Midland Doubles 2023: Round Up

By Gordon Anderson

60 players from across Scotland, with ages ranging from 16 to 70+, gathered at the Academy of Sport & Wellbeing (Perth) on Saturday 23 September for the 2^nd running of the Midland Doubles Grade B Tournament.

All events were played in pools initially, with pool position determining whether players qualified for the Main Draw or Consolation events.

In the MD the U19 pairing of Andrew Flockhart & Daniel Harris put on a series of fine performances, overcoming higher seeded pairing Mark Stephens & Josh Taylor in the QF, before taking the scalp of No1 seeds Ganesh Balaji & Theo Johnston in a very exciting 3 set SF. In the lower half of draw, No2 seeds Angus Meldrum & Ken Teh progressed smoothly to the final, defeating Euan Campbell & Daniel Innes in the SF.  The final was a terrific match with Meldrum/Teh just edging a close contest 22-20, 22-20 to take the honours.

Following the pool stages of WD, the first SF saw No1 seeds Emma Gale & Chloe Hunt edge out Rachael McDonald/Alison Shearer in 2 close sets. Hailey Ho & Katie Stewart progressed from the 2^nd SF, beating Highland pairing Shona Reusch & Jo Wesley.  The WD final was another exciting close match, with Gale/Hunt coming out on top 21-19,21-19.

The Mixed Doubles pool stages saw all seeds through to the QF’s, though unseeded Jack Browning & Disha Nandish performed very well to take top place in pool C. Their winning run came to an end at the QF stage however, with Humayun Rashid/Fiona Simpson defeating them in 3 sets. But it was the pairing of Salim Ben Boudinar & Alison Shearer who would progress to the Final, beating Rashid/Simpson in 2 sets. In the top half of the draw top seeds Josh Taylor & Katie Stewart progressed comfortably to the Final, beating Adarsh Sathiyaseelan & Nivedha Srinivasan in their SF.    And it was Taylor/Stewart who would prevail in another high quality final, edging out Ben Boudinar/Shearer 21-17, 22-20.

Thanks to all players & helpers for a very enjoyable tournament, and also to Academy of Sport & Wellbeing staff for their excellent support during the event.

Find out more

• 2023 Midland Doubles B Results