Badminton: Fine show by Kirsty in first senior event

Nov 27 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

SEVERAL Lanarkshire players last week took part in the 2008 Bank of Scotland International Badminton Championships at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.

Bothwell teenager Kirsty Gilmour came through a tough opening match 21-19, 18-21, 21-17 against Canada’s Valerie St Jacques.

But the 15-year-old crashed out against Croatia’s Stasa Poznanovic in the next round, losing 8-21, 21-15, 21-17.

There was some redemption for Kirsty in the women’s doubles, with Ayrshire partner Kirsten Geals, as the duo dumped Canadian and Polish opponents in the first and second rounds.

They had to work hard but managed to secure a quarter-final place against fourth-seeded Irish pair Bing Huang and Chloe Magee, although they crashed 21-15, 21-9.

However, Kirsty’s performances were remarkable, given that this was her first senior competition.

Fifth seeds Andrew Bowman of Bellshill and Welshman Martyn Lewis reached the men’s doubles semi-finals after toppling the top-seeded pair of Ruud Bosch and Koen Ridder 21-16, 21-13.

But they were eliminated by fourth seeds Richard Eidestedt and Andrew Ellis, with the English duo winning 26-24, 21-15.

Andrew was also in action in the mixed doubles with Swedish partner Emelie Lennartsson, reaching the second round of the tournament before being knocked out by Canadians William Milroy and Fiona McKee, who won 15-21, 21-18, 21-17.

Bothwell’s Kyle Longmuir won two of his qualifiers, only to be pipped for a place in the main draw when he lost out in the final qualifying round to Canadian Francois Champagne.

Fraser Michie from Motherwell and his men’s doubles partner Jakob Van Den Berg from South Queensferry failed to make the main draw after losing out in the qualifying stages. Fraser partnered Ayrshire’s Kaity Hall in the mixed doubles but suffered a similar fate.

Jamie Neill from Hamilton had to accept a first-round exit from the men’s singles event when he was defeated by Englishman Ben Beckham 21-16, 18-21, 21-8.

He suffered a similar fate in the men’s doubles competition as he and Lanark’s Kenneth Young crashed out to Germans Peter Kasbauer and Roman Spitko 21-15, 23-21 in the first round.

Kenneth unfortunately continued that run of bad luck, as he and mixed doubles partner Eilidh Ballantyne of Renfrew exited the event in the first round, defeated 21-18, 21-12 by Canadian couple William Milroy and Fiona McKee.

Rounding up the county involvement was Keith Turnbull of Larkhall who reached the second round of the mixed doubles with Russian Ella Diehl, only to lose 23-21, 21-10 to England’s Mark Middleton and Alex Langley.