Ryan Henry Relishing Elite Competitions

Table tennis star Ryan Henry reckons rubbing shoulders with triple Paralympic medallist Ross Wilson is helping to accelerate his rapid rise to the top of the sport.

Ardrossan’s Henry, 23, claimed singles silver and doubles bronze at the International Table Tennis Federation Para US Open in Texas earlier this summer.

Henry dropped just a single set on his surge to the final, where he came up against a familiar face, and then world number two, in Wilson.

He may have gone down 3-0 in the all-British final but the experience outweighed the result.

“It was a really good learning opportunity to have a pressure free game against Ross,” said Henry.

“If the only game I’m losing is against second in the world, then it’s been a good competition.

“Whenever Ross and I train together, he is really good at giving little tips, being very helpful and guiding me on the different things he encountered when he was coming through.

“It’s the same as when I play Billy (Shilton) and Josh (Stacey) and all these guys that are ranked a lot higher than me and have a lot more experience.

“I’m just trying to learn as much as possible from them.”

Henry leapt onto the international scene last year when he swooped silver and bronze at the Under-23 European Championships.

Around the same time, he crossed the border and swapped North Ayrshire for South Yorkshire, finding a new home at the prestigious English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

The move saw Henry become a full-time athlete, with Wilson and co on hand to help navigate the next chapter in his quest for world domination.

“With constant top-level coaching and playing with guys who are at the top level, I’m quickly learning how to think about a match,” added Henry, one of 50 promising young athletes supported by funding from a partnership between SportsAid and Entain, owner of Ladbrokes and Coral.

“It’s not just physical stuff like forehands and backhands, but how to think your way through different styles and situations.

“Now I have more of a game plan, whereas before when I was only training a few times a week, I was almost hoping that I would play well that day.

“You don’t go full time to get better results at British level, you want to try to become the best in the world.

“I know that’s the aim for everyone, but it’s my goal too.”

Link to the interview by Herald Scotland – Henry relishing elite competition as he continues Paralympic charge | The Herald (heraldscotland.com)

NATTC Looking for Sponsors

North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club is looking for local or national companies to sponsor our club, teams & tables which will enable us to continue growing our sport and allowing our players to compete at the best possible level.

North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club is a club based in Saltcoats that design and deliver a popular weekly programme of table tennis across various schools and venues in North Ayrshire. Our team of volunteers and coaches take great pride in offering a different sport to people of all ages in our local community. We are a club that operates at all levels of our sport, from grassroots to the top of the professional game where we showcase table tennis in the best possible way.

Details of our club

• 150-200 members and players of all ages and levels playing at our sessions across North Ayrshire on a weekly basis
• Our club and coaches design and deliver a popular weekly programme across various schools and venues in North Ayrshire
• 14 teams competing in various leagues, from regional junior league to national senior league
• Our team of volunteers who help run all aspects of the club, delivered more than 7000 hours of volunteer hours last season
• We have over 50 table tennis tables in our venues across the local area
• Active on all social media platforms and regularly update them with videos and pictures from our matches and club nights
• Compete in the top league in Britain – British Premier League
• We have won the top league in Scotland a record 9 times over the past 12 years
• We have produced over 10 Scottish National Champions, all who hail from North Ayrshire
• Fully UKCC qualified coaches deliver all our sessions

Partners and sponsors that contribute to North Ayrshire TT Club, in turn, these companies will benefit from the increase of brand exposure from our promotion online, local papers, local venues and our players competing across Scotland and the UK.

Email chris@nattc.co.uk to show interest, to see package options or for more information.

North Ayrshire TT Facebook page – Facebook
North Ayrshire TT Twitter – (1) North Ayrshire TT (@NorthAyrshireTT) / X (twitter.com)
North Ayrshire Instagram –North Ayrshire TT Club (@northayrshirett) • Instagram photos and videos

Teams for Upcoming Season

As the start of the table tennis season edges closer, we have been getting our players together for the up and coming season and finalising what teams we are entering. We have made a few changes to last seasons entries with the club entering our first ever Junior British League team and also adding a new team in the West of Scotland League.

