Michael McCraw and Diane Gillan were both treble winners in the LD division 1 events at the inaugural Scottish National Disability Championships, held at Dalkeith Sports Centre on Saturday 26 January. McCraw finished ahead of James Pert in the singles, before teaming up with Kevin Dobson to beat Dean Bernard and James McNeil in the final of the men’s doubles. Gillan beat Kerry Duncan to the top spot on the podium in the women’s singles and battled to a hard-fought doubles title with Hazel Irvine, beating Duncan and Emma Stewart 21-19 17-21 21-9 in the final. McCraw and Gillan then teamed up to win the mixed, winning all their matches to top the group with Bernard and Irvine taking the silver medal. The winners of the LD men’s singles divisions 2, 3 and 4 were James McNeil, Gregor Hardie and Nathan Boyle respectively, while Emma Stewart won the women’s singles division 2. Boyle and Alastair Daniels won the division 2 men’s doubles and Edward Hagerty and Emma Stewart won the division 2 mixed title. Grant Allen beat Richard Lean 21-13 21-17 in the final of the SL3-SU5 men’s singles and Lean also won the SL4 men’s singles, beating David Purdie into second place. Colin Leslie beat Logan Welsh 21-11 21-12 to win the SL3 men’s singles and Mary Wilson beat Lesley Johnstone 21-7 21-7 to win the SL4 women’s singles. Leslie and Lean won the SL3-SU5 combined doubles with Allen and Purdie finishing second, and Leslie also won the SL3-SU5 mixed doubles with Wilson, while Lean and Tracey Thomson were runners up. In the SS6 events Bobby Laing beat Andrew Davies 21-12 21-18 in the final of the men’s singles before they teamed up to win the men’s doubles, with Ross Foley and Jack Purvis runners-up. Fiona Christie won the combination wheelchair singles, beating Anthony Stott in the final 21-7 21-10 but Stott got his own back in the doubles when he and David Birtles beat Christie and Duncan Taylor 13-21 21-14 21-19 in the final. A total of 100 matches were played over 21 events and we would like to thank the University of Edinburgh for providing the scorers and the Lothian committee for their unstinting support. Thanks also to Scottish Disability Sport, Lyndon Williams, David Gillespie and Alistair and Roselind Hall who provided invaluable organisation. Full results are here

Posted on 1st February 2019

The final of the mixed doubles at the Yonex Scottish National Championships will be contested by top seeds Adam Hall and Julie MacPherson and second seeds and defending champions Alex Dunn and Eleanor O’Donnell.

Hall and MacPherson faced a potentially difficult opener against Matthew Grimley and Ciara Torrance, winning 21-18 21-15.

They followed that up by winning another difficult clash in the semi-final, beating Ciar Pringle and Lauren Middleton 21-10 19-21 21-12 and speaking afterwards Hall said: “The first game [against Grimley and Torrance] was tough for us. They are a good pair and would have been in with a real chance of making the final.

“We were a bit slow to start but we just kept ourselves in it and we got there in the end.”

MacPherson, who has contested every mixed doubles final since 2015 without taking the title, including a heart-breaking 21-17 14-21 25-23 loss last year with Martin Campbell, said: “I’ve not had much luck in the Nationals in mixed doubles. I think I’ve been in the finals in the last four years without winning it.

“But I’m not putting any pressure on myself. We’ll just play our best and see what happens.”

Dunn and O’Donnell opened the defence of their title by beating Jack MacGregor and Sarah Sidebottom 21-9 21-12 before winning 21-12 21-12 against former men’s doubles champion Thomas Bethell and his partner Basia Grodynska to reach the final and speaking afterwards O’Donnell said “We had a couple of tough games but we both played quite well.

“We stayed focussed throughout both matches and got the wins.”

Dunn continued “We’re excited to be in the final again defending the title. We are second seeds and we haven’t been playing too much mixed recently so we’re not putting too much pressure on ourselves.

“We’ll go out there and enjoy it and we know if we play our best we have a good chance of retaining our title.”

The final will be played on Sunday 3 February.

Play continues tomorrow with men’s singles from 09.30hrs and ladies’ singles from 13.30hrs. Men’s doubles will start at 16.00hrs and ladies’ doubles from 18.00hrs.

The Yonex Scottish National Championships are being staged at Bell’s Sports Centre, Perth, from 1-3 February 2019 with support from Perth and Kinross Council, Live Active Leisure and the Perth Common Good Fund.

Click here for the full results and tomorrow’s match schedules

Go Back