Imogen Bankier’s delicately weighted cross court backhand fell beyond the reach of both Julie MacPherson and Martin Campbell at the Bell’s Sports Centre in Perth yesterday to bring the national championships and the greatest of Scottish international careers to an end as she and Robert Blair successfully defended their title for a second time.
It was an apt way for the 28-year-old to complete a perfect 10 successive wins, achieved with three different partners at a tournament she had decided would be her last when announcing her retirement at the end of last year and it was inevitably emotional, albeit she surprised herself with her reaction.
“I was very nervous having yesterday to do nothing because we’d played our previous matches on Friday so I had all day to chew over it,” said Bankier.
“I had a sleepless night which isn’t really like me at all.”
There was only the briefest suggestion that the script might not be adhered to when, having won the opening game 21-11, they fell 10-4 behind in the second before raising their performance once again to take it 21-16.
“I think the fact it was a final occasion brought that out of us a wee bit,” she reckoned.
That took her tally to 16 titles in all and Bankier confirmed that was enough, adding: “I think I got away with it this year. I’m still playing a bit and Robert’s such a good partner, but going beyond this would be pushing it a bit, so we’ll call it a day at 10… it’s a nice round number.”
There were words of empathy rather than sympathy for teenager MacPherson who lost in the finals of every possible event.
“I can remember one year I had two runners-up. I was a bit like in Julie’s shoes and I was feeling like I was never going to win,” Bankier noted.
“She was on for a treble, though, which is a great achievement and you can see the likes of Adam (Hall) playing with Bob, the quality of the men’s doubles finals was very high as it was in all the finals. So it’s good to see the youngsters coming through.”
Blair and Hall beat defending champions Martin Campbell and Patrick MacHugh 21-19, 21-18 in a highly entertaining final, while Matthew Carder, second seed and favourite once Kieran Merrilees dropped out through injury, beat the excitable two time former champion, but now unseeded Gordon Thomson, 18-21, 21-19, 21-17 in the men’s singles final.
Kirsty Gilmour’s class meanwhile shone through as she cruised to a fifth successive women’s singles title, beating MacPherson 21-13, 21-9 in the final before claiming a fourth successive win in the women’s doubles with a third different partner as she and Rebekka Findlay beat MacPherson and Eleanor O’Donnell 21-17, 21-7.
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