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LOCAL PLAYERS EXCEL AT PRESTWICK EVENT
THOUGH the badminton season is nearing an end there are still plenty of opportunities for competition.
Nine North East athletes made the long journey to Prestwick recently to compete in the 2nd Derek Sim Memorial tournament. The NE had representation in both the U15 and U12 age groups.
The U15 event was hosted on Saturday with three Stonehaven players, Mark Leith, Sean Leith and Jacob Reynolds all in contention. Despite a fantastic result against eventual winner, Joshua Holder, only losing 22 – 20, Mark failed to progress to the main A event from the group stage.
Jacob and Sean however both qualified and competed well, reaching the quarter finals where Jacob also lost out to Joshua Holder and Sean to doubles partner Robert Dunn.
The doubles event saw Jacob compete with regular partner Robert Clark, Glasgow School of Sport, and the Leith brothers team up with the Dunn brothers, Alex and Robert, from Motherwell. Mark and Alex never found their rhythm in the group stages, failing to qualify for the main event, however they found their form in the consolation event, winners in the end.
Jacob and Robert Clark, and Sean and Robert Dunn faired better in the group stages, both progressing to the main event. Jacob and Robert played well to reach the semi-final where they lost out in a close game 21 – 14, 21 – 15 to top seeds, Adam Hall and James Milton, Ayrshire. Sean and Robert caused an upset at the semi-final stage where the knocked out 2nd seeds Joshua Holder and Tommy Reynolds, in a nail biting 3 set encounter, 15-21, 23-21, 21-19.
Their superb form continued into the final where they were unlucky to lose out eventually to Hall and Milton, 23-21, 21-18.
On the Sunday it was the turn of the U12's. Sam Muir, Matthew Duguid, Jack Murray, Scott Waddell, David Blacklaw, all Stonehaven, and Steaphan Connell, Milltimber, made up the North East compliment.
Again all athletes played at a very high standard and certainly made their presence felt. David, Scott, Sam and Steaphan were unfortunate not to progress to the A event but continued to fair well in the B event. David exited at the last 16 stage, while Sam made it through to the quarter finals.
Scott and Steaphan were unlucky to come head to head in the semi-final, Steaphan taking the honours on this occasion and continuing to win the event with a victory over Leon Masia in the final. 21-19. In the
A event Matthew and Jack both gave a good account of themselves, Jack exiting at the last 16 stage and Matthew going one step further, losing out to Matthew Grimley in a tense 3 set affair.
In the doubles event David and Jack, and Scott and Sam were unfortunate to meet each other at the semi-final stage in the B event, where Scott and Sam were victorious taking the match and the final against Chris Hyde and Leon Masia. Steaphan and partner Alistair Shaw managed to progress to the quarter finals of the A event, a superb effort given that they only paired up on the day.
Matthew teamed up with Motherwell's Alex Dunn, fresh from singles victory, to complete the double celebration for Dunn, winning the doubles title in 2 sets against Glasgow's Anthony Grimley and Highland's Brad Habberly. Over all another fantastic set of results from these local athletes.
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Weather for Stonehaven
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 3 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: South
