Yell Open - Season 2006-2007 - 13 & 14/04/07

Ladies Doubles' Winners - Carole Mowat & Casey Sangster

After a tough Inter-County match in Scalloway and social night in Lerwick, the next port of call was our traditional final pit stop of Yell, for their two day Open event.

This season they managed to acquire the talents of Scottish Internationalist, Rita Yuan Wemyss who was providing coaching services in Shetland and couldn't miss the chance of sharing her skills in such a prestigious event.

Deciding to play in the Mens singles, much to the fellow Ladies' delight, it was fairly obvious that she knew her way about the court with ease and, rather than power play it was always precision and deception that baffled and bewildered her opponents, until the final...

Oor Ratter Tup is a seasoned campaigner, has always won this event and was in no charitable mood to let a lady win on her debut appearance. Although Ratter went on to win this tie by 2 games to love, this was an exhibition of singles Badminton that a lot of folk would normally pay good money to watch and the on-looking crowd were privileged to view this standard and showed their appreciation by providing a standing ovation to both players.

The Ladies singles was an all Yell final with Shona Keith playing against up-and-coming, Diana Jamieson. Shona managed to reach the final by just pipping Carly Mo in a tough three set match but if the latter had gone into this competition with a bit more confidence the final result might've been reversed. A size 10 may be required next time around..... Diana produced the shock of the night by beating number one seed and current holder of the trophy, Annette Gear but this showed how fast Diana is improving as Annette is a tough competitor in this event.

Both girls battled well in the final with the match going to a deciding set but Shona had that extra bite and experience to keep her nerve and secure the trophy she cherishes.

Unfortunately, I decided to watch a rather 'dull and dour' Scottish Cup semi-final match between Celtic and St Johnstone and missed both Mens and Ladies' finals, sorry.....

Mark Mackay and little 'Le Bon' himself (Johnnie Duran) managed to beat their long time final opponents, Colin Grant and Jason 'HillTop' Jamieson.

The ladies final was contested by KC & Carly against Rita Yuan Wemyss & young, Lauren Hogg. The bookies would've had their money on Rita & Lauren as they beat top pairing Zoe Anderson and Morag Fox in the semi - but, in this game experience goes a long way and the Caithness girleees showed the audience how it should be done and to 'eliminate the hazard'. As was mentioned in the Shetland Inter-County report these girls now have a second wind and are making themselves known to the world. As a fellow player mentioned to me, they went onto win the match with some excellent killer shots and serving that never let any of their opponents into the game.

As KC was coming off court with much delight, an elderly Yell gent passed on a comment which she picked up wrongly (a language barrier thing), throwing her into a rage and lambasted the stunned gentleman with some expletives. On asking the gent to repeat himself, he retorted, 'I said, clever lasses', much to KC's embarrassment as she thought he had said, 'You're needing glasses...'. Ooooo, the joys.....

The Mixed Doubles was always going to be a win for Colin Grant & Rita Yuan Wemyss. The paring were just too strong for the other competitors and cruised to a two set win in the final against Zoe Anderson & Jason Jamieson.

Thank you, once again, to the Yell organisers and inhabitants for all their efforts to make us feel very comfortable in their surroundings, Tammy for allowing 7 men to stay in her house and Mike Guthrie for the party. Everything is much appreciated and we will hopefully see you in a couple of years time for the 20th year celebrations.

Winners

• Ladies Singles - Shona Keith beat Diana Jamieson
• Mens/Ladies Singles - Mark Mackay beat Rita Yuan Wemyss
• Ladies Doubles - Casey Sangster & Carole Mowat beat Rita Yuan Wemyss & Lauren Hogg
• Mens Doubles - Mark Mackay & John Durrand beat Colin Grant & Jason Jamieson
• Mixed Doubles - Colin Grant & Rita Yuan Wemyss beat Jason Jamieson & Zoe Anderson

Photos

Ladies Singles - Shona & Diana	Mens/Ladies Singles- Rita & Mark
Ladies Doubles' winners - Carole & Casey	Mens Doubles' winners - Laurel & Hardy (John & Mark)
Mixed Doubles' Winners - Rita & Colin	Ladies Singles final - Diana v Shona
Mens Doubles - Gordon Keith & Tiger v Sam & Martyn Cook	Mixed Doubles - Mark & Michelle v Graeme & Audrey
Mixed Doubles - Mark & Michelle v Colin & Rita	Ladies Singles semi - Annette Gear v Diana
Ladies Doubles - Megan Ross & Michelle Cowie v Diana & Shona	Ladies Doubles action
Ladies Singles semi - Carole Mowat v Shona

Mens/Ladies Singles Final - Rita v Mark

Ladies Doubles - The mother and daughter partnerships provided one of the best matches of the tournament which lasted forever and kept the crowd watching in anticipation.

Mixed Doubles final - Colin & Rita v Zoe Anderson & Jason Jamieson

Mixed Doubles semi - Colin & Rita v John Durrand & Carole Mowat

Mixed Doubles - Jason & Zoe v Shona & Gordon Keith

Mixed Doubles - James Henderson & Jane Grant v Shona & Gordon

End-of-Document

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