UK School Games for Jill Taylor

Good luck to Jill Taylor who will be representing Scotland at the UK School Games which will be held in Manchester on September 4 – 7th.  Jill will be joined by Lucy Elliott, Rachel Crawford and Rebecca Plaistow who will all make up the Junior Girls Team. Jill will be competing in the team event and singles event and is one of the biggest multi sports events held annually in the UK. Full results and pictures available to view – http://www.2014schoolgames.com

Queens Baton Relay

Our very own Christopher Main was delighted to be nominated as a Batonbearer as it worked it way through North Ayrshire on July 16th. Chris, who ran with the baton outside the Apollo cinema  in Saltcoats was handed it from Gary Davidson who has represented Scotland at the Paralympic Games at table tennis. Chris said ‘I was great fun to be a Baton Bearer today and to be involved in the Queens Baton’s Relay. Their was a fantastic turnout from my friends, family & members of the table tennis club and had a lovely dinner at St Matthews Academy for the Evening Celebrations.’

NATTC were involved in promoting table tennis during the Queens Batons Festival which was held at Ardrossan beach. We had 3 tables where over the space of our 3 hour slot, over 150 people tried out table tennis and was one of the busiest sports all day. Thanks to Andy Macpherson & Ross Macpherson on helping out and running the table tennis  tent that day.

Ibiza Open 2014

Chris & Richard Main alongside coach Ryan Mitchell headed over to Ibiza to attend a 2 day training camp & compete in the Ibiza International Open. The 3 day competition which is held at Santa Eulalia Multi Sports Complex attracts top players from the major European countries and with Filip Symanski (Pol) & Niagol Stoyanov (Ita) topping the bill, it was always going to be a tough few days of competition.

On the Friday night, the doubles events opened the competition. Richard & Chris worked their way through the opening group stages and overcame 2 local pairings in the QF & SF to set up a final with 2 Spanish Pro B players. Chris & Richard had to win the hard way, coming from 2 sets to nil down to win 3-2 in an entertaining final.

The Saturday & Sunday consisted of the singles events with the Saturday holding the banded events and Sunday the main event. In the Band 1, Richard Main dispatched of his 4 players in the opening group & worked his way to the semi finals. Richard then met Chris Main’s conquerer, a 66 year old Swedish defensive player who is no1 Swedish over 60’s player. Richard overcame Jonas 3-1 and in the final, he beat Rafa Ramirez 13-11 in the fifth set to win the Band 1. Richard who has played in the Band 1 3 years in a row now, has never lost a match and won it 3 consecutive years. Well done Ricardo !!

On the Sunday, both Chris & Richard lost in the quarter finals 3-2. Chris lost in a very close match against top ranked Polish player Filip Symanski. Richard lost to Spanish Pro A player Guillermo Martínez 3-1. If your looking for a fun, enjoyable and competitive tournament with a couple of days sunshine, this is perfect for you. Entry forms and dates of Ibiza Open 2015 are available from the link below.

Pictures and full results can be viewed here – http://www.ttibizaopen.com/fotos

Murrayfield Open

11 of our players competed in this years Murrayfield Junior Open which was held at Royal High School, Edinburgh. Several of our younger players played in their first national event and gained valuable experience. Notable performances can be seen below.

Andy Macpherson – Runners up in Junior Boys with wins over Callum Morrison (Scottish no4)
Nathan Devlin – Quarter Finalist in Junior Boys, losing out to Andy Macpherson
Martin Johnson – Quarter Finalist in Cadet Boys, Semi Finalist in Minor Boys
Jamie Johnson – Winner of u11’s Plate
Robin Wilson – Winner of u18’s Plate
Derrin Lynch – Fantastic win over u13 Scottish no 2 Zaid Khalid

A great new addition to the Table Tennis Scotland calendar in which we hope to see it next year again. For pictures of the event click on this link – http://goo.gl/ueRNH2

3 Years in a Row

The team of Chris Main, Richard Main, Colin Dalgleish & Andy Macpherson successfully retained their National League title for the third successive year at Drumchapel Sports Centre on April 19th. It was always going to be an eventful last day of the league due to the absence of Colin Dalgliesh, as he was on International duty in Luxembourg, which meant Andy Macpherson stepped up from his usual Division 2 team to take Colin’s space. From the start to the finish, the team played and fought hard and with a 4-2 win over Drumchapel B, 5-1 win over Grange TTC and 4-2 win over Drumchapel A. Fantastic achievement for the club in our short 10 year history.

