Badminton Scotland Court Officials represent Scotland at the Badminton World Championships

Scotland’s top badminton players were joined by seven of Scotland’s Court Officials at the Total BWF World Championships and Para-Badminton Championships in Basel, Switzerland which took place from 19-24th August 2019.

The officials, who all also worked at the 2017 Total BWF World Championship in Glasgow, enjoyed the experience of meeting new people, visiting three different countries (our hotel was in Germany, while the sports hall was in Switzerland and we all walked across a local bridge which took us to France) and being part of the first event to hold an able body and para World Championship within the same arena at the same time.

The Line Judges – Marisa Baird, Peter Chiu, Jim Grassie, Moira Grassie, Gary McLernon, Jennifer Murray and John Stanners – all experienced the excitement of both events and the highly charged atmosphere when challenged by players using the Instant Review System.

Marisa, who had been appointed to the event as a BWF International Technical Official, said, ‘’I was officiating on the ladies singles finals, when P.V.Sindhu challenged my ‘out’ call on the base line.

“Although I was pretty sure I was correct, the wait for the result, along with the loud ‘boo boom, boom boom of the ‘heart beat’ they play and the clapping of 8000 spectators, made the time pass slowly and my heart pound in my chest.

“When the Umpire stated ‘challenge unsuccessful’, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.’’

Officiating at badminton can take you all around the world, allowing you to meet new people and see the best badminton players play their best games at very close quarters … it’s the best seat in the house!

If you’d like to join our officiating team of Line Judges and Umpires, get in touch with:

Marisa Baird, Secretary, Badminton Scotland Court Officials Group, email notrochmain@aol.com or phone 07717443037