For the 2023 – 2024 season we have the following teams entered

4 x West of Scotland Senior League teams
4 x Scottish National League teams
2 x British Senior League teams
1 x British Junior League team
3 x West of Scotland Junior League teams

West of Scotland League
The WoS League plans to start WC 18th September where we will have teams in Division 1, Division 3 and two in Division 4. Our home matches will continue to be held on a Monday night at St Matthews at the usual kick off time of 7.30pm.

Scottish National League
We have 4 teams in this seasons SNL, two teams in Division 1, one team in Division 4 and one team in Division 6. The first round of SNL will be on 7th October at Bells Sport Centre, Perth with the annual Perth Grand Prix the following day. We are still confirming players for this league, so please let us know if you are available to play if you haven’t done so already.

The A team will be hoping to defend their title after winning a record 9th title last season, the B team will be aiming to build on their 3rd position finish and the C & D team will no doubt be pushing for promotion in their respective divisions.

British League
We will have our British Premier team competing in the home and away format, with our first match of the season away from home on Saturday 16th September against BATTS. Our first home match of the season is against Drumchapel on Saturday October 21st. Our Premier League team finished 2nd in 21-22 season and 3rd last season so hoping to remain at the top of the league and push for the title.

Our B team will compete in the A division at Halton this season after a credible 4th place finish last season in a strong league. We have a big pool of players in this team this season and hoping to finish higher after our players gaining experience of playing in the division last season.

Junior British League
We are entering our first team in the JBL this season and looking forward to the new challenge it brings. The formation of the divisions is still to take place so we will find out what division we are in towards the end of the month. JBL is two weekends in Derby and features over 6 divisions of both boys and girls teams.

West of Scotland Junior League
Great to see the WoS Junior League back up and running last year after it not running for 4 years. This is an important league for the development of our young players and was beneficial for all our players who took part in it. North Ayrshire had 3 teams competing in it with our A team winning Division 1 and our B team finishing runners up in Division 2. We aim to have 3 teams in the junior league this year too.

Steve Morley Wins XD at Scottish Parkinson’s International

Club member Steve Morley competed at his biggest tournament to date earlier this month, The Scottish Parkinson’s International which he won the Gold medal in the Class 2 Mixed Doubles event. The competition was held at Inverclyde National Sports Centre, Largs and was well attended with 46 players, all of whom have Parkinson’s participating in the event. In addition to a large contingent of UK players there were also players from Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Germany and Chile.

Read about Steve’s results below and how he started back playing table tennis again after a 40 year break.

Class 2 Mixed Doubles
A thrilling 5 set final eventually won by Steve Morley (SCO) & Lynn Arnot (SCO) 11-7 in the deciding set, with some great play on show from both teams. A well deserved win in the final after Steve & Lynn lost out to Brendan and Gill in the initial group stage.

Gold: Steve Morley (SCO) & Lynn Arnot (SCO)
Silver: Brendan Hawdon (SCO) & Gill Shaw (SCO)
Bronze: Robert King (ENG) & Sandra Muller (GER) / Kenneth Booth (ENG) & Lynn Tearse (ENG)

Video from TT Scotland live stream of Steve & Lynn’s win in the Mixed doubles final – (1) Facebook Live | Facebook

Class 2 Men’s Singles Event
Steve qualified out of his initial group in 2nd place after a countback was needed, he qualified for the quarter final stage. In the QF Steve played a great match, however lost out 3-2 to eventual winner John Duddy in a close match.

Class 1 Men’s Doubles Event
Phil Yeadon and Steve Morley teamed up in the Men’s Doubles event and were rather unfortunate to find themselves in the Class 1 event considering both players played in the Class 2 singles event. However, they enjoyed playing with no pressure to win but were well beaten in both their group matches. However they had a closer game in the 5th/6th playoff v Brian Carson and John Duddy.

Steve started playing table tennis at the Air Cadets when he was a teenager and didn’t pick up a bat again for 40 years, until he read research saying TT is good for slowing down symptoms of Parkinson’s. Steve got in touch with NATTC then found out about the dedicated Parkinson’s sessions at South Ayrshire TTC, Mossblown.

