Invitation Tournament - Season 2002-2003

A good contingent of competitors congregated in Thurso Games Hall on Sat 28 Feb & 1 March, for the sixth CBA Invitation tournament.
Competitors travelled from as far a field as Edinburgh, Orkney, Rosshire & Caithness to try and lift the spoils, in the weekend competition.

Mark Mackay managed to lift the treble, once again - but, Carolyn Young is, 'Adam-Ant' - she will return to conquer the Dunnet lad and take back the three trophies. So much so, that herself and her Ladies Doubles partner, DJ Rhona Hume (she's pretty good at mixing the tunes at anytime between 3.00am & 6.00am) have already booked their entry to next years competition.

Spectators had a lot of good badminton to watch on both days of the tournament.

Both singles went with the form.
Mark Mackay beat a tired and fading John Durrand, 2-0, in the Mens Singles. In John's defence, previously, he had a very long and hard match against Eoin Ballintine, which was probably the game of the night.
Carolyn Young began her treble campaign with a 'no-holds-barred' attack on Carole Mowat, in the Ladies Singles and lifted the trophy 2 sets to 0.

The Ladies Doubles between the two Orkney pairings of Caroline Vendy & Vicky Gorn versus Moira Nicolson & Elaine Gray had all the components of a scintillating encounter. The 'New Kids on the Block' (sort of) pulled it all together and managed to win their place in the final by 2 sets to 1.
Vicky & Caroline had the hot favourites, Carolyn & DJ Rhona, in a bit of tiz, in the final by going 13-4 ahead in the second game. But, the Orkney girls obviously had the chicken nuggets that they were going to devour later on, in their minds, and lost the game and the match 2-0.

The Mens Doubles final, although it ended in two sets, was a close encounter. Ross & Onion gave everything they could to try and batter down the hatches of the two Big Caithness lads, Bird and Ratter. At some point through the game they must have thought they were hitting a 'boomerang' and not a shuttle because every smash and drop shot was getting returned. Bird and Ratter eventually lifted the title with a 15-12, 15-12 deficit.
The game of the tournament, in my mind, was the game between Davie Nicolson & Keith Donald and Ross & Onion. This was the first time Davie and Keith had played together but they still managed to put up an excellent performance in a match that contained long rallies, tight net play and deceitful shots - against a tough Orkney pairing. Obviously, the Orkney lads won through but it pretty much went to the wire.

Mark Mackay & Carole Mowat lifted the Mixed Doubles title against James Henderson & Carolyn Young. The 'Auld Reekie' lass and Big Bird tried to pull together for the first time and cause an upset - but the experienced pairing won through 2 sets to 0.

Thank you to everyone who managed to attend this tournament and hopefully the new entrants - namely, Flashes' team mates - Mr Wonderful (Mr Thien), John MacCulloch and Gordon Wilson - enjoyed their trip North and we will see them all again.

Finally, before anyone comes to the tournament next year they are going to have to have the following attributes:-

• be able to play whist (both singles and doubles) mid morning.
• be able to dance on a coffee table.
• be able to substitute DJ Rhona on the decks, at any stage of the night (if you can get her off them).

• be able to join a wedding dance and start singing with the parents, like Calvin Reid (obviously you have to buy a sexy shirt like Calv's first).

• be able to dance with the granny of the wedding party.

See below for results and photography of all winners:-

Winners:-

• Ladies Singles - Carolyn Young (Edinburgh) beat Carole Mowat (Caithness)
• Mens Singles - Mark Mackay beat John Durrand (both Caithness)
• Ladies Doubles - Carolyn Young & Rhona Hume (Edinburgh) beat Vicky Gorn & Caroline Vendy (Orkney)
• Mens Doubles - Mark Mackay & James Henderson (Caithness) beat Ross Groundwater & Eoin Ballintine (Orkney)
• Mixed Doubles - Mark Mackay & Carole Mowat (Caithness) beat James Henderson (Caithness) & Carolyn Young (Edinburgh)

Photos

ALL competitors plus sponsors of the tournament.
Mixed Doubles winnners Mark & Carole (left) and runners-up Carolyn & James (right)
above pictures by - Mario Luciani
Dougie Sinclair (Mitsui sponsor) & Carolyn	Raz, Carole & Carolyn - Ladies Singles Final
Pam Bain & Kirsty Grant - Ladies Plate Final	Mark Mackay & John Durrand - Mens Singles Final
John Durrand & Eoin Ballantine - Mens Semi-Final	Mark & James v Ross & Eoin - Mens Doubles Final
Ross & Eoin v Davie & Keith - Mens Doubles Semi	Janice & Flash - Mixed Doubles
Caroline & Vicky v Carolyn & DJ Rhona - Ladies Doubles Final
Bird and a young Paterson lassie	Adrian, Rocky and Raz

End-of-Document