WEST LOTHIAN TABLE TENNIS CLUB

Competition for Members of Primary School Age – 2009

Building on the success of the Friday evening family sessions when parents bring their kids to learn table tennis, the club decided to introduce a competition for those younger members attending Primary Schools. While the club boasts a good number of junior players the older age group, save for Imogen Beck, are all boys whereas the younger age group tends to comprise of all girls.

So it was that this competition took place at Bathgate last Friday when a group of excited kids – and relatives – took part. The final group of three comprised Rachel Milne, Julia MacDougall and Jordane Keddie who were supported by dads Kevin, Andy and Paul (all club members) respectively.

Rachel has been playing for just over one year now under the tutelage of her father and has had the benefit of practising against a robot. Julia, on the other hand, has been coming to the club every Friday for about a year but did take the opportunity of a couple of extra coaching sessions from her dad in the build up to the competition. The youngest, and newest, to the sport is Jordane and this put her at a distinct disadvantage compared to the other two.

In the round robin final Jordane lost to both her opponents but was far from outclassed. Against Rachel she lost 11-7,11-5 and against Julia the score was 11-8,11-7. This meant that the encounter between Rachel and Julia would decide positions one and two with third position already awarded to Jordane.

The irony of this game was that Rachel and Julia are good friends and classmates at Peel Primary School and their dads regularly travel to work together. Rachel started as favourite, having the greater match play experience and it was her service and strong forehand which led to a 11-9,11-7 victory.

All three girls were then presented with a medal and, in the case of Rachel, the trophy by club Treasurer Keith MacKay. The smiles on their faces and the pride shown their assembled relatives were sufficient testament to an excellent competition. The club will add this competition to its calendar of events for next season and, already, one of the defeated finalists has vowed to reverse the result next year.