Aitken takes strain as she gets Scots off to flying start in Poland

Montrose squash player Lisa Aitken defied a niggling ankle injury as she got Scotland’s women off to a perfect start at the European Team Championships in Wroclaw yesterday.

The Scots are chasing promotion to Division One after arrowly missing out last year, and they fired an ominous warning to their rivals by whitewashing Ireland 3-0 in Pool B.

Aitken won all six of her matches last April and took only 20 minutes to beat Sophie O’Rourke 11-2, 11-5, 11-2 in yesterday’s opening tie. Aberdeen’s Robyn Young and Edinburgh teenager Georgia Adderley added routine victories over Sarah Corcoran and Laura Neill. Perth youngster Katriona Allen was unused but will feature against Russia in match two.

“I was keen to set the tone and make sure it was clinical, to set a benchmark for the other girls,” said Aitken. “We were all very confident and all three matches were pretty comfortable, with 3-0 wins all round. We want to keep that same mindset for the other matches and keep that momentum going.”

Perth’s Rory Stewart had a bad afternoon, losing his own match as Scotland’s men suffered a massive blow to their medal chances when they went down 3-1 to Spain in Pool A.

Stewart had earlier climbed 10 places to a career-high worldranking of 163, but his opponent Carlos Cornes is just inside the top 100 and used his greater experience to edge what proved to be a pivotal opening game. Cornes won 15-13, 11-1, 9-11, 11-8, and the Scots must now upset top seeds and defending champions France to keep their semi-final hopes alive.

Kevin Moran and Scottish number one Greg Lobban were also beaten yesterday, but veteran Alan Clyne won his match.