Badminton: St Anthony's represent county in national tournament

Jun 18 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

A WEST Lothian primary school had a top-10 hit last week when they shone in a nationwide badminton tournament.

St Anthony’s Primary from Armadale finished on a high after a phenomenal fight involving 160 different schools from across Scotland in this year’s Bank of Scotland Primary Sportshall Challenge.

The national final, held at Bells Sports Centre in Perth on Wednesday, June 10, was the climax to a number of regional qualifying rounds which saw 1600 children take part across the country.

A total of nine schools qualified for the final to represent their region and battle it out for the crown of national champions. And St Anthony's were proud as punch to play for the pride of West Lothian.

Glasgow's Battlefield Primary were the team to beat having been champions for two years running.

But they couldn’t quite manage a hat-trick of successive titles as West End Primary from Moray emerged victorious to take the title back to Elgin.

Battlefield walked away with the runners-up medals, while Mill O’ Forrest from Aberdeenshire finished third.

Scottish International player Gordon Thomson was on hand to present medals and gifts to the participant’s and also passed on some valuable advice to the children during a lively Q&A session.

Mr Thomson, a Bank of Scotland Ambassador for the sport, said: “It’s been a pleasure to watch so many youngsters developing their badminton skills and showing a real passion for the game.

“It’s a great way of introducing children to the sport and hopefully they will continue to play badminton for many years to come.”