SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL: DENMARK'S PASKE SHINES

** This NEW SHUTTLENWS REPORT is presented by badminton world champions YANG YANG (1987 and 1989) and ZHAO JIAN HUA (1991) and by YANG YANG BADMINTON PRODUCTS **

November 23, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Lars Paske of Denmark was the star of today's finals at the Scottish International badminton championships at the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. Paske, one of Denmark's rapidly developing young talents, exhibited great versatility of shots and excellent shuttle control on both power and finesse strokes in winning the men's and mixed doubles titles this afternoon.

Paske started off by teaming up with Jane Bramsen in the mixed doubles final where the unseeded pair overwhelmed Russell Hogg of Scotland and Tracy Dineen of England 15-6 and 15-2. Not only was Paske too much for the scratch pairing of Hogg and Dineen to handle, even Hogg's racket went sour on the Scot.

Hogg and Dineen were trying to fashion a comeback in the first game and had started to close the gap at 6-9 when Hogg reared back and swung a powerful smash, only to strike air as his racket broke at the handle and the frame went soaring into the band section about 30 feet away from the finals court. No one was injured though as the brass players had earlier moved into the stands to better watch the match.

That was the last gasp for the Hogg-Dineen combination. Paske and Bramsen shut them out of the scoring from that point in the first game and limited the Scottish-English duo to a measly two markers in the second.

Paske later combined with Jesper Mikkla to trounce Stephen Isaac and Neil Waterman of England in the men's doubles final 15-5 and 15-7.

In the men's singles championship match, Tjitte Weistra of the Netherlands beat Stefan Pandya of England in three games. Weistra won the first 15-7 as the English player tried to be too accurate with his smashes and net shots and instead made error after error.

In the second, the left-handed Pandya began to find the lines as well as the right touch on his net tumblers. He took the game 15-9.

Pandya started off in the decider on a winning note, scoring the first two points, but Weistra began to bear down and Pandya started to commit errors again. The Dutch player raced to a 10-2 lead before Pandya found his game again.

Pandya rallied, using jumpsmashes as well as tight net spinners. He closed in at 8-12 but an excellent brushing net killshot from Weistra got the Dutchman his thirteenth point. Pandya came back to end a well-played rally with a sliced half-smash.

Pandya though could not shake off the errors as he struck the shuttle into the net to put Weistra at championship point.

The Englishman fought off several Weistra attempts to close him out, but on Weistra's fourth championship point, Pandya handed the game and the title to the Dutch player 15-11 when he hit a smash wide.

In the women's singles final, England's Julia Mann was too skilled for fellow English player Rebecca Pantaney to handle. Pantaney though did put up a fight, specially in the early part of the second game and most of Mann's points were not easy ones. The Mann-Pantaney scoreline: 11-3 and 11-5.

In the last championship match, women's doubles top-seeds Elinor Middlemiss and Sandra Watt of Scotland were unable to keep a title home for the hosts. The Scottish pair fell to the second-seeds, Ella Miles and Sara Sankey of England, 15-13 and 15-12. With the veteran Sankey keeping the Scots off-balance with her soft controlled shots at the net and the younger Miles providing most of the power strokes, the English pair started off both games with quick leads. The Scots, specially Middlemiss, did try to make a close match out of the final but the experienced Sankey held her side together in the clutch while Watt committed errors at the crucial moments.

Results of the quarterfinals played on Friday and yesterday:

Men's Singles (yesterday)
Stefan Pandya (England) beat Peter Jeffrey (England) 18-16, 15-3
Thomas Wapp (Switzerland) beat Pedro Vanneste (Belgium) 15-5, 15-4
Hans Sperre (Norway) beat Bruce Flockhart (Scotland) 15-6, 15-10
Tjitte Weistra (Netherlands) beat Mike Beres (Canada) 15-10, 15-2
Women's Singles (yesterday)
Rebecca Pantaney (England) beat Elizabeth Cann (England) 11-8, 11-3
Kara Solmundson (Canada) beat Sonya McGinn (Ireland) 11-1, 7-11, 11-7
Anu Weckstrom (Finland) beat Dolores Marco (Spain) 11-8, 11-2
Julia Mann (England) beat Gillian Martin (Scotland) 12-9, 11-4
Men's Doubles (yesterday)
James Anderson/Ian Sullivan (England) beat Howard Bach/Mark Manha (USA) 15-10, 15-3
Jesper Mikkla/Lars Paske (Denmark) beat Alastair Gatt/David Gilmour (Scotland) 15-7, 15-6
Stephen Isaac/Neil Waterman (England) beat Joost Kool (Netherlands)/Sandy Paisley (Scotland) 15-10, 15-11
Russell Hogg/Kenny Middlemiss (Scotland) beat Njordur Ludvigsson/Tryggvi Nielsen (Iceland) 15-8, 15-8
Women's Doubles (yesterday)
Elinor Middlemiss/Sandra Watt (Scotland) beat Sonya McGinn/Jayne Plunkett (Ireland) 15-9, 15-7
Kirsteen McEwan/Pam Whiteford (Scotland) beat Ana Ferrer/Dolores Marco (Spain) 15-9, 15-5
Judith Baumeyer/Santi Wibowo (Switzerland) beat Katy Brydon/Alison Reed (England) 18-12, 15-12
Ella Miles/Sara Sankey (England) beat Jane Bramsen (Denmark)/Anu Weckstrom (Finland) 15-9, 15-5
Mixed Doubles (Friday)
Kenny Middlemiss/Elinor Middlemiss (Scotland) beat Brian Sutherland (Scotland)/Jayne Plunkett (Ireland) 15-5, 15-1
Lars Paske/Jane Bramsen (Denmark) beat Russell Hopkins/Carol Tedman (Scotland) 15-3, 15-6
James Anderson/Sara Sankey (England) beat Mathew Shuker/Alison Reed (England) 15-4, 15-8
Russell Hogg (Scotland)/Tracy Dineen (England) beat Mike Beres/Kara Solmundson (Canada) 15-7, 15-1

Results of the semifinals played yesterday and early today:

Men's Singles (yesterday)
Stefan Pandya beat Thomas Wapp 18-17, 15-4
Tjitte Weistra beat Hans Sperre 15-3, 15-18, 18-16
Women's Singles (yesterday)
Rebecca Pantaney beat Kara Solmundson 11-5, 11-3
Julia Mann beat Anu Weckstrom 11-4, 11-2
Men's Doubles (today)
Jesper Mikkla/Lars Paske beat James Anderson/Ian Sullivan 10-15, 15-7, 15-8
Stephen Isaac/Neil Waterman beat Russell Hogg/Kenny Middlemiss 15-5, 15-11
Women's Doubles (today)
Elinor Middlemiss/Sandra Watt beat Kirsteen McEwan/Pam Whiteford 15-7, 18-14
Ella Miles/Sara Sankey beat Judith Baumeyer/Santi Wibowo 15-9, 15-6
Mixed Doubles (yesterday)
Lars Paske/Jane Bramsen beat Kenny Middlemiss/Elinor Middlemiss 14-18, 15-9, 15-9
Russell Hogg/Tracy Dineen beat James Anderson/Sara Sankey 18-15, 15-10

(mcoe/dsimmons)