Table Tennis: Bathgate Academy hosts a cracking festival

Mar 19 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

BATHGATE Academy hosted 48 hours of top-notch ping pong last weekend as West Lothian Table Tennis Club brought a two-day festival to the school.

The most promising young players in the county were put through their paces over the two days by former European Champion John Hilton who took full-day coaching sessions on both Saturday and Sunday and entertained an audience to an exhibition of top-class table tennis on the Saturday evening.

Hilton won the 1980 European Championships and reached a career high of number five in the world rankings

The Mancunian took the game to the traditional table tennis superpowers of Asia in his heyday but now he spends his time playing in a very competitive veterans circuit, coaching and playing exhibitions.

Edinburgh-born Brian Kean was also on hand with Hilton to offer expert tips and advice on life at the top level of the sport.

Kean is a former Scottish champion who represented Scotland 80 times including three European Championships and four World Championships.

At the end of his real playing days he also acted as Scottish National Team Trainer for more than five years.

This duo put a group of local juniors through their paces on the Saturday and then a similar group of seniors on the Sunday.

As amateurs it is not often that they have the opportunity of practising for hours on end and to be able to put in this amount of table time under expert tutelage has been of great benefit.

For many, however, the undisputed highlight of the weekend was the Saturday night exhibition.

For several years now Hilton and Kean have been a recognised double act who not only play table tennis to a very high standard but have a hilarious interactive comedy routine which involves playing with a range of humorous bats and wearing outrageous costumes.

They have even been known to provide entertainment at a wedding reception.

Included in the evening's entertainment were two local youngsters.

Firstly St Kentigern's pupil Kieran Boyle from Bathgate opened the exhibition with a match against Kean. Although nervous at his first experience in such an arena young Kieran acquitted himself very well although losing.

It was also a particularly long and tiring day for Kieran as he had just returned from a full day's training with the Scotland under-13 national squad, having just earned his first call up.

Next on was Whitburn Academy pupil Robbie Fairlie who had the unenviable, but enjoyable, task of taking on Hilton.

Robbie, too, is Scotland-ranked at under-15 and although more powerful than Kieran he still found it difficult to break down Hilton's defences although to his credit he played some very strong attacking shots which would normally have won points easily.

The eventual result was not in doubt but Robbie can be proud of his efforts which did on occasion put Hilton in difficulty but the experience of playing against an opponent of such repute can only be helpful.

After this Hilton took on a strong challenger in Falkirk's Gerry Campbell who has played for Scotland on numerous occasions and is a regular visitor to Bathgate.

As expected this provided the match of the night as Campbell hit powerful topspin shots one after the other only to see them returned from every area of the court with even more backspin.

To say that the Scotsman won is to overlook the fact that both players treated the game as a lighthearted exhibition of entertaining table tennis which had the audience spellbound throughout. Such was the quality on display that the result was not really important.

To end the evening Kean came into his own with his mixture of comedy and farce with Hilton playing the part of straight man to perfection as ‘granddad’ Kean challenged the champion and surprised him with his ability to play with an armoury of ridiculous bats and styles.

Such a routine is only possible where a high level of skill abounds and their's is the product of years of practice, training and no little natural ability.

It's fair to say that the West Lothian public in attendance has never witnessed table tennis played to such a high level allied with such a sense of fun and enjoyment before. Everyone left the arena with smiles on their faces.