Longniddry’s Robert Blair, who defected to England eight years ago and competed in the 2004 Olympic Games, has been welcomed back to Scotland and could be a real force in helping his sport of badminton achieve major success in the run up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.  

The Edinburgh-born player had his future career thrown into jeopardy a few months ago when he was mysteriously dropped from England teams and banned from the GB National training centre in Milton Keynes.  

His case caused a real furore in GB badminton circles.  Just days after the announcement of Blair’s return north of the border, Andy Wood resigned from his post as National coach based at Milton Keynes. 

It led to a pledge from Adrian Christy, the Chief Executive of Badminton England, to restore stability to a troubled camp at the National Centre at Milton Keynes. 

“The past 12 months have been really challenging for our Olympic programme and I don't hide from the fact that it has caused far too much disruption to the development of our players,” said Christy.

 

“Our focus now is very much on rebuilding an environment that achieves success and to do that we need a team of coaches and athletes that are all working as one. When we feel that is not the case, we have to make changes.

 

“While I appreciate that causes some short-term disruption, we know we don't have much time and, if changes are necessary, we have to make them.

 

“We have lost some key staff in a short period and, of course, that creates uncertainty and a lack of continuity but it is critical for our world-class programme to establish a cohesive training and competitive environment.  

“Robert’s exclusion from the National Badminton Centre was not handled well. There had been concerns about his engagement with the World Class Programme and considering he had not qualified for the World Championship in Paris and was not travelling to Delhi, it was felt necessary to ensure there was no risk of distractions in the training hall as the squad prepared for these two major events.” 

Having been shut out of Milton Keynes, Blair headed for the Scottish Training Centre in Glasgow and the 29-year-old doubles specialist is now part of a great set-up that also includes Olympic hopefuls Susan Egelstaff and the great new women’s doubles pair of Emma Mason, Jillie Cooper. 

Imogen Bankier, another Olympic hopeful in mixed doubles, will mostly be based at Milton Keynes training with England’s Chris Adcock. 

"It is a culmination of a lot of things, but I am delighted to be back here,” commented Blair. “The possibility of representing Scotland again, and especially at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, is very exciting. I enjoyed considerable success during my time with England but now it is great to be back. Scotland has always been my home. 

“The GB coaches said I had attitude issues, but the fact that really nothing more has been done about says it all. I was left out of the Thomas Cup and Commonwealth Games teams and it was extremely disappointing. I wanted to appeal, but was told not to (something Christy refutes).” 

The good news is that the situation is calming down and, after the latest performance review, Blair has been retained in the GB programme and has been teamed up with England’s Gabby White in the mixed doubles. 

“We had been hoping to play together for some time and now I’m going to go down to Milton Keynes this month to train with Gabby,” explained Blair.  “We’ve entered the Super Series events in Malaysia and Korea at the start of the year and it’s great to get this chance.  

“We had a brief spell playing together in the summer and performed well. We beat the Thai couple that are currently ranked No.2 (Sucket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam) in the world and a pair who won bronze at the Commonwealth Games.” 

Blair partnered 19-year-old van Rietvelde – they made the semi-finals - in the men’s doubles at the Bank of Scotland International last month, and the experienced man added:  “I’ll be really happy to play with Paul and help all the young talent. 

“Scotland has a great set-up with coaches Yvette Yun Luo and John Quinn and the National Centre at Scotstoun. Everything is world-class and I’m really happy to be back and part of it all.”

 

Blair was capped three times for Scotland in 1999-2000 and then made 54 appearances for England, the first at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.  Having switched back from England, it will now be three years before he can play for Scotland again – but that will be plenty time for Glasgow 2014. 

In 2006 he partnered England’s Anthony Clark to a silver medal at the World Championships in Madrid and he collected bronze medals at both the 2008 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and the European Championships. 

Three years ago, he formed a mixed doubles partnership with Glasgow’s Bankier and they won the Bank of Scotland Scottish International title and they made it into the top ten in the world and just missed out on the 2008 Olympics. 

“I will be aiming for both the London 2012 Olympics and then the Commonwealth Games,” he concluded.  “It would be fantastic to play for the British team in London and then for Scotland in Glasgow.”

EB

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