Steve has been training 4-5 days a week over the last 6-12 months and is great example of improving as fast as you can and playing as much as you can at the various clubs in the West of Scotland. Steve plays at the South Ayrshire TTC, People with Parkinson’s Coached Session, Irvine TTC, North Ayrshire TT, Drumchapel & Largs TTC. Training with a lot of people and different playing styles is always beneficial with Steve enjoying getting tips / coaching from different coaches.

Next up is the ITTF Parkinson’s World Championships in Crete in November, which he will no doubt be training hard towards, World Parkinson’s Table Tennis Championships – ITTF Foundation

Steve updates his own website with results, training and thoughts on his table tennis and other interests. Read an excerpt from an article below and check out his website for more articles A Gold Medal At Last! | Ayrshire Tiger (wordpress.com)

“And so to Sunday afternoon and the final event of the tournament the Mixed Doubles. When the event was first announced I persuaded Lynn who is relatively newly diagnosed to enter. At first she wasn’t keen as she was completely new to playing table tennis and as concerned that she wasn’t good enough. But thankfully she did enter and won a silver medal in the Ladies Class 2 Singles on Saturday! We got off to a shaky start losing our first match but then won our other two group matches to finish second and qualify for a semi-final place. We subsequently won and found ourselves in the final against the pair who had beaten us in the group stage. A tough 5 set match followed which we won! I really cannot describe the feeling of euphoria on winning that final point! A special mention must go to Andre Sonnet for his encouragement in between games and particularly his advice on who we should make sure I served to – as a match strategy it was spot on! I wasn’t aware at the time (which was probably a good thing!) but the match was live streamed on the Table Tennis Scotland Facebook page”

Medal at British Schools Championships

Six North Ayrshire TT players represented Scotland in Ireland at the British Schools International event earlier this month. Holly McNamara, Jess Hogg, Jamie Johnson, Nathan Hogg, Padma Unman and Tamara Martin made the trip to Galway as part of 20+ person Scottish team consisting of players, coaches and umpires.

Nathan Hogg (Largs Academy) had one of his best competitions to date reaching the final of U16 Boys and finishing 3rd in the U16 Boys team event with partner Daniel Tibbits. Nathan had wins v top English, Irish and Welsh players enroute to the final where he lost 3-1 in a close match v top seed and unbeaten player Krish Chotai. Holly McNamara lost out in the Quarter finals of the U18 Girls and Jamie Johnson lost out in the Quarter finals of U18 Boys.

Great achievement from the six players qualifying to represent their school and country at one of the most important tournaments in the junior calendar. Full results below of the North Ayrshire players in both team event and singles

Nathan Hogg
U16 Boys Singles – Runner-up
U16 Boys Team – 3rd place

Jamie Johnson
U18 Boys Singles – QF
U18 Boys Team – 7th place

Holly McNamara
U18 Girls Singles – QF
U18 Girls Team – 7th

Jess Hogg
U18 Girls Plate –
U18 Girls Team – 6th

Tamara Martin
U14 Girls Plate – QF
U14 Girls Team – 7th

Padma Unman
U14 Girls Plate – SF
U14 Girls Team – 7th

Table Tennis Scotland article with more pictures and results – Secondary Schools International – Galway 2023 – Table Tennis Scotland

Nathan & Jamie at Euro Youth Championships

Below is report from TT Scotland website

In July, Scotland sent a small squad of some of our most promising players to Poland to compete in the highly anticipated European Youth Championship. This is one of the largest and most difficult events that our Scottish players will take part in. The experience gained for our players and coaches from this is invaluable in helping improve the top level in Scotland going forward. The players spent 7 days competing in team, individual and doubles events.

The teams sent consisted of:

U19s

Jamie Johnson

Nathan Hogg

Kieran Walker

Harry Blackhall

U15s

Joe Mulhern

Ben Hart

Both teams gave their all, and everyone won some crucial matches throughout the event. Notable wins came from Jamie Johnson against a Swiss player ranked just outside the top 200 in the world rankings U19. Another strong win came from Joe Mulhern, who also beat someone in the top 200 in the European rankings in his age group. In the team event, the U19s finished 37^th out of 39 teams and the U15s finished 35^th out of 37 teams.

Overall this was a fantastic experience for everyone involved and we plan on putting in the work so in the future we can keep climbing up the rankings.

