Imogen Bankier survived a double fright before keeping her hopes of finishing her career at the top level of badminton on a high at the Bells Sports Centre in Perth last night.
It looked as if the bid by Scotland’s most successful ever player to win a 10 successive mixed doubles title and a 16th national title in all, might be over before it began as a result of travel problems while she and partner Robert Blair also suffered an on court scare on their way to Sunday’s final.
“My schedule was a bit tight so when my flight home was delayed by half an hour it was a bit of a problem,” said the 28-year-old who is now based in Paris where she has begun a business career.
“My mum and my granpa were picking me up and he even suggested I might want to change in the car because we were running so late.
“Our first match was due on court at 5pm and I didn’t arrive at the venue until ten past so I was worried that we might be disqualified, but fortunately a number of people had travel problems so there were delays and we made it.”
Although they have not played together for close to a year the defending champions, who have both won World Championship silver medals, went into the competition as top seeds, but having announced her retirement from the international game at the end of last year,
Bankier’s planned swansong in Sunday’s final was then threatened a second time in their quarter-final meeting with Patrick MacHugh, who along with Martin Campbell is the reigning champion in the men’s doubles and former England international Sarah Bok.
The danger of being caught cold, having had little playing or practice time together since the Scottish Open Grand Prix in November, looked to have been averted when they came through their opening match of the event with a routine 21-11, 21-10 victory over Alistair Gordon and Basia Grodynska.
However when they lost the opening game to MacHugh and Bok 21-17 they were forced to raise their game.
“Sarah is a very experienced player and Patrick’s game has come on a lot since I last played against him. Robert has been coaching him and he warned me how much he had improved but it still took me a while to adjust,” said Bankier.
Typically they did, however, taking control of the match by winning the second 21-13 and they were never really threatened in the decider either, claiming it 21-14 to set up a semi-final against Josh Neil and Rebekka Findlay during which they looked much sharper, winning 21-17, 21-9.
They now meet the Edinburgh partnership of Martin Campbell and Julie MacPherson in Sunday’s final after they upset second seeds Adam Hall and Eleanor O’Donnell in straight games in their semi-final 21-16, 21-15.
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