WoS Junior League

Impressive day of results for our 6 North Ayrshire teams at the 3rd and 4th rounds of matches of the WoS Junior League. Our Division 1 teams are currently sitting in 3rd and 4th place behind East Kilbride A and South Ayrshire. Division 2 team, North Ayrshire C, won both of their matches against Boys Brigade A and East Kilbride C 3-2 and are currently sitting in 5th place. Division 4 team of Holly McNamara, Eva Herrington & Cameron Mills are in 3rd place after a 5-4 win and 8-1 win against East Kilbride & Joe Wilson respectively. For full results and player averages visit www.wosttl.org.uk

North of Scotland Open

Jill Taylor and Chris Main made the 170 mile journey to Aberdeen Sports Village for this year’s North of Scotland Open with both players hoping to work their way into the latter stages of their respective events. Chris was top seed heading into the Men’s Singles event and worked his way through the group stages and early knock-out rounds to set up a semi final against no 4 seed Yaser Razouk. Yaser put up a great fight, however Chris managed to scrap the win 11-9 in the fourth set to meet Chris Wheeler who dispatched Colin Dalgleish in the other semi final. Wheeler played superb table tennis to beat Chris Main in straight sets to be crowned North of Scotland Open Champion. Chris and partner Colin Dalgleish combined brilliantly to win the Mens Doubles title beating Yaser & Chris Wheeler 12-10 in the deciding set.

Good start to the year for Jill Taylor who finished runners up in the Junior Girls and reached quarter-finals in the Womens Singles. Jill who was seeded 3rd in the Junior Girls event beat Hannah Robb, Alisha Khalid, Caitlin Cameron & Abigail Paterson to finish runners up behind top seed an eventual winner Lucy Elliott. In the Women’s Singles, Jill finished 2nd in her opening group and meet Lucy Elliott in the quarter finals. Lucy proved too strong beating Jill 10, 5 & 8. Full full report and pictures please visit Table Tennis Scotland’s website –www.tabletennisscotland.co.uk.

UKCC Level 1 Course

10 volunteers and players from NATTC have began their UKCC Level 1 coaching course which has been organised to take place at St Matthews Academy on Jan 10th and February 28th. UKCC and Table Tennis Scotland Coaching Director, Paul Jackson lead the course and worked through the course working on areas such as warm ups, setting up a training session, health & safety and coaching points on the basic techniques. Feedback has been great from all applicants and will be an advantage for our club to have more qualified coaches to assist with sessions and classes. The 2nd day of the course will take place on Saturday 28th February where everyone on the course will be assessed on a 20 minute training session that they will deliver.

British League

The 2nd weekend of Senior British League was held at Halton TTC, Widnes on 13th and 14th December with our team of Andy Macpherson, Chris Barclay, Jordan McGinlay & Martin Johnson up against it from the word go, playing the top 3 teams. First 2 matches resulted in 2 tough losses, 7-1 v Rotherham with Andy MacP winning the only match and 8-0 loss v Guernsey. The match versus Warrington resulted in a 7-1 defeat with Martin Johnson picking up the only win for North Ayrshire. The last match of the weekend was against home side Halton TTC which finished in a 4-4 draw. Martin & Jordan both winning deuce in the fifth set to secure a point for North Ayrshire. Next round of matches are on Sunday January 18th where we will play Bankfield and Drumchapel. For league tables, results and player averages visit Table Tennis 365 website  –http://goo.gl/2suJz8.

Success at Scottish Primary Schools

Martin Johnson, Jamie Johnson, Chad Duncan, Patric Hollywood, Grant McLellan, Cameron Mills, Ryan Watt, Eva Herrington & Holly McNamara all attended the Scottish Primary School Championships at Bathgate Academy. 48 boys and 20 girls competed where the top 4 of each category would be selected to play for Scotland at British Primary School Championships. Martin Johnson lived up to expectation, seeded no1 heading into the competition he worked his way through the groups and knockout stages to reach the final where he meet Yifie Fang of Aberdeen. Martin played top class table tennis to win in 3 straight sets, 13-11, 11-9, 11-3 to become Scottish Primary School Champion 2014.

Jamie Johnson, aged 9, reached the last 16 of the boys singles losing out to Borui Chen 3-2 in a closely fought match. Jamie teamed up with his brother Martin in the doubles event and showed that they make up a great doubles partnership. The boys overcame tough competition from Chen / Paterson in the semi finals and Fang / Woliski in the final to win the event and be crowned Scottish PS Doubles Champions. First brothers to ever win this event?

All of our NATTC players performed well and showed great attitude during the competition. Eva & Holly won several matches in the girls event and with 2 years left they will be looking to improve on their results next time around. Chad Duncan had several impressive results en route to the Consolation final where he eventually lost to a Drumchapel player in the final 3-2.

Three Towns TT Festival

Three Towns TT Festival was held at St Matthews Academy on Friday November 28th where over 25 pupils from local schools competed against each other in 3 different categories. The experienced category was a group of 8 players who have been attending the club sessions for over a year was won by Jamie Johnson (Glencairn). Runners up was Patric Hollywood (Caledonia) and 3rd place was Chad Duncan (St Anthony’s). Grade 1 event was won by Harvey Newall (Ardeer) with Declan McCoy (Hayocks) beaten finalist.

