Pringle added to squad for the European Mixed Team Championships

Ciar Pringle will make his debut for Scotland at the European Mixed Team Championships qualifying event in Portugal next week.

The 21-year-old has been called up as a replacement for the injured Alex Dunn and joins fellow debutant Joshua Apiliga as well as Chris Grimley, Adam Hall, Kirsty Gilmour, Julie MacPherson, Eleanor O’Donnell and Ciara Torrance.

When asked about his offer to represent Scotland at the Championships Ciar said:

I was of course happy to accept my place in the team to represent Scotland for my first time as a Senior in Portugal at the European Mixed Team Championships. I am looking forward to hopefully being able to put in some good performances and hopefully put some points on the board for the team. This time last year I had actually just come out of an operation on my right hip to deal with a problem I had been struggling with for a while and I have worked really hard over this last year to try and get back to the place I was at before. It hasn’t been easy, especially given the circumstances of this year, but I feel I have put in a huge amount of effort and feel really good with where I am at in terms of my level.

After a long injury lay-off, Pringle returned to competitive action at the Portuguese International last month where he won through men’s singles qualifying before his campaign was ended with a close 3-game loss to Swiss Joel Konig.

That experience will stand him in good stead, with next week’s event taking place in the same venue, the High-Performance Sports Centre in Caldas Da Rainha.

Ciar continues:

I am ready to compete. I have previously played at team events for Scotland as a Junior and have always loved the atmosphere and the team spirit that Scotland brings to these events. I am proud to be selected and I look forward to the team going into this event and showing everyone what Scotland is really made of.

Spain are the seeded team in what looks like a very competitive group, but Scotland will go into the event full of confidence with a number of the squad having won titles since returning from the Covid-19 enforced suspension of competition.

Scotland face hosts Portugal in their opening match on 10 December before playing Ukraine later that afternoon.

Latvia provide the opposition for the Scots on 11 December before they complete their campaign against Spain on December 12.

The revised Scotland squad, which will be coached by Ingo Kindervater is:

Joshua Apiliga, 19, Glasgow, 0 international caps

Kirsty Gilmour, 27, Glasgow, 43 caps

Chris Grimley, 20, Glasgow, 3 caps

Adam Hall, 24, Mauchline, 13 caps

Julie MacPherson, 23, Edinburgh, 20 caps

Eleanor O’Donnell, 22, Beith,17 caps

Ciar Pringle, 21, Giffnock, 0 caps

Ciara Torrance, 21, Paisley, 6 caps