Badminton: Lothian pairs impress on international stage

While Glasgow's Imogen Bankier claimed a victory in the mixed doubles, the Edinburgh pair of Jillie Cooper and Emma Mason and Longniddry's Paul van Rietvelde and Robert Blair could take heart from their performances at the Bank of Scotland Scottish International Championships at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall.

Cooper and Mason, playing for a first time as a noted partnership, had a close tussle with Britain's No.?1 pair of Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White before going out 17-21, 17-21 in the last eight of the women's doubles. The two English players went on to win the title.

"I think we have started really well," said Cooper, who won the title with England's Mariana Agathangelou two years ago. "We now want to have a bit more training time together and then start to raise our ranking and get into the bigger events."

In the men's doubles, Van Rietvelde and Blair teamed up for the first time and inflicted a 21-15, 21-7 defeat on the No.?2 seeds of Edinburgh's Martin Campbell and Troon's Angus Gilmour. They then lost to Chris Adcock and Andy Ellis in the semi-finals.

But the big Scottish success came from 23-year-old Bankier. She won the mixed title with Blair three years ago and this time she joined England's Chris Adcock in a superb 21-10, 21-12 win over German top seeds Till Zander and Gitte Koehler.