Badminton: We won it for Derek

Jun 5 2009

A BUMPER 298 players from all over Scotland took part in the inaugural Derek Sim badminton tournament at Prestwick Tennis centre.

Several came from Derek's Prestwick club and it was a fitting start when Josh Neil, who started playing badminton under Derek's guidance, lifted the first trophy of the day, the under 17 boys’ singles, despite being only 13, by beating Scott Campbell (Renfrew).

The doubles went to another Ayrshire player who had the benefit of working with Derek – Lewis Gallacher (Kilmarnock) who was playing with Scott Campbell.

The under 15 boys went to Jordan Gilvear (Falkirk) who beat Mauchline's James Milton in the semi final and Chay Ross (Black Isle) in the final. Jordan added the doubles with Adam Hall (Mauchline), beating James and Chay in the final.

In the girls’ event, Rebekka Findlay (Erskine), disposed of both top Mauchline girls, Emma Cook in the semi and Shereen Spittal in the final to take the title. Emma and Shereen also lost out in the doubles final to Caitlin Pringle and Heather Campbell (Renfrew).

In the under 15 girls event, both the singles and doubles went to Troon’s Caitlin Gilmour who also worked with Derek as a youngster. Playing with Rebekka Findlay in the doubles, they beat Edinburgh’s Victoria Fraser and Hannah Wade in the final. Hannah was also runner-up in the singles.

In the under 12 event, Alex Dunn from Motherwell beat Mark Leith from Strathaven. Struan Ross (Black Isle) and Andrew Thomson (Biggar) beat Alex and Mark in a tight doubles final.

The under 12 doubles was an all Mauchline affair with Tammi Gibson beating Holly Newall in the final.

Tammi and Holly then teamed up to beat Shona Whillans and Gemma Wright in the doubles.