Babolat Dunfermline Tournament Report – Jan 10/11

A strong entry of 85 players competed at the Babolat Dunfermline Gold Championships on weekend 10th/11th Jan.

MS:
The draw looked very open, and this proved to be the case, with a number of seeds falling in early rounds and 3 unseeded players reaching the SF’s.
Former National Champion and current Masters 35+ National Champion, Callum Menzies rolled back the years to book his spot in the Final against Danny Robson (seed 3/4).
Danny comfortably won the 1st set of the Final, but Callum was staging a strong fightback until  an injury forced his retiral while leading 11-6 in 2nd set.
Congratulations to Danny on a well deserved win.

WS:
The WS event saw the top 2 seeds progress relatively smoothly to meet in the Final. As anticipated, this proved to be a very closely fought match, both players having spells on top. After a marathon exciting match, lasting 55mins, Sophie Ford edged the deciding set 21-18 to take the win.

MD:
A strong MD field saw many close matches, with both SFs arguably the most exciting matches of the weekend. Callum Crangle/Calum Flockhart (1) eventually overcame the challenge of Lewis Smith/Blair Tait (3/4) taking the 3rd set 21-19. In the bottom half of draw, Robert Dunn/Danny Robson (3/4) progressed but were also taken the full distance by Callum MacMillan/Jack Riddell.
Callum/Calum would go on to lift the title, defeating Robert/Danny in 2 closely fought sets.

WD:
The WD also had a strong roster, with lots of high quality games. An unfortunate injury to Holly Newall forced defending champions and top seeds Holly/Toni Woods to withdraw at the SF stage.
The Final saw Sophie Barrie/Madelyn Geng (3/4) facing 2nd seeds Kirsten Berry/Sophie Ford.
Sophie/Madelyn claimed the 1st set before the more experienced pairing of Kirsten/Sophie managed to gain control of the match, winning the decider 21-14.
Special congratulations to Sophie Ford, the only double winner over the weekend!

XD
It was great to see current National MS Champion Callum Smith make an appearance in Mixed Douubles with partner Toni Woods. Seeded 2, they survived a scare against Torben Trapp/Tsui-Yee Lau before reaching the Final.
In top half of draw, Calum Flockhart/Ella Haime (substitute for injured Holly Newall) came through 3 very tough rounds to book their place.
The final was a masterclass performance from Callum/Toni who simply didn’t allow Calum/Ella to get a foothold in the game.

 

Full results are available on Tournament Software:
Babolat Dunfermline Gold | Badminton Scotland

Many thanks to our sponsors Babolat for their invaluable support of this event.
Thanks also go to BSCO team for smoothly officiating the SF/Finals session, all the staff at Dunfermline Learning Campus, and the helpers from Dunfermline Badminton Association for running the tournament.

Gordon Anderson – Tournament Organiser