Ryan Henry medals at US Open

Successful trip to Texas at the US Open for Ryan Henry. Ryan reached the final of Class 8 singles scoring wins against Mexican, American and Brazilian opponents, eventually losing out to fellow Brit and former world champion Ross Wilson in the final.

Ryan continues full time training at British Para TT base in English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. Read report from British Para TT website below where Ryan was interviewed after his matches.

Max Flint and Ryan Henry lost 3-2 to Watson and Leibovitz but went through to the quarterfinals with a 3-0 win against Kevin Rivera Rios and Edwin Rojas from Puerto Rica. They beat Marco Makkar and Jerry Vasquez from USA 3-0 before losing to Wilson and Thakker in the semi-final.

“I feel I played a lot better than my last few competitions and overall, I’m pleased with how I played in all my matches,” said Henry, who took silver in the men’s class 8 singles yesterday, losing to Wilson in the final. “I’m happy to have made the final in the singles and to get to play Ross – it was great experience as he is one of the best in the world and it’s always good to be able to compete against better players. I’m happy with how I performed in the final – Ross just had too much quality, but I have plenty to take back home to work on in training.

“In the doubles Max and I worked well together. We were unfortunate to lose our first game to the top-seeded Americans in five sets, but we bounced back with two good performances to make the semi-finals. There were definitely some things to take back and work on in the future, but Ross and Shae played very well and didn’t let us off the hook with any mistakes or weak play.”

TT Classes – Where and When?

List below of table tennis classes and sessions that are on in and around North Ayrshire. A range of clubs available in different venues across the area for all ages and abilities. Please see contact details for each club or class and if you are interested in any of the clubs below, get in touch with the relevant contact.

All the classes below will be running weekly from start of September 2023 until the end of the year.

Monday
North Ayrshire TT Club
6-7.15pm Junior Dev Squad
7-9pm Club Night at St Matthews Academy, Saltcoats
Contact details – billy@nattc.co.uk

Wednesday
Largs TT Club
7-9pm at National Sports Centre Inverclyde, Largs
Contact details – largsttc@gmail.com

Thursday
Argyll TT Club
11am-1pm at Argyll Community Centre
Contact details – billy@nattc.co.uk

1-1 coaching sessions
3-7pm at St Matthews Academy
Contact details – chris@nattc.co.uk

Performance session
7-9pm at St Matthews Academy, Saltcoats
Contact details – chris@nattc.co.uk

Friday
Over 50s class
1-3pm at St Peters Church Hall, Ardrossan
Contact details – chris@nattc.co.uk

West Kilbride TT Club
7-9pm at West K Community Centre
Contact details – billy@nattc.co.uk

Saturday
Extra training – ONLY on when no tournaments
11am-1pm at St Matthews Academy, Saltcoats
Contact details – chris@nattc.co.uk

3rd Place Finish in British Premier League

Team of Martin Johnson, Colin Dalgleish, Viktor Gorman, Chris Main, Jamie Johnson & Nathan Hogg finished in 3rd place backing up their 2nd place finish in the 21-22 season.

The team finished off the season with a 5-2 win over Ormesby and a 4-3 win over Urban to clinch 3rd place.

Thanks goes out to coaches Jordan McGinlay and Andy Macpherson plus all the volunteers and spectators who come along to our home matches.

You can view the league table and results here – British League | TT Leagues

You can watch all our matches on the new TTE.tv website here – Table Tennis England | Livestreaming | Videos | Highlights (tte.tv)

Andre Sonnet Receives Coaching Award

Congratulations to club coach Andre Sonnet who was nominated for the volunteer award at The Ayrshire Community Trust Awards ceremony last week. Andre was nominated for his great work running the Bat and Chat session at Argyll Community Centre in Saltcoats every week. Andre also coaches at our Junior Development squad on a Monday and volunteers in a number of ways at the club.

Argyll Community Centre Bat and Chat Session runs every Thursday morning 11am-1pm and is FREE of charge to all. It is a session for players of all ages and abilities with bats and balls provided. Over the summer months the session has been for families who want to play table tennis. However, as the schools are now back the session is back to adults only.

Get in touch if you want to come along to the session.

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