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Badminton stars dominate Scottish Champs

Winning Students’ badminton scholars dominated this year’s Yonex Scottish National Championships as they featured in every major final at the event in Perth.

Holly Newall (Open University in Scotland) made her mark at the Championships, reaching the women’s singles final where she lost out to WS graduate, and long-time Scottish number one, Kirsty Gilmour, whilst also winning her first ever senior title as she won the women’s doubles alongside another WS scholar, Julie MacPherson (Open University in Scotland).

Speaking of her success, Newall said: "It feels amazing to be honest" she said. "It's a huge relief as well, I've been wanting one for years.

"Last year we came close and this year we dropped the first set at the start of the semi and the final but we dug deep and won the second and third.

"Overall I'm really happy with my performance. I think we played well. They played better than us in the first set but we just used the plan we knew before the match and overall it was pretty solid."

Newall and MacPherson beat fellow scholars, Eleanor O’Donnell and Ciara Torrance (both Open University in Scotland) in the doubles final, before MacPherson and partner, Adam Hall (Open University in Scotland), defeated O’Donnell and Alex Dunn (University of Strathclyde) in the mixed doubles event.7

Hall and Dunn teamed up to retain their men’s doubles crowns against Matthew and Christopher Grimley (both Open University in Scotland) and Hall was impressed by his fellow WS scholars.

“They always were going to be difficult to play, especially with their style of play" said Hall.

"They always get a lot of shots back so we had to work hard to win every point. You don't get many easy ones against them.

"They definitely have a great future and we are looking forward to the challenge they will bring over the next few years."

In the men’s singles, WS graduate, Kieran Merrilees won his seventh title to continue his dominance but new WS scholar, Ciar Pringle (Glasgow Caledonian University) showed a lot of promise as he reached his first ever senior final.

Pic by Badminton Europe