A Scottish World Champion? - Part II
Date: 2004-08-09
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English table tennis specialist and racketlon enthusiast
Keith Lesser reports from the 2004 Scottish Open below - the
biggest Scottish racketlon event so-far.
Note that the opinions expressed in this this article are
the author's personal and not necessarily in line with the
official IRF policy. Specifically, it is at present not an IRF
requirement that an event organiser must provide feather
shuttlecocks for all classes. Neither is the organiser required
to strictly follow the world ranking when deciding on the
seeding.
Full results from the tournament can be found on the tournament
webpage.
For "A Scottish World Champion? - Part I" see report from British Open in April,
where McFadyen put some of her potential on first display.
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The Scottish Open has grown in popularity and from 45
participants in 2003, 70 competitors took part in 2004. Chief
organiser Phil Reid gave a cracking performance, alongside
Racketlon superstar Katy Buchanan and the Next Generation
Racketlon Manager who lovingly became known to the budding crowd
as "Bob". Phil's relationship with Ian Woodcraft must
be commended and this clearly contributed to the supreme success
of the tournament. Accommodation adjacent to the centre was
another great asset.
Prelude
The Scottish Open began around a swamp of controversy. As an
evolving sport there are still some aspects of Racketlon that
need to be addressed. Feather shuttles should be used in all
badminton matches. World rankings must be employed in devising
seeding systems and finally in what circumstance can a competitor
take part in more than one event. Hopefully, in the future such
conflict before a competition can be avoided as this detracts
from the competitor’s overall Racketlon experience.
On Friday 6th August an excellent exhibition took place at the
Bridge of Allan Rackets club in Stirling. World Champion Magnus
Eliasson took on Bridge of Allen’s best in three quarters of
a Racketlon match, with the badminton being sacrificed because of
time constraints. In a supreme challenge Steve Patterson defeated
King Magno 21-16 at TT, Peter Campbell (the eventual class 1
runner-up) lost SQ 21-14 and British number 2 Rackathlete Callum
Reid was swept aside in the tennis set 21-12. Magnus 1-0 Bridge
of Allan. Katy Buchanan put a tremendous amount of effort in
organising such a great event where 50 people watched this
sensational spectacle. The crowd was fairly knowledgeable and
included such celebrities as Joachim Nilsson and the Austrian
party of Weigl, Dickert and Wertl. Many Scottish competitors made
the trip across to sunny Stirling, making a very special event.
Racketlon's growth can be seen by an application to the English
dictionary for a new adjective -"Magnostic". Ricky
Persson describes Eliasson as "in a league of his own".
The final between the 2 Swedes was fought to the death. Magnus
played to the top of his game to force 14 points in table tennis.
Arguably the Iron Man's weakest sport he positioned himself well
to attack strongly using powerful forehand topspin loops. The
match however was seemingly over after a tiresome squash set.
Persson contested gruelling squash sets in both his semi-final
with John O Donnell and in the final with the
"Magnostic" element. Ricky is a strong squash player,
he was beaten to 2. His badminton, also impressive was not either
successful losing to 21-12. Rickard's total of 12 included a
fantastic spinning backhand played from behind the body. Hard to
truly describe the shot was met with huge roars from the crowd
and with a stunning handshake from Eliasson. However, the match
was over and the world champion was again dominant. Magnus only
lost one set all weekend, the final table tennis encounter.
Rick is looking a more assured athlete and confidently swept
aside John O’Donnell. The table tennis set was crucial and
Rick’s stronger tennis was the pivotal factor. Callum Reid
again impressed with a solid victory over Belgium star Gert
Peersman. The Scot played well winning badminton and tennis by a
larger margin than Gert’s table tennis and squash victories.
Peersman however remained upbeat and looks forward to meeting
with some new training partners in his work related visits to
London. Reid’s following gummiarm loss to Weigl shows the
closeness of the 2 men’s abilities. Weigl edged the contest
with squash and badminton victories, however the main man from
Austria must aim to improve his table tennis to rank amongst the
world’s top ten. Weigl’s pre-tennis defeat v strong
squash ex-professional O’Donnell in the 3rd place play off
illustrates this further. Håkan Granberg received an unlucky
draw as O’Donnell’s profile is not ideal for the
travelling Swede. However, Håkan must be commended for an
impressive opening victory over Michael Dickert. Another
Gothenburg player, Stefan Engström, equally so, met Eliasson and
failed in this case to make a dent in the iron man’s
armoury. But Engström outlined his credentials with a strong
victory over improving Calum Munro. Munro won the Elite plate,
with a closely fought tartan victory over Thomson, the badminton
was nice to watch, both showing great touch.
