Black and Travers strike Gold for Scotland at European Senior Championships
Dan Travers and Christine Black won 60+ mixed doubles gold over the weekend at the 2018 European Senior Championships in Guadalajara, Spain.
Seeded second, they upset the form book by beating top seeds Ian Purton and Christine Crossley of England in the final to avenge their defeat in the final of last year’s World Senior Championships.
At the Worlds, Travers and Black had to retire whilst trailing their English counterparts due to injury but there was no such disappointment this year for the Scots who won 21-18 22-20 to take the top step on the podium.
But Black wasn’t finished there, taking to the court in the women’s doubles with Marjan Ridder of the Netherlands to once again face Crossley and her partner Jennifer Cox.
As top seeds this time Black was favourite to take the title and she duly obliged, winning 21-17 21-18 to double her gold medal haul, but Travers and Marjan’s husband Rob couldn’t match that achievement in the men’s doubles final.
Purton made up for his mixed doubles disappointment when he and his partner John Molyneux won 21-18 21-18 to force Travers to settle for silver.
But Travers, and indeed Black, can be well satisfied with their medal haul, with both claiming singles bronze medals on Saturday to add to their doubles successes.
On Saturday Mark MacKay also claimed a bronze medal in the 40+ age group.
Unseeded, he and partner Esther Fleurbaay upset the form book, beating joint 5/8 seeds Andre Bertko and Sunniva Aminoff to reach the semi-finals.
There, a clash against the top seeds proved to be their undoing but with no third place play-offs, reaching the semi-finals had been enough to guarantee the Scot a medal.
MacKay couldn’t repeat the feat in the men’s doubles when he and Croatia’s Marjan Vugrinec lost out in the quarter-finals and in the 55+ men’s doubles Ross Gladwin and England’s Martin Staden also missed out on a medal when they lost out in the quarter-finals to England’s top seeds Eric Plane and Roger Taylor.
Meanwhile in the Czech Open Adam Hall and Julie MacPherson continued their fine run of form, reaching the semi-finals of the mixed doubles where they were beaten 16-21 21-16 21-17 by Jeppe Bay and Ditte Soby of Denmark.
Full results from both events at www.tournamentsoftware.com