Senior Open Championships 2024

Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th May saw Highland Badminton Group hold their annual Highland Open Championships, with players from all over Britain.  Both days were held in the Moray Sports Centre in Elgin, what a fantastic facility for holding this event. On the Saturday the day started with the level doubles, in the men’s doubles there were 19 pairs and the lady’s competition had 13 pairs competing.

In the Men’s Doubles there were some incredible matches, with a few going the full distance of 3 games and only being split by the 2 deciding points. All the semi-finals were phenomenal matches to watch, the first between No.1 seeds Andrew Reid & Matthew Reid and 4th seeds Calum Atterbury & Cameron Strachan, seen Atterbury & Strachan winning 21-18, 21-17. The second semi-final was between No.3 seeds Mark Mackay and Mark Law and No.2 seeds Peter Sawkins and Derek Zhao, one rally was over 60 shots in this game with Sawkins & Zhao winning 20-22, 23-21, 21-19. The final also went the full distance, with the number 4 seeds Atterbury & Strachan beating Number 2 seeds Sawkins and Zhao 21-17, 25-23.

The overall winners of the Ladies Doubles were masters pairing Jody Barral & Frances Mclure who beat Sophie Barrie & Deepthi Ramesh in the final 21-18, 14-21, 21-17. The two semi-finals were made up of Barral & Mclure against No.1 seeds Emma Donald & Sophie Ford with Barral & Mclure winning 21-11, 21-15. The second semi-final was between Barrie & Ramesh and No.3 seeds Jody Groundwater & Rebecca Reid with Barrie & Ramesh winning 21-17, 21-11.  

The mixed doubles then followed on and saw 24 pairings take part with yet again some great game and sportsmanship seen over the afternoon. The first semi-final was an all-masters affair between Mackay & Mclure number 1 seeds against Law & Barral with Mackay & Mclure winning 14-21, 21-8, 21-19 securing their place in the final. The other semi-final was between Daniel Johnson & Emma Donald and 2 seeds A Reid & Joanna Pottinger with Johnson & Donald winning 21-14, 21-14 putting them through to the final.  The final was then won by Mackay & Mclure 21-17, 22-20.  

Sunday was the singles competitions; 29 Men and 16 Women took part.

In the men’s No.1 seed Mark Mackay took on Sen Thomas in the semi-final where Mark won 21-13, 21-17. The second semi-final was between No. 2 seed Andrew Reid play Benedict Tan, with Tan winning 20-22, 21-10, 21-17. The final between Mackay and Tan, you could hear a pin drop during this intense final with Mackay winning 21-12, 22-20.  

In the ladies singles Ford (1) played Jody Groundwater (3) in the first of the two semi-finals with Ford winning 21-11, 21-16. The second semi-final was between Donald and Ramesh with Ramesh winning 21-7, 21-15. The final then between Ford and Ramesh was well fought with Ramesh winning 21-11, 21-12.  

Consolation winners

Men’s Doubles - Jack Browning & Udhaya Raja 

Ladies Doubles – Emma Gale & Chloe Hunt

Mixed Doubles – Murray Spence & Leona Rhind

Men’s Singles – Benjamin Fragell

Ladies Singles – Chloe Mackenzie 

A massive thank you to everyone that came to play, and to all at the Moray Sports Centre.   Thanks to everyone that helped on the day and a special thank you to Andrew Durrand for his endless work over the weekend and also to Vivienne Wishart for her help on Sunday. 

All tournament results are available on tournament software.