It’s blood, sweat and tears in tough finals
Battered hopes championship bouts
Home hopes of glory in the Scottish Racketball Championships held at Bridge of Allan Squash Club at the weekend, came up agonisingly short.
In the Men’s Open tournament final, Martin Sanchez went down fighting in a titanic four-set struggle while club president Walter McAllister also fell at the final hurdle in the over-60 category.
With the event being held at a packed Minewood Pavilion for the second year in succession, a noisy home crowd backed the duo but with both men paying for gruelling semi-finals it was not to be.
However a sporting Sanchez refused to use a five-set semi-final as an excuse.
He said: “In any tournament you are going to get tough matches that get harder the deeper you go into the draw and credit to Richard McBride, the better player won on the day.
“But it was great to make the final on my home boards and if someone had said I’d make it before the tournament I would have taken it.”
Sports club president McAllister was similarly sanguine about his near miss with silverware. Walter said: “I’m really pleased to have made my first national final and also to have played and competed in more than one age group category, so it was a tough weekend’s sport.
“You can say ‘what if’ about any match you lose but the bottom line is I was just short on the day.
“The main thing was it was a really enjoyable tournament and a big thanks to Scottish Squash and Racketball for bringing the tournament to Minewood once again.”
Meanwhile in Cardiff, Scottish champion Sabine Mackenzie led the Scotland women’s over-45 team to a creditable second placed finish in the Home Internationals.
After battling to victory against Wales and Ireland the Scots went down with all guns blazing to eventual winners England, with Sabine’s gut-wrenching 3-1 defeat at the hands of the British over-45 champion lady Isabelle Tweedy, bringing the match to a magnificent but ultimately heart-breaking conclusion.
Sabine said: “I was delighted to have beaten the Welsh and Irish girls and to have taken a game off Isabelle who is the double British champion at over-45.”
Second team star James Stewart was also in action for the Scotland Men’s Over 45 team which came third in arguably the toughest age category of the lot.
James said: “It was a fantastic experience and although my win came against the Welsh boy, the game of the weekend for me was my match against the Irish lad, which I lost 12-10 in the fifth.
“But really the whole weekend just makes the blood, sweat and tears over a tough season worth it.”
In the over-65 category John Rae played a key part in helping the Scots to an impressive victory.