Scottish Primary Schools Championships 2024

A bumper entry of 32 boys and 12 girls competed at the Scottish Primary Schools Championships which were held in Bathgate on 3 February 2024. Players came from as far afield as Inverness and Dumfries and it was great that six boys also travelled down from Shetland to compete in the event. All of the youngsters had plenty of matches in the singles and doubles and hopefully enjoyed their day.

The boys’ event was fairly open this time as all of the top four from last year had moved up and a new name was destined to be crowned Boys Champion. Dean Robertson (Aberdeen) and Alexander Stepney (Inverness) were the top seeds and duly made it safely through to the final group of 4 without dropping a set. Alexander had a tough opener against James Huang (Drumchapel), eventually securing victory 12-10 in the fifth set. David Clarke (Murrayfield) also played well to make it to the final 4 although he found it hard going there, losing all 3 matches in this section. In the final match, to decide the winner, Dean defeated Alexander in straight sets to take the title back to Aberdeen again.

Dean then teamed up with his clubmate Aaron McKay in the Boy’s Doubles and claimed his second title of the day with victory over Alexander and Yuanxi Cui (Aberdeen).

In the girl’s event top seed and defending champion, Kiishi Adekola (Aberdeen), was in dominant form, losing only one end all day to her teammate and eventual runner up Nikki Mo. Alexandra Hart (Stirlingshire) and Millie Stakim (Drumchapel) claimed third and fourth places respectively in the group.

Kiishi and Nikki made it a hat-trick of doubles titles as they sailed to victory in the girl’s doubles group with Alex and Eva Barnes (Drumchapel) taking second place.

At the end of the day it was a clean sweep of titles heading back to Aberdeen with their delighted coaches!

Congratulations to Dean, Alexander, James, Leo, Kiishi, Alex, Millie, and Lacey, who all qualified to represent Scotland at the British Primary Schools Championships, which take place in Jersey from 5 to 7 April 2024.