Elsewhere on day eight for Team Scotland…
DIVING
James Heatly looked as pleased as punch, finishing off his Commonwealth Games experience with an excellent 8th place in the 3m Springboard event at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, with a total score of 393.35.
Ranked number five going into the final, Heatly showed a touch of nerves, dropping points on his Front 2½ Somersault 1 Twist, Piked and Back 2½ Somersault, Piked dives. He then made gains in his final two dives, in particular his Front, 2½ Somersault 2 Twists, Piked, the most difficult in his programme with a 3.4 degree of difficulty.
Judging by the enthusiasm of the commentary team and the roar of the crowd; this he absolutely nailed, and, while other divers may have outclassed Heatly in terms of degree of difficulty, they did not outclass him in execution.
Following the final Heatly beamed and said, “This has been an amazing experience diving in my home pool at a home Games. I am so happy right now. OK, I dropped a couple of dives but then I managed to pull myself back up again and I wasn’t far off what I achieved this morning. When things don’t go as well as I know they could, I do get frustrated, and while that annoyed me a bit I was really pleased with how I reacted and my overall performance.”
When asked about his immediate plans Heatly continued, “I’m staying on the next couple of days to support Grace (Reid). She has been here supporting me and I’ll be doing the exact same for her. I could hear her over everyone else and it’s been pretty loud tonight. I think she’ll do great.”
And on the home crowd support, Heatly finished by saying, “The crowd have been brilliant, I have so much to take away from this event and this experience has set me up really well for the Junior World Championships in Russia in September. I’d like to say thanks to everyone for their support.”
Grace Reid will now start her diving campaign, competing in the 1m Springboard starting on Friday.
SQUASH
Team Scotland’s Squash players had a busy day at Scotstoun today, with a series of quarter-finals places up for grabs in the Men’s and Mixed Doubles.
Alan Clyne had the most ties, competing in three matches throughout the day. First up was his final group tie alongside team-mate, Frania Gillen-Buchert versus Cayman Islands pair Daniel Murphy and Eilidh Bridgeman, winning 11-1 11-1. He then secured a win with Men’s partner Harry Leitch to reach the Men’s Doubles quarter-finals (v Zambia pair Mwinga Lengwe and Kelvin Ndhlovu, 11-4 11-4), before missing out on the equivalent stage in the Mixed Doubles, again with Gillen-Bouchert, losing to New Zealand pair Paul Coll and Amanda Landers Murphy, 9-11 11-9 5-11.
Also sealing their last eight berth in tomorrow’s Men’s Doubles was Greg Lobban and Stuart Crawford, who won their last 16 match against Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Sandhu from India in a cut-throat tie that ended, 11-5 8-11 11-9, in the iconic, ‘CUBE’ show court.
Crawford said: “Coming into the match we knew it was going to be tough. They were seeded seventh and we were seeded eighth. Greg and I have been playing well together and we have done a lot of Doubles training in the past few years and leading up to the Games, so we were quietly confident and knew we had the chance to put in a good shift. Our aim was always the quarter-finals so, we will hope to progress from there tomorrow.”
“We have a good balance of youth and experience in this pairing and I think you can see that on the court. Greg is very naturally talented and gifted and the last shot of the match proved that. The ball set-up nicely for him and he just went for it. I’m a bit steadier and I balance him out, particularly when he gets fiery. I’m calm and he is explosive so that combination works well.
“Against India, we got a good lead early on, but it started to get a little edgy and I missed some big shots in the middle of the match and that let them back in. When we analysed the Malaysia match we did the same thing, but we got it back both times, that is the main thing. Greg played without fear and that allowed us to keep the front foot.”
The other pair not to reach a quarter-final was Kevin Moran and Alexandra Clark in the Mixed Doubles. They lost out to Australia pair Cameron Pilley and Kasey Brown in their last 16 tie, 2-11 10-11. The pair also had an earlier tie against Nick and Sarah Taylor of Jersey that ended, 11-0 11-0 in their favour.
The two Men’s Doubles quarter-finals will take place during tomorrow Friday evening’s sessions at Scotstoun, around 7pm and 8.30pm. First up will be Crawford and Lobban v Australia’s David Palmer and Cameron Pilley then Clyne and Leitch will meet Matthew Karwalski and Ryan Cuskelly, also from Australia.
NETBALL
In their final match of the Games, Scotland’s Netball girls came up against Trinidad & Tobago in a match to decide 9th and 10th slots overall. With a strong and composed performance the girls finished on a high with a 46-28 win.
HOCKEY
Team Scotland rounded off their Pool A participation in the Men’s Hockey competition today, performing admirably in a 5-0 defeat to World Champions and Gold Medal favourites Australia.
Two goals from Matt Gohdes, together with strikes from Chris Ciriello, Kieran Govers and Jacob Whetton ensured a comfortable win for the Aussies, who have qualified for the semi-finals with a 100% win record. Scotland goalkeeper Jamie Cachia was the home side’s star performer, making a number of crucial saves.
Following the match, Scotland Head Coach Derek Forsyth said, “The boys did as well as expected, you are talking about the top team, and we caused them a few problems. They took us on a bit more towards the end, it’s hard enough playing the World Champions with 16 players let alone 14 at the end of that game, which is pretty tough on the lads. But the important thing now is we recover well and prepare for tomorrow’s game.
“We played Malaysia in a warm up match and had a good result against them but this time it will be a totally different game tomorrow night. They may feel like they have had a disappointing tournament but we need to make sure we get out there and finish seventh.”
Scotland striker Kenny Bain added, “It’s amazing to play against these guys. To be honest we are just as capable to play hockey with them but they are ruthless in everything they do and taught us a lesson. We gave it a go today and worked our socks off to get a result against them and the team will be pretty happy how we performed against them. It’s all about performance, not results, especially in these sort of games. Go out have fun and enjoy that crowd, which we did. We can’t fault them as they have been the 12th man again and really pushed us on.
“It is such a great experience, playing in my second Commonwealth Games and a home one too, it’s unbelievable seeing my pals from Holland who have travelled over. It was so good to see them screaming us on today. Glasgow 2014 has been fantastic, our bodies are starting to kill now as we lost a few boys in that match but we just need to prepare and get ready for tomorrow and play our hearts out for that crowd. Everyone the crowd was backing us, I am so proud to play in front of them, and I hope I gave them a good show. The tempo was a lot higher today and I hope that, once we look back at the video footage, we can see where we need to improve and get a few goals tomorrow against Malaysia.”
The Scots now advance to the 7th/8th classification match against Malaysia tomorrow evening (20.15), when a win would ensure Derek Forsyth’s side reach their pre-Games target.
Photo Credit: Press Association