Scotland’s squad of Mhairi Charlton (Aberdeen), Douglas Kempsell (Edinburgh), Greg Lobban (North Kessock), Morgan McGuire (Ralston) and Alastair McCorquodale (Inverness) made history by claiming the silver medal at the European under-17 Championships in Girano, Spain.

It was the first time the Scots has had reached the final – they beat France in the quarter-finals and Wales in the semis – and the No. 9 seeds only fell to favourites England at the last hurdle.

In the final, Greg and Mhairi both lost 0-3 and the dead rubber wasn’t played.

In the under-15 championships, the Scottish squad of Rosie Allan (Montrose), Andrew Forbes (Stonehaven), Kirsty Lobban (North Kessock), Calum Johnston (Dunfermline) and Rory Stewart (Muthill) lost to Israel 1-2 in the final play-off to take tenth place. They team was ranked 12 going into the championships.

Kirsty took the one point against Israel with Calum and 12-year-old Rory both losing out.

The success followed on from Scotland finishing fifth – the best result for over 20 years – at the recent European under-19 Team Championships in Germany, and the senior sides taking sixth (men) and ninth (women) at the European Championships in Sweden earlier this month. 

“It’s been an excellent run of results in Europe,” said Paul Frank, the Scottish Squash National Performance Director. “The under-17s can now proudly boast that they are Scotland’s most successful ever team at junior level.

“The success is a great boost for our programme and the hard world put in by all the coaches led by national coach, Roger Flynn. Mark Beaumont and Claire Kidd were the coaches this week.”

Under-17 results: Quarter-finals: Scotland 2 France 1 (Morgan McGuire (Ralston) lost to Melissa Alves 11-9 9-11 4-11 6-11; Greg Lobban (North Kessock) beat Arthur Moineau 12-10 11-6 9-11 1-11 11-8; Douglas Kempsell (Edinburgh) beat Yoan Autret 11-6 12-10 14-12) Semi-finals: Scotland 3 Wales 0 (Mhairi Charlton (Aberdeen) beat Tesni Evans 2-11 11-8 11-9 11-8; Lobban beat Sam Davidson 11-3 11-7 11-7; Kempsell beat Nyall Driscoll 11-8 11-7 11-6) Final: Scotland 0 England 2 (Charlton lost to Emily Whitlock 9-11 1-11 5-11; Lobban lost to James Earles 1-11 7-11 10-12)

Under-15 results: Ninth place play-off: Scotland 1 Israel 2 (Kirsty Lobban (North Kessock) beat Yaara Ol-Lev 11-1 11-0 11-2; Calum Johnston (Dunfermline) lost to Daniel Poishchuk 4-11 9-11 5-11; Rory Stewart (Muthill) lost to Roe Avraham 5-11 13-11 3-11 8-11)