THE Borders had one of their biggest ever entries at the East Lothian U12s Badminton Championships on Sunday with no fewer than nine entrants from the Borders Badminton Primary Squad competing at Meadowmill, Tranent.
For many it was their first open tournament and the step-up proved a big one against some of the very best players in the country.
It was an early start for the boys with the round robin pool matches starting at 9.30am. Eyemouth's Robbie Patter
son led the way with two wins and a defeat meaning he qualified for the B Championship where he was unlucky to lose 21-15 in his opening knock-out tie to the eventual winner from Stonehaven.
The remaining boys all qualified for the D Championship. In the first round Michael Patterson from Greenlaw and Ryan Angus from Kelso were drawn against each other with Michael progressing, while Kelso's Gary Young also succumbed to another Stonehaven product. David McLeish, West Linton, followed up a win in his pool with another win to progress to the quarter final against Michael; who again won the battle of the Borderers. In the semi-final Michael led nearly all the way before going down 24-22 to the eventual winner from Kirknewton.
David and Ryan teamed up for the boys' doubles and played well together before ultimately going down in both their matches to strong pairings from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Michael was paired up with Craig Ferguson from Dunfermline and despite never having met before they combined well in narrow defeats to pairings from Linlithgow and East Lothian. Meanwhile Robbie and Gary held their nerve to win their opening tie 21-19 to go into the A Championship where they brought off perhaps the shock of the tournament in defeating a seeded Glasgow pairing (who would subsequently go on to win the B Final) 21-16. The quarter final found them against the tournament favourites and another very strong performance saw them take 10 points off the eventual winners.
For the girls it was a more leisurely lunch-time start, but with the down side of a 6pm finish! Debutants Lizzie Edmondson from Coldingham and Annabel Young from West Linton both finished their pool games with a win and two defeats to go forward to the C Championship, where Lizzie fell in the semi-final to Nicole Courtney from Stockton-on-Tees, while Annabel went one better in winning both her ties to get to the final where she performed courageously before going down 21-12 to the same opponent.
As usual Catherine McQuarrie from Duns and Linsey Young mirrored each other's performances in qualifying for the B Championships with two wins and a single defeat. Linsey fell at the quarter final stage to Toni Woods from Falkirk while Catherine, who had received a bye, narrowly failed to avenge her team mate when going down 21-19 to Toni, who then went on to win the final.
In the girls doubles both Borders pairings narrowly lost their initial matches to go into the B Championship. Strong performances from both teams then saw them win through to an all Borders final which produced some excellent play from both sides. There were some great extended rallies before Linsey and Catherine eventually triumphed 21-14 over Lizzie and Annabel.
For all these Border's players rivalries will be resumed again next week at the Border Primary Championships in Galashiels, although hopefully for the long suffering parents it won't be quite such a marathon session to sit through.
