Great play all round at the 2022 West Open Disability Badminton Tournament!

The 2022 West Open Disability Badminton Tournament on took place on Saturday 8th October at Scotstoun Leisure Centre in Glasgow.  The event had a total of 30 entries which was an increase from 24 the previous year and provided a great day of competition with some close matches.

The event was split into 3 categories: Learning Disability, SL3 Physical Disability & Wheelchair Physical Disability.  The format included initially Round Robin pools with players progressing to 7/8, 5/6, 3/4 (Bronze Medal Match) Playoffs and Finals (Gold & Silver Match).

Match round ups and results

The LD Mixed Singles Group 1 got the action underway with Ryan Melville (Disability Sport Fife) [DSF] versus Kyle Schuller (Lothian Disability Badminton Club) [LDBC] providing a close opening match with Kyle winning 21-17.  Also, within this group, James Pert & Diane Gillan both of Glasgow Disability Badminton Club (GDBC) faced each other and again met in the Final of LD MS Group 1 with James winning 21-7, 21-8 with some competitive rallies on display!

It was teammates Graham Law & Jazmine McNeil of DSF played opening the match for the LD Mixed Singles Group 2 with Jazmine going on to win 21-14.  Also in this group were Siobhan Cuthbert & David Adie who are fellow GDBC club members.  Siobhan managed to narrowly overcome David in the group stages with a 21-16 win.  The pair then met in the Final providing a tight 2 setter with Siobhan managing snatch the win 21-18, 21-17.

Within LD Mixed Singles Group 3, there were 8 players competing across 2 pools of 4 players. It was East Kilbride Youth Disability Sports Club’s (EKYDSC) Ross McCann and West of Scotland’s Disability Sport (WOSDS) Brian Donnachie’s who managed to progress throughout to the Semi Finals from Group A.  Within Group B, EKYDSC’s Hazel Irvine & Aidan O’Hare were successful in reaching the semi finals stage.  However, it was Ross McCann who prevailed and took Gold for this group after a series of convincing wins.

Similarly, LD Mixed Singles Group 4 had 6 players across Pool A & B competing.  It was the Semi Finals stage that provided some tight scores.  Caitlin Donnachie (WOSDS) won 25-23, 21-18 against Stacey Reid.  Marks Samins (GDBC) and Karen Lyttle battled in a three set thriller with Marks winning 21-23, 22-20, 21-19. However, it was Donnachie who won the Final against Samins in another close match – 21-15, 21-19.

In the Wheelchair Group, it was Arbroath’s Gregor Anderson who won the group two wins out of two.  Michael Smith who had travelled over from Belfast and Chris Paxton of Wing Badminton Club had a three setter, with Smith eventually taking the third set 21-14.  This meant that Anderson and Smith met in the final with Anderson continuing his consistent form and taking the Gold 21-8, 21-3.

In the SL3 Group, Logan Welsh (LDBC), Colin Leslie (LDBC) and Perthshire’s Niall Jarvie competed against each other.  Welsh put in a good set of performances and tested the more experienced players in the group stage matches. Leslie & Jarvie went on to have a three-setter lasting just under one hour with some fantastic rallies, however it was Jarvie who edged it 21-14, 13-12, 21-13 setting up an opportunity for a rematch in the Final between both players.  It was Jarvie who managed to secure the Gold beating Leslie 21-15, 21-13.

Thank you to our organisers and volunteers

There were many people and organisations to thank for their support in preparing for the event and on the day to ensure the tournament ran smoothly.  This included David Gillespie of GDBC, EKDSC and Badminton Scotland’s Disability Working Group who was pivotal in the lead up to the event in particular using the LD player rating system arranged the pools to ensure players were matched in terms of abilities in an attempt to ensure players were able to compete at an appropriate level to their own.  David also provided expertise on various areas relating to the running of the event too and was part of the Match Scorer team on the day of the event.

“For me, it’s a privilege, rewarding and my duty to be involved with the Disability Badminton events. The event ran very smoothly and that was partly due to the volunteers running the desk and scoring matches on the day but, mainly, as a result of weeks of planning. We did have to recruit scorers on the day and it was gratifying that sufficient numbers came forward, but something we could improve upon in the future” – David Gillespie

Also, Gillian Allan of Glasgow & North Strathclyde (G&NS) Badminton Group managed the Match Control team particularly in supporting and mentoring Euan Murray, Badminton Scotland’s RDO for West Region in using Tournament Software and ensuring the event ran as smoothly as possible.

Gillian said: ‘‘It was great to see so many players from different disability clubs coming together on Saturday and enjoying some very competitive games. Personally, I was very impressed with the event, everything from the players, the organisation and the volunteers.  I hope to get asked to help again”.

Dorothy Gillespie was also on hand to deal with player check ins and managed shuttle control to ensure courts had adequate quality and quantity of shuttlecocks.

Additionally, the event would not have been possible without the support of the Match Scorers who included Danny Smith (G&NS Badminton Group), Mary & Donald Adie (GDBC), Moira, Gordon McCormack (Disability Sport Glasgow) [DSG] and Maureen McNeil (Disability Sport Fife).  It was a full-on day with very little time to rest but the volunteers did a fantastic and professional job.

Also, we want to thank Denise Dunn from West of Scotland Disability Sport who attended on behalf of the organisation.  WOSDS provided funding towards the cost of the event as well as DSG providing Gold, Silver & Bronze medals and GDBC providing all the shuttlecocks.  This was greatly appreciated which helped keep the overall costs down and in particular the entry fee for participants.

In preparation for the event, we would like to thank Nancy Peters (Disability Sport Glasgow) and Scottish Disability Sport.

Further to this we would like to thank the Glasgow Sport staff at Scotstoun Leisure Centre who provided additional seating and support the requests on the day.

What’s next?

The next disability competition is the Perth & Kinross Disability Badminton Championships which takes place on Saturday 12th November at Academy of Sport & Wellbeing, Perth College UHI. Find out more here.

Find out more