County duo Jamie Neill and Keith Turnbull do well at European Team Championships

Feb 24 2011 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON badminton ace Jamie Neill admits he was a nervous wreck as he made his international debut at the European Team Championships in Holland last week.

Neill and partner Keith Turnbull from Larkhall qualified for the prestigious tournament in Amsterdam after winning the Scottish National doubles title for a second successive year.

While they beat duos from Spain and Slovakia, they crashed to defeat against France, meaning the French cracks progressed to a quarter-final meeting with Germany.

Neill (26) and Turnbull (28) enjoyed the tournament, although the latter was struck down with tonsillitis, and Jamie hopes they get another crack at the world stage.

He said: “We did pretty well. Scotland beat Spain 4-1 on what was my debut and I was a nervous wreck to be honest, but I was glad we came through it.

“The Spanish boys we were playing were 200th in the world but we don’t have a ranking as we don’t compete enough at that level.

“That gave us confidence and we beat Slovakia in straight sets, with Scotland winning 5-0.

“We dropped a game against France by 3-2 and that was a chance to top our group and go into the quarter-final against Germany.

“The French boys we were playing were 36th in the world and we knew who they were better than them knowing us, although I played against one of them as a junior about six or seven years ago.

“That ruined an opportunity to win and go through and it’s quite painful that we didn’t progress.

“I’m really not using this as an excuse but Keith was sick on the afternoon of the game against France. The team doctor diagnosed him with tonsillitis and said he would be OK, but when it came time for the game he was just floored.

“But it was a good experience being part of the team environment again.

“We had a good team support from what was quite a young side.”

Jamie hopes to be involved in further competitions for Scotland but reckons he and Keith need to be playing top opposition more regularly.

He said: “I thought I played pretty well but you need to be 100 per cent at that level.

“It was good to play at that standard but difficult to sustain it.

“We can compete initially but we need regular competition of that calibre to keep up.

“I hope we can get more chances and the coaches seemed positive because we won the matches that we were almost expected to.

“I enjoyed my first taste of international badminton, and hopefully it won’t be the last.”

Jamie and Keith hope to do well in the East of Scotland Open in Edinburgh at the end of March, with the added incentive of it being the only senior doubles title they haven’t yet won.

Meanwhile, several youngsters whom Jamie and Keith coach under the Lanarkshire Lighting group did well at the Lanarkshire Area Schools’ Badminton Association s(LASBA) Primary Championships.

Main results from the event in East Kilbride were:

Open boys’ singles: 1 - Andrew Dolan; 2 - Andrew Lacey; 3/4 - Joseph Curley, Ross Dick.

Boys’ doubles: 1 - Jack Anderson and Ross James; 2 - Ross Dick and Ross Kinnaird.

Open girls’ singles: 1 - Lauren Flynn; 2 - Taylor Hau.

Girls’ doubles: 1 - Olivia Jackson and Abigail Quinn; 2 - Aimma Ahmed and Taylor Hau.

P6 and Under boys’ singles: 1 - Luke Allen; 2 - Alexander McGarrie.

P6 and Under girls’ singles: 1 - Abigail Quinn; 2 - Jennifer Lafferty.