Brace of Nationals titles for MacPherson and Grimley
Julie MacPerson won her third mixed doubles and fifth women’s doubles titles in a row today as the Yonex Scottish National Badminton Championships reached its conclusion.
Meanwhile there are new names on both singles trophies as well as the men’s doubles trophies after a day of high quality badminton at Bell’s Sports Centre in Perth saw Callum Smith, Rachel Sugden and the Grimley twins claim their first senior national titles.
In the absence of the injured Adam Hall, MacPherson partnered Matt Grimley to glory in the mixed doubles, beating top seeds Alex Dunn and Ciara Torrance 21-16 21-14 in the final.
It’s the first senior national title of Grimley’s career and speaking afterwards he said:
“I’m really happy with the way we played there. It was a little bit less pressure just because me and Julie haven’t really played together so we were just going out there to try and play our best game.
“There was still a bit of pressure obviously because we wanted to win the game but I was happy with everything out there.”
MacPherson added: “We knew they were good at serve return so we knew if we got into the rally then we might be a little bit stronger so that worked well.
“I don’t really think about that [winning the title previously]. I just focus on the match and we’re just glad we got the win in the end.”
MacPherson and Torrance returned to court for the women’s doubles title later in the day, beating Rachel Andrew and Lauren Middleton 21-16 21-8.
In the men’s singles, Callum Smith beat Josh Apiliga 21-11 21-14 in the final in what is likely to be one of many contests between the two youngsters in this event.
Basia Grodynska upset the seeding in the women’s singles semi-finals, beating second seed Lauren Middleton 7-21 21-19 21-17 to reach the final.
There, she faced Rachel Sugden but the top seed was too strong for Grodynska, winning 21-13 21-16.
Chris and Matt Grimley claimed their first men’s doubles title in the battle of the brothers, winning 21-8 21-13 in the last match of the day.
The Grimleys wrestled the trophy from the grasp of three-time champion Alex Dunn, who partnered his brother Robert this weekend in the absence of the injured Adam Hall.
All results are at https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament?id=21314D21-7487-4616-9BC0-5B3268F829F2