2019 Yonex East of Scotland Championships

The Yonex East of Scotland Championships was held for the second year at the Jack Kane centre. It was encouraging to see entries up considerably on last year and as always, there were some excellent, highly competitive matches throughout the weekend.

There was a new name on the men’s singles trophy with Ciar Pringle winning his first East title by beating Callum Smith 21-15, 22-20 in a well contested final. In the ladies’ singles, Rachel Cameron also won her first East singles title, beating Basia Grodynska 21-11, 21-18 in the final.

In the men’s doubles final, it looked as though there may be an upset on the cards when the top seeds Ciar Pringle and Jack McGregor lost the first game. However, they turned things around in the second game and ran out the winners 16-21, 21-8, 21-14 defeating previous winner Steven Stewart and his new partner Robert Dunn. This gave Ciar his second title of the weekend.

The ladies’ doubles title was won by Lothian players Rachel Andrew and Rachel Cameron who beat Jodie Black and fellow Lothian player Eilidh McCallister 21-13, 21-12 giving Rachel her second title of the afternoon.

In the mixed doubles final, the unseeded Robert Dunn and Kirsten Berry, who had beaten the top seeds in the first round, beat Callum Smith and Rachel Cameron, who had also come through to the final unseeded, 21-14 21-10.

Disappointingly, we were unable to present any of the trophies as we are still awaiting their return from previous winners.

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: Kyle Middleton
Women’s singles: Megan Munro
Men’s doubles: Matthew Duguid and Oliver Morris
Mixed doubles: Jack Macgregor and Rachel Andrew

Complete results from the tournament can be found at www.tournamentsoftware.com

Prizes were presented by BADMINTONscotland President, Ian Campbell. Tournament Referee Colin Campbell thanked the Officials of BADMINTONscotland, the staff at Jack Kane Centre and the players for the high quality of play and their cooperation and sportsmanship throughout the weekend.

He also expressed his thanks to Yonex for their ongoing and much appreciated support of the event. Lothian Group is also greatly indebted to Gannon Sports (www.gannonsports.co.uk) who once again provided the prizes for the consolation events.

Report and image courtesy of Colin Campbell