The Badminton Scotland Award Winners 2024

The Badminton Scotland Awards had its third successful year of celebrating the amazing work on and off court last week at the Scottish Open. 

With awards announced by Badminton Scotland CEO Keith Russell and presented by Badminton Scotland President Colin Campbell there was much to celebrate across the year of 2024.

This year there were two new awards: Community Impact and Masters Player of the Year. The Community Impact award aimed to celebrate the outstanding work of a person or club that is making a real difference in their community through Badminton through club, group or project. With the Masters Group expanding and exceeding expectations at every tournament, Masters Player of the Year was also introduced to recognise the outstanding commitment and achievement of an individual within the group. 

Opening with arguably the most prestigious award The Derrick Roarty Trophy, the lifetime achievement award went to Tommy Milgrew from Ayrshire. Milgrew had dedicated over 45 years of coaching children all ages to immense success from getting children loving the sport to some incredible to national and international achievements. This included coaching 16 capped Scotland players, 15 British Titles, 2 Commonwealth Games Representatives, 4 European Championship medals from Juniors and Senior and 1 Scottish Open winner. His nomination detailed how “his legacy is woven into the fabric of Ayrshire’s badminton community through his unwavering dedication and humility, he has truly earned the respect and admiration of all who know him.”

The Community Impact Award was next, awarded to Jay Moran of the Western Isles. Over the past year Moran has continued to increase social and competitive badminton Opportunities for all across the islands providing leadership, positive direction and supporting all. He has done everything from organising trips to Norway to play badminton, operating tournaments, support Highland badminton juniors, encourage community badminton, visiting islands to provide guidance and working with local media amongst many others contributions. “His work with badminton across the western isles has inspired many others to get involved with the delivery and operation of the sport themselves and it is clear the community is seeing many benefits from his service to the sport.”

The next Award presented was the most competitive award of 2024, Volunteer of the Year. This was aptly awarded to a man who was volunteering at the Scottish Open and had to work receiving the award around his line judging duties. Stuart McLellan has been the main organiser for Uddingston Badminton Club for over ten years as well as providing more adult beginner club opportunities at BASE as well as currently serving as Vice President of Glasgow and District Churches Badminton Association. When not on court Stuart is also an active Line Judge with Badminton Scotland since 2010 most recently officiating at the 4 Nations Para International with his nomination writing “He is a core member of BSCO and is able to support and mentor officials that have recently started on the pathway and is passionate about seeing this growth in Scotland.”

Community Coach of the Year was next with the winner being Azeeza Shahnaaz Mohamed Kasim of Dundee Discovery Shuttles. Kasim at only 18 was nominated four different times for this award showing the incredible impact she has had on the ladies she coaches whilst balancing her own extracurriculars and university work. Kasim has taken the group from playing socially to playing in competitive tournaments. From her work the group had 21 players representing the team in May winning medals across the board. She now has expanded working with youth groups getting more young people involved in Badminton. “A fantastic coach who has worked so hard to develop our group, working well with all ages and abilities. She is outstanding at communicating concepts to all abilities and has given us the skills to compete in competitions.”

Moving into the winners of the Athlete of the year categories began with our newest award: Masters player of the year. A man that needed no introduction from his many years as badminton legend, Dan Travers was the recipient of the inaugural award. This year alone, Travers had a clean sweep in mens singles, mens doubles and mixed doubles at the European Senior Championships and the All England Masters Championships as well winning mens singles and doubles at the Scottish International Masters Championships. It wasn’t just his physical achievements that earned his the honour: “Dan has continued to lead by example within the sport of badminton as an active volunteer within masters badminton whilst continuing to motivate younger players and is always open to provide advice to other players to ensure everyone has a great experience in our sport.”

Disability Athlete of the Year was introduced last year with the second winner being James Pert of Glasgow Disability Badminton Club after a “remarkable sporting year”. Across this season Pert won Gold in mens singles at multiple tournaments including the Scotland LD SPORT National Games in Stirling Dundee Discovery Games, Perth and Kinross Disability Badminton Championships. Pert also volunteers with the floor team for Badminton Scotland and is another example of a recipient who had to schedule receiving his award around his volunteering duties showing his contribution to the sport in many ways. In his nomination it was recognised Pert’s contributions across many sports “further to his badminton, James regularly takes part in other sporting endeavours including athletics and archery. making him an all round sportsman and a good advocate for what people with learning disabilities can achieve.”

Alfie Martin won the Junior Athlete of the Year for his outstanding performances across the season exceeding expectations for his age group. At just 14 years old he is West of Scotland U19 boys singles gold medalist, U19 boys doubles bronze medallist and U19 mixed doubles silver medallist. Martin was selected to represent Scotland in June at the U16 International in Shonai, Japan and has medalled in tournaments around England, earning a place at the Sports Institute Scotland to further his training. His nomination was written before arguably his biggest achievement of the year where himself and doubles partner Charlie Junnor won bronze at the U15 European Championships in Poland in September, the first Junior European medal for Scotland in 10 years. Even this week, Martin is out in Ibiza Spain competing at the U19 European Championships demonstrating “Alfie is a hard working young man and he competes not only in the U15 age group, but often gains medals at the U17/19 age group in Scotland.”

Moving into the final three awards the winner of Club of the Year was Glasgow Disability Badminton Club. This year members of the club took part  in S.L.D.S National Games, Dundee Discovery Games, Perth and Kinross Disability Sport, Para Badminton in Tollcross and Scottish Disability Nationals in Dalkieth, winning a plethera of medals across the board. The club doesn’t just celebrate their competitive achievements but also their members getting to increase their skills as well as playing matches, trying new events so players play with each other no matter the level and encouraging good sportsmanship. Through social media the club advertises their social badminton events that their players love, “not only for their socialisation, fitness and confidence but allows non disabled participants to see and be pleasantly surprised how well they can play.” The Club has also worked hard to achieve Shuttlemark Inclusive Disability charter and affiliate all of their members and their historic member base is akin to their values and hard work with some of their athletes coming to the club since its inception 15 years ago and still playing the sport into their 30s and 40s.

The President’s Award was next, a unique award in the sense that it is selected by the President of Badminton Scotland, Colin Campbell, out of all the shortlisted nominees as someone who did not win their original category but the President still feels deserve recognition. This year’s winner was Mark MacKay. Campbell’s reasoning for honouring MacKay was centred around his “superb achievement in winning the gold medal in the O45 mixed doubles at the European Masters. However, in addition to this specific achievement, I think it is fitting to recognise the amazing commitment Mark has shown to the sport over many years. He is still ranked in our top 10 singles and men’s doubles players. When you consider the amount of travelling for Mark just to compete in tournaments in the central belt, it really is an extraordinary effort.”

The final award was the public voted Senior Performance Athlete of the Year. Head Coach Ingo Kindervator had narrowed down the exceptional performances of the squad down to just four with the public voting for who they think is most deserving. This year the award went to the Womens European Team who won bronze at the European Championships earlier in the year. The comradery in the team was what makes the win from being unbeaten in qualification players like Brooke Stalker and Ishbel McCallister winning their first Scottish Caps.

 

Photo Credit: Spirit Tait