Ladies' Event
Sarah McFadyen, Scotland
Sarah McFadyen is the 2004 Scottish Open champion. Sarah showed
undoubted prowess in all disciplines and impressively took the
scalp of world champion Lilian Druve. Sarah’s tisch tennis
improvement has been exponential and she even showed snippets
into years to come with one or two faded "off" forehand
topspins - a very hard shot to execute. Giving away years of
tactical experience a 19-21 deficit was a dream start to the
final and, after the squash and badminton sets, the final result
was not in doubt. After a tough badminton set, the young Scot was
strong obliterating Druve in the final tennis set 21-4. Pernille
Thomson, also impressed in her second tour event reaching the
semi final stage and eventually finishing 4th succumbing to
Buchanan in the play off for 3rd place. "P" showed
solid squash, badminton and tennis and can look to the future for
table tennis improvement. However, it must be noted she had the
momentous task of entertaining the Austrian party for the weekend
and this strain could be seen by Sunday evening by which point
any human being would have been exacerbated.
Men's Class 1
Mcfadyen also competed in the Men's Class 1 event and upset the
field with victories over plate winner Andy Hill, a talented
young tennis specialist and also over English dynamo Stu Foster.
Peter Campbell’s route to the final included a Gummiarm
victory over frightening English challenger Ray Jordan. Ray had a
dream start 21-0 showing great patience and skill in some lengthy
rallies. Obtaining 7 points in squash against the former Scottish
junior squash champion is nothing short of remarkable. Closely
fought tennis and badminton sets saw Campbell emerge as the
marginal victor. After defeating Sarah in the semis, Peter lost
in the final to Swedish star Michael Mattsson. Mattsson’s
first Class 1 victory was impressive showing solid table tennis
and badminton, any profile expert could tell Michael was the
clear favourite. The day was tipped off with Jordan challenging
Mattsson to a game of blind chess (played in the mind with no
board!).
Phil Reid pulled out "injured" after too many beers the
night before. The other main story in the event was Norman
McGlinchey being scratched from the tournament for arriving 2
hours late for his second round match. This was a shame as the
squash and tennis coach was a clear contender for the event after
knocking out non-seeded Keith Lesser in the first round. Hill
eventually defeated Lesser in the plate final, however the top
half was weakened as McGlinchey would have surely tested Phil
Reid for a semi-final spot against Mattsson.
Richard and Tom Whitehouse proved strong amateur and veteran
champions. However, improving Andy Petersson and marathon runner
Richard Hall also caught the eye.
Furthermore I must thank everyone involved in the tournament and
for their great hospitality including the drunken Scot who
delivered a delicious black eye to me on Saturday evening.
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Full results from the Scottish Open is published on the tournament
homepage. See below for some highlights:
Men's Open
Quarter Finals
Magnus Eliasson (Swe) bt Stefan Engstrom (Swe)
21-16, 21-4, 21-8, -
+35
Marcel Weigl (Aut) bt Calum Reid (Sco)
+1 Gummiarm Rule (Calum Served)
John O'Donnell (Eng) bt Hakan Granberg (Swe)
21-13, 21-6, 21-10, -
+34
Rickard Persson (Swe) bt Owen Hadden (Sco)
21-6, 21-17, 21-11, -
+29
Semi Finals
Magnus Eliasson bt Marcel Weigl
+30: 21-10, 21-9, 21-14, -
Rickard Persson bt John O'Donnell
+16: 21-5, 8-21, 20-22, 21-6
Final
Eliasson bt Persson
+22: 15-21, 21-2, 21-12, -
3/4 Place
O'Donnell bt Weigl
+25: 21-10, 21-5, 20-22, -
Ladies Open
Quarter Finals
Lilian Druve (Swe) bt Chris Randerson (Sco)
21-4, 20-22, 21-3, 21-6
+38
Pernille Thomson (Sco) bt Jayne MacFarlane (Sco)
21-11, 21-6, 21-18, 21-13
+33
Sarah McFadyen (Sco) bt Jennifer McArtney (Sco)
21-9, 21-16, 21-5, 21-4
+43
Katy Buchanan (Sco) bt Julia Horsburgh (Sco)
21-5, 21-14, 21-6, 21-15
+30
Semi-finals
Lilian Druve bt Pernille Thomson
+33: 21-6, 7-21, 21-4, 21-6
Sarah McFadyen bt Katy Buchanan
+18: 12-21, 21-19, 21-11, 21-6
Final
McFadyen bt Druve
+13: 19-21, 21-10, 8-21, 21-4
3/4 Place
Buchanan bt Thomson
+25: 21-10, 21-19, 21-9, -
Mens Class 1
Semi Finals
Michael Mattsson bt Phil Reid
w/o
Peter Campbell bt Sarah McFadyen
+4: 21-11, 21-4, 14-21, 5-21
Final
Mattsson bt Campbell
+8: 21-7, 3-21, 21-10, 15-14
Mens Amateur
Semi Finals
Lilian Druve bt Richard Hall
+17: 21-6, 7-21, 21-8, 21-18
Tom Whitehouse bt Oli Harris
+11: 15-21, 11-21, 21-0, 21-15
Final
Whitehouse bt Druve
+20: 8-21, 21-10, 21-12, 21-8
Men's Masters
Semi Finals
Richard Whitehouse bt Nick Randerson
+33: 21-13, 21-11, 21-2, 17-21
Andy Peterson bt Stewart Milne
+4: 21-5, 21-7, 8-21, 8-21
Final
Whitehouse bt Peterson
+29: 1-21, 21-6, 21-4, 21-4
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