Scottish International Masters Championships
The Scottish International Masters Championships was held at the Sir Craig Reedie Badminton Centre in Glasgow over the weekend of 18-20 January.
More than 170 players from eight countries were competing but there were plenty of home champions among the international competitors.
In the inaugural 35+ age group events Suzanne Zwane won a brace of gold medals, winning the women’s doubles with Carolyn Young and the mixed with Keith Campbell, at the expense of runners-up Gavin Brown and Maiko McElroy.
Mark MacKay won a treble of men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed at 40+ age group. He beat Englishman Mark Trebble 21-12 21-6 in the final of the singles before teaming up with Craig Lamb to win the doubles 21-11 21-14, again at the expense of Trebble and his partner Martin Haddon.
In the mixed, MacKay and Young teamed up to beat fellow Scot Karen Aitken and Dane Ulric Pedersen 21-10 21-10 in the final.
Lamb was runner-up in the 45+ men’s singles to Dane Henrik Hansen, despite having beaten him in the Scotland v Scandinavia International Match on the Friday evening.
Alan McMillan and Craig Robertson won the men’s doubles, with Hansen and Scot Gavin Blyth runners-up, while Dorte Steenberg of Denmark won women’s and mixed doubles with Caroline Hale (England) and Anders Stenkjaer (Denmark) respectively.
Scots won four out of the five events at 50+ with Aileen Travers winning a treble. She won the singles at the expense of Hale, before teaming up with Anne Robertson to upset the seeding and win the doubles, beating top seeds Betty Blair and Lesley Pallet into the runners-up spot.
In the mixed she partnered McMillan to a comprehensive 21-13 21-10 final win over Sweden’s Magnus Nytell and Tanja Karlsson.
Craig Young won the men’s singles but Scotland missed out on a clean sweep when Mark Caldwell and Gordon Milne were beaten to the top spot by top seeds Nytell and Michel Bachtiar.
Ross Gladwin and Steve Thomson won two titles each at 55+. They won the men’s doubles, beating Shetland siblings Gordon and Graham Keith into second place while Gladwin won the men’s singles and Thomson won mixed doubles with Jill Smith.
England’s Launa Eyles won the women’s singles and teamed up with compatriot Kay Armer to win the doubles.
At 60+ Dan Travers won the men’s singles, beating Swede Cheddi Liljestrom in the final. Travers also won mixed doubles with Christine Black, beating compatriot Dougie McBriar and Christine Graham of Northern Ireland in the final.
Jens Dall-Hansen (Denmark) and Magnus Ericson (Sweden) won the men’s doubles and England’s Barbara Davidson and Jackie Hurst won the women’s doubles.
There were no Scottish champions at 65+ although Ian Campbell and Ashley Sharp finished as runners-up in the men’s doubles.
They were beaten to the title by England’s Peter Emptage and John Gardner while Marguerite Butt and Anita Harris, also of England, won the women’s doubles.
Denmark’s Soren Christensen beat compatriot and top seed Per Dabelsteen into second place in the men’s singles while Christian Hansen and Gitte Rasmussen, also Denmark, won the mixed doubles.
The tournament was preceded by the third Scotland v Scandinavia International match which was tied at 11-11, but Scotland were eventually declared the winners on a countback, narrowly winning on sets won and lost.
Full results from the Scottish International Masters Championships are here
For results from the Scotland v Scandinavia International match, click here