Tuesday, October 5, 2010

COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Scotland sweep Wales aside in Delhi

SCOTLAND moved to the brink of the knock-out stages of the team badminton competition at the 2010 Commonwealth Games with a crushing victory over Wales in Delhi.
ON FORM: Susan Egelstaff (R) pictured winning 2006 Commonwealth singles bronze, inspired Scotland to a crushing victory over Wales in Delhi (Getty Images)ON FORM: Susan Egelstaff (R) pictured winning 2006 Commonwealth singles bronze, inspired Scotland to a crushing victory over Wales in Delhi (Getty Images)
Having defeated Barbados and then racking up a comprehensive 5-0 thrashing over their home nation rivals, provided Scotland can overcome Kenya in their penultimate match, they will progress to the quarter-finals.
Should they fail to defeat Kenya however, they will face a far harder task to qualify with hosts India awaiting in their final group match.
But the way in which they dismantled Wales suggests victory against Kenya should not be a difficult proposition.
Kieran Merrilees put Scotland on their way with victory over Martyn Lewis but he did not have things all his own way and was forced to dig deep in both games before securing a 21-19, 21-17 win.
Susan Egelstaff, the 2006 singles bronze medallist and part of the Scotland team that won team bronze at Manchester 2002, then gave Scotland a commanding 2-0 lead with a comfortable straight games win over Wales.
Paul van Rietvelde and Watson Briggs then triumphed in a hard-fought men's doubles clash with Joe Morgan and James Phillips 21-17, 21-18 - and that secured Scotland for victory,
But Imogen Bankier and Jillie Cooper refused to take the foot off the pedal and saw off Caroline Harvey and Carissa Turner 21-19, 21-14 in the women's doubles.
And Bankier and Briggs teamed up to complete the whitewash, downing Harvey and Martin Lewis in the mixed doubles match.
England had the day off in Delhi but will be looking to pick up victories against Mauritius and Canada to advance through their group with four wins from four matches.

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