Bronze Medal at British Primary School Championships

The team of Zaid Khalid, Martin Johnson, Danny Bajwa & Dylan Curry won a bronze medal in the team event at the British Primary School Championships 2014. Jersey were the hosts this year and was held on April 4th, 5th and 6th. The boys overcame a strong challenge from Wales who they beat 7-3, they also beat Guernsey 10-0, Jersey B 10-0, Isle of Man 10-0, drew with Ireland 5-5 and lost to a strong England team 7-3.

Martin put in a good solid performance in the singles event, he lost in the last 16 of the singles to the no3 seed Freddie Brown (Eng) in a closely fought 3-2 match. Martin will be training hard and looking forward to travelling to Dusseldorf, Germany for the Andro Open later in August. Pictures of British Primary School Champs can be viewed here http://goo.gl/B2uUMe

Easter Training Camp

North Ayrshire TTC ran a 6 day training camp at St Matthews Academy over the school holiday period led by coaches Chris Main, Richard Main & Jordan McGinlay. Over 40 players from all areas in Scotland attended the training days which ran from 10am – 3.30pm Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday both weeks. The priority of the coaches was to give each player video analysis, personalised training and quality feedback on how and what they should improve. We would like to thank all players for travelling, attending and working hard and hope you got plenty of feedback and coaching tips to take away and work on.  Videos of a number of the players can be viewed here http://goo.gl/Kz747v    & http://goo.gl/OUBKVP pictures of the training can be viewed here http://goo.gl/qoitia.

Blackpool Grand Prix

Andy Macpherson, Chris Main & Richard Main travelled down to Blackpool for one of the northern Grand Prix events of the year.
Mens Singles: Chris who was seeded 14th, successfully made it through the to last 16 with comfortable wins over Josh Band & Martin Rutter to set up a clash with Craig Howieson. Chris put up a good fight with the match evenly poised at 1-1, 5-5 at one point, however, Craig proved too strong to win 3-1. Andy Macpherson did brilliantly to reach last 32 only to meet no1 seed and GP King Ryan Jenkins, Andy lost 3-0 but was great experience. Richard showed the high standard he can play at when he’s on top form, reaching the quarter finals, overcoming no6 seed and Scottish no5 Stewart Crawford 3-2 in the last 16.

Banded Events: Andy, who was competing in Band 4 and Band 5, played at a brilliant standard all weekend reaching the semi finals of Band 4 and last 16 of Band 5. He beat no1 seed for the band 4 in a high quality match 3-2 and secured 5 maximum wins over the weekend in which he will see his points increase heavily. Chris who was seeded 4th in band 1 won his group and qualified to the last 8 to set up a clash with his brother Richard. Richard won convincingly 3-0 and made his way to the semi finals where he lost to up and coming Scot Chris Wheeler. View the full ETTA report at http://goo.gl/ts5ywb

Junior Girls Success at Inter League

20 junior players from Garnock Valley, South Ayrshire and North Ayrshire represented Ayrshire at this years Inter League Competition at Inverclyde Sports Centre on 30 & 31 March. 2 Junior boys teams, 1 Junior girls team, 2 Cadet boys teams and a Minor boys team were watched under the watchful eye of our 6 non playing captains. The team of Jill Taylor and Rebecca Plaistow won the Junior Girls event with a final 3-2 win over the Dumfries team of Kay Lee and Alice Williams.

Junior Boys finished a creditable 3rd, behind Stirlingshire and West of Scotland. Minor Boys team finished in 3rd place behind Aberdeen & Edinburgh. Cadet Boys performed brilliantly all weekend and finished in 5th place. Full results from TTS Inter League Results.

Finalist at The Civic Pride Awards

We were delighted to be nominated in the Sports Category at the North Ayrshire Civic Pride Awards 2014 which was held at the Seamill Hydro. Ian Macpherson and Billy Main were our representatives on the night where NATTC were up against Fitba4U, a project ran by Kilwinning Sports Club and Danielle Joyce, a deaf Olympian swimmer. Fitba4U came out on top winning the category and receiving the highest number of votes from the public, we congratulate them in doing so. An impressive 7,000 votes were cast and we would like to thank everyone who voted for us.