Grade 2 event was won by Zak Leith of St Anthonys with Michael Donnelly (St Anthonys) finishing in runners up. This was a great event which was the finale of our 8 week block of classes which we ran in St Anthonys, Hayocks, Ardeer and Glecairn. Hopefully we see some of these players attending the club sessions in the future and special thanks to Bruce McMaster of Active Schools for helping with the planning and organising of this event. For more pictures please visit our facebook page – http://goo.gl/nND6ds.

Silver Medal at British 6 Nations

Chris & Richard Main were both selected to play for Scotland at British Senior 6 Nations at Inverclyde Sports Centre, Largs on November 22nd/23rd. Chris competed in the team event as with Craig Howieson & Chris Wheeler where they successfully beat Jersey, Guernsey & Ireland 3-0 and got the better of a young Welsh team 3-1 to set up a Gold medal match v England. England fielded Chris Doran & David Mcbeath who both showed their class and ran out 3-1 winners. In the singles event, Richard fought hard against Ireland’s no 2 Paul McCreery but just fell short, losing 11-9 in the fourth set meaning he finished runners up in his group to progress to the last 16. Richard had another battle on his hands in the form of Welshman Ryan Oyler, Richard won 12-10 in the deciding set to meet David McBeath (England) in the quarter finals. Richard lost in 3 tight sets 15-13, 11-9, 11-8 to David but put in a good performance and can be delighted with reaching the quarter finals.

Direct Club Investment

We are delighted to announce that North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club have secured funding from SportScotland through their Direct Club Investment Programme to appoint a part time development coach for a 3 year period. This is a major achievement for us which will enable us to focus on increasing club membership for the future growth & sustainability of the club. The Direct Club Investment programme supports our ambition to encourage more people to be active and take part in sport. NATTC will be running a dedicated 32 week programme to give as many youngsters in our area the chance to be active, play table tennis and join a local club.

The new investment for the regional development posts is to ensure that there are more professional people working directly to support local sport clubs, which will help improve the overall quality of the school to club to performance pathways. This focused work enables Scottish Governing Bodies of sport to work more closely with their member clubs, and with local partners, to improve the opportunities for clubs to flourish. Using National Lottery funding, the DCI is designed to support large-scale club development projects over a two to four-year period, with a focus on either growing club membership or enhancing club environments to allow the development of high performance athletes.

North Ayrshire Open 2014

North Ayrshire Open 2014 was held at our home venue of K:A Leisure St Matthews on November 8th & 9th and what a fantastic weekend of table tennis it was. 138 competitors   played in 15 different events with a total of 570 matches being played over the weekend. We had an international entry on the Saturday for the Men’s and Women’s singles with Cheng Meng Sung (Taiwan) being top seed in the Men’s and Lynda Flaws (Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games player) topping the bill in the Women’s event. All results can be viewed below and pictures from the event can viewed through the link.  A big thanks to the players, organisers, volunteers, parents and sponsors for making this year’s North Ayrshire Open bigger and better than ever.

Notable performances from NATTC players;

* Chris Main runners up in Mens Singles     * Richard Main S/F in Doubles & Q/F in Mens Singles
* Jamie Johnson runners up in U11s.          * Martin Johnson S / F U13s & Runners Up in Doubles
* Rebecca Melrose S / F in U15 Girls.        * Andy Macpherson Last 16 of Mens Singles
* Jill Taylor S / F Junior Girls.                     * Patric Hollywood S / F u11s.
* Derrin Lynch Last 16 Junior Boys            * Andy Bogle Last 16 of Junior Boys

Day 1 Pictures – http://goo.gl/x6xtrn –  Day 2 Pictures – http://goo.gl/eqEvCJ

Saturday Events

Men’s Singles … Winner – Cheng Meng Sung –  Runner up – Chris Main
Women’s Singles … Winner – Lynda Flaws – Runner up – Rebecca Plaistow
Band 1 … Winner – Robert Toth – Runner up – Christian Fischer
Band 2 … Winner – Gavin Elliott – Runner up – Grant Williams
Vets over 40’s … Winner -Gerry Campbell – Runner up – Alan Whitton
Vets over 55’s … Winner – Derek Lundie – Runner up – Roy Claxton
Senior Doubles … Winner – S Barton /  C Dalgleish – Runner up – C Seng / Yang Feng

Sunday Events

U18 Boys … Winner – Calum Morrison – Runner up – Yaser Razouk
U18 Girls … Winner – Rebecca Plaistow – Runner up – Caitlin Cameron
U15 Boys … Winner – Calum Morrison – Runner up – Dylan Curry
U15 Girls … Winner – Jennie Yang – Runner up – Hannah Robb
U13 Boys … Winner – Zaid Khalid – Runner up – Danny Bajwa
U13 Girls … Winner – Jennie Yang – Runner up – Tessa Yau
U11 mixed … Winner – Borui Chen – Runner up – Jamie Johnson
Junior Doubles … Winners – C Morrison / K Morton – Runners up – Y Razouk / M Johnson

Wednesday Night Training

Every Wednesday from September, Li Chao (Current Table Tennis Scotland Coach) will be down at St Matthews delivering 2 hours of 1-1 sessions and a 2 hour group session.  Fantastic to have Li Chao down who has coached in England, Wales, Dubai, China & has worked with players such as Jun Muzitani (world no 9). The group session which runs 7-9pm is open to anyone from any club so please get in touch if you want to attend, spaces are limited to 16 players. All our players are working hard & benefiting and enjoying the sessions so far.

Over the past 3 weeks, Li Chao has brought along top Taiwan player “Song” who is great to have along at training who creates plenty of energy in the training hall. You can view a video of some of the multiball exercised and fitness that we do here – http://goo.gl/rN46Ce