WEST LOTHIAN TABLE TENNIS CLUB

West Lothian Secondary Schools Championships 2009/10

Roll of Honour
Boys	Winner	Runner Up
Under 14	Kieran Boyle (St Kents)	Aaron Cameron (Bathgate)
Under 16	Robbie Fairley (Whitburn)	Daniel MacKay (St Margarets)
Over 16	Craig Holden (Bathgate)	Michael Kelly (St Margarets)

Girls	Winner
Under 14	Rachel Milne (Peel Primary)
Under 16	Imogen Beck (Bathgate)

The month of February saw this now annual event take place as usual at Bathgate Academy. There were individual events for boys and girls in each of three age group categories, Under 14. Under 16 and Over 16. As usual, members of the local club volunteered to organise the event in the hope of giving many local youngsters their first taste of competitive table tennis and finding local champions and qualifiers for the National Championships. Unfortunately, despite all efforts to encourage a larger than usual female entry, the vast majority of the entrants was boys.

In the Boys Under 14 event Kieran Boyle (St Kentigerns) retained his title by defeating first time entrant Aaron Cameron (Bathgate). Losing semi finalists were Callum Marshall (Bathgate) and James Marris (St Margarets) with all four qualifying for the National Championships. The Girls Under 14 winner was Rachel Milne who attends Peel Primary. It is one of the anomalies of this tournament that all Primary School pupils can compete in the Under 14 section.

The final of the Boys Under 16 brought together the two players who have played each other in a series of finals since they both started Secondary Schools, with the customary result. Robbie Fairley (Whitburn) took the title in beating Daniel MacKay (St Margarets) with Marcin Romaszewski (St Margarets) taking the third spot. Imogen Beck (Bathgate) was a worthy winner in this age group for the girls.

Pupils at Bathgate and St Margarets then continued their fine run when they took all four qualifying positions. Top of the heap was Craig Holden (Bathgate), closely followed by Michael Kelly (St Margarets), Darren Bett (Bathgate) and Matthew Piper ( St Margarets). The organisers were particularly pleased with this event as all four were new to table tennis competition. 

While the day’s competition reached a successful conclusion, it looked as though it might not even take place only two days before. Although the date for the event had been established and notified to the secondary schools by the educational authorities, the head teachers decided to call a teachers meeting, which meant that the schools and PE teachers were unable to support it despite the fact that the local club had organised volunteers from its membership to be in attendance. This meant that it was mainly club members and pupils from Bathgate who competed and the number of schools represented was only five.

For the past few years the Scottish Government has stated that it wants to see a greater uptake of sport by school pupils and SportScotland is actively encouraging the national governing bodies to establish partnerships with local schools. Regardless of these worthy policies, and a willingness of club members to assist, the number of entrants reached an all time low. The fact that those attending still had an enjoyable time, however, made it all worthwhile.

The qualifiers from this tournament then took the road to Bells Sports Centre, Perth to compete in the Scottish National Secondary Schools Championships where the standard of competition was fierce. For years Scotland lagged behind the other home nation countries, particularly England, but of late many young Scottish players have set the heather on fire in top British competitions.

Of the West Lothian contingent only Robbie Fairley and Kieran Boyle are Scotland ranked and it was these two who led the way for the county. In the Under 16 event Robbie reached the last eight before losing out to the eventual winner. Kieran, too, was unlucky in the draw and reached the last sixteen in what was probably the most hotly contested competition of all.

Imogen Beck finished fifth in a disappointing entry of five but regardless of the numbers competing finishing fifth in a national competition is an achievement.

Neither Aaron Cameron nor Callum Marshall qualified from the initial qualifying groups but did register some good victories in the consolation event. Also making their way to the consolation events were Michael Kelly and Matthew Piper in the older age group.

Although there were some excellent individual performances, the most pleasing aspect of the competition was the manner in which the group supported each other throughout the day. All of them will have gained vital experience from playing in such a quality event and, hopefully, a return next year will see improved performances.

The next stage of the club’s plans to develop table tennis in Secondary Schools will be the introduction of a Schools League and, hopefully, next year’s review will include coverage of such a league.