 15 Home Countries Quadrangular – Ishbel McCallister, Vibha Raman and Finlay Jack
Under 17 European Junior – Euan Campbell and Amanda Martin
Under 19 European Junior – Rachel Andrew
Under 19 World Junior (2018) – Rachel Andrew
Under 19 World Junior (2019) – Rachel Andrew and Rachel Cameron
Masters Internationals:
Robert McCoig Veterans International – Alun Evans, Carolyn Young, Craig Lamb, Ross Gladwin, Christine Black, Jill Gladwin Greig and Margaret Robertson.
Scottish Schools Champions:
Primary Girls’ Singles – Deepti Vijayakumar
Primary Boys’ Doubles – Blair Tait and Logan Brodie
Junior Girls’ Singles – Vibha Raman
Junior Boys’ Doubles – Harry Bent and Finlay Jack
Intermediate Boys’ Singles – Euan Campbell
Intermediate Mixed Doubles – Joseph and Hannah Carlyle
Senior Girls’ Singles – Eilidh McCallister
Senior Boys’ Doubles – Alistair and Euan Campbell
Scottish Masters National Champions:
Over 35 Women’s Doubles – Carolyn Young & Suzanne Zwane
Over 35 Mixed Doubles – Keith Campbell & Suzanne Zwane
Over 45 Men’s Singles – Craig Lamb
Over 45 Mixed Doubles – Craig Lamb & Carolyn Young
Over 50 Men’s Singles – Ross Gladwin
Over 60 Women’s Doubles – Margaret Robertson & Loraine Bennett (Glasgow)
Over 60 Mixed Doubles – Margaret Robertson & Andy Muirhead (Stranraer)
Scottish Masters International Champions:
Over 35 Women’s Doubles – Carolyn Young & Suzanne Zwane
Over 35 Mixed Doubles – Keith Campbell & Suzanne Zwane
Over 40 Men’s Doubles – Craig Lamb & Mark Mackay (Thurso)
Over 40 Mixed Doubles – Carolyn Young & Mark Mackay (Thurso)
Over 55 Men’s Singles – Ross Gladwin
Over 55 Men’s Doubles – Ross Gladwin & Steve Thomson (Perth)
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 – Julie MacPherson
Junior Internationals:
Under 15 Home Countries Quadrangular – Ishbel McCallister, Vibha Raman and Finlay Jack
Under 17 European Junior – Euan Campbell and Amanda Martin
Under 19 European Junior – Rachel Andrew
Under 19 World Junior (2018) – Rachel Andrew
Under 19 World Junior (2019) – Rachel Andrew and Rachel Cameron
Masters Internationals:
Robert McCoig Veterans International – Alun Evans, Carolyn Young, Craig Lamb, Ross Gladwin, Christine Black, Jill Gladwin Greig and Margaret Robertson.
Round up
At junior level, Rachel Andrew and partner Adam Pringle (Giffnock) started off the season very well by winning the mixed at the U19 Irish Open. Unfortunately, Rachel’s progress throughout the season was somewhat curtailed by injury but happily she is now back to full fitness and competing strongly again.
Vibha Raman won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles with Noah Sarvesvaran (Glasgow) at the U15 Home Countries Quadrangular Championships.
On the local senior circuit, Julie MacPherson won 2 titles at the West Championships, winning the women’s doubles with Holly Newall (Mauchline) and the mixed with Adam Hall (Mauchline). Julie also won the women’s Doubles with Holly at the Dunfermline Championships. Rachel Cameron won 2 titles at the East of Scotland Championships, winning her first senior singles title and then the women’s doubles with fellow Lothian player Rachel Andrew.
In the Scottish National Championships, Julie MacPherson won two titles. Julie retained her women’s doubles with a new partner, Holly Newall (Mauchline) and then won her first mixed doubles title with Adam Hall (Mauchline).
On the senior international scene, Julie also enjoyed a very successful year. Julie won the Welsh International women’s doubles with Holly Newall and the pair also reached the semi final of the Italian International. Julie’s mixed doubles partnership with Adam Hall also continued to flourish as they reached the semi final of the Austrian and Czech Opens.
Rachel Andrew also announced her arrival on the senior stage by reaching the semi final of the Hellas Open with Adam Pringle
This year saw the first Scottish Disability National Championships. Lothian winners of national titles were Mary Wilson (SL4 Women’s Singles), Colin Leslie (SL3 Men’s singles), Bobby Laing (SS6 Men’s singles), Fiona Christie (Wheelchair combined singles) and Richard Lean (SL4 men’s singles). Bobby Laing also won the SS6 doubles with fellow Lothian player Andrew Davies.
Lothian players also enjoyed great success in the Scottish 4 Nations Para Badminton Championships with Fiona Christie, Richard Lean and Michael McCraw all winning title trebles. Richard won the SL4/SU5 men’s singles while Colin Leslie won SL3 men’s singles.
Richard and Colin won the men’s doubles while Richard also won the mixed doubles with Tracy Thomson (Aberdeen). Mary Wilson won the women’s singles and the women’s doubles with Tracy Thomson.
In the wheelchair events Fiona Christie won the class 2 singles as well as the combined class 1 & 2 singles event and then won the doubles with Ireland’s Michael Smith.
Bobby Laing won the SS6 men’s singles and the doubles with Andrew Davies.
In the LD category, Michael McCraw won the class 1 men’s singles, the men’s doubles with Murrie Robertson (Glasgow) and the mixed doubles with Diane Gillan (Glasgow).
On the international scene, our para badminton players enjoyed great success. In the European Championships, Fiona Christie won a bronze medal in the wheelchair singles, Bobby Laing won a bronze medal in the SS6 mixed doubles with English partner Rebecca Bedford and Colin Leslie with his English partner Anthony Forster won a bronze medal in the SL3-SL4 men’s doubles. Bobby went one step better in the World Championships by winning a silver medal with Rebecca Bedford. Mary Wilson again won a string of medals, competing successfully in Australia (2 bronze medals), Uganda (2 silver and 1 bronze medal) and Brazil (silver and bronze).
On the ‘masters’ circuit, there was more success for Christine Black who started the season by winning a bronze medal in the over 60 singles, a gold medal in the over 60 women’s doubles with Marjan Ridder (Holland) and a gold medal in the mixed doubles with her regular partner, Dan Travers. Hot off the press, Christine and Dan have just won a silver medal in the mixed doubles at the World Senior Championships.
In the Inter County Championship, our first team finished third in Division 2 while the second team finished 4th 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 19/20 season.
We would also like to congratulate Ian Campbell on completion of his tenure as President of BADMINTONscotland. Ian will continue to be involved in the Past President role for the next two years but the appointment of our Group Convenor Carolyn Young, as Vice President, will ensure that Lothian Group will continue to be well represented in the future direction of Scottish badminton.