Table Tennis: Family connections can’t save the day

Oct 22 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THE big guns of West Lothian’s A team were not able to emulate the winning ways of their colleagues in their last outing, despite a fine showing from a father and son duo.

With a couple of regulars unavailable for selection team captain Lewis Hills called on John McCulloch and his father Barry Hills, but the trio went down 2-8 to Edinburgh Online.

Barry registered a singles victory before joining his son for an excellent win in the doubles.

Lewis was particularly unlucky in losing one game at 17-15 in the fifth set having had opportunities to win.

The West Lothian Table Tennis Club’s E team was the first in action last week and team captain Jim Stewart sacrificed himself to give Graham Chambers his debut.

However, for his baptism against Corstorphine he was partnered by two of the more experienced players in Benny Flockhart and Martin Rumsey.

As expected, Rumsey took the first game of the night but only after dropping the first set.

Chambers was next to the table but lost in three straight sets in a nervy performance.

The ever-dependable Flockhart reinstated the lead but only after a tense five-set encounter. This led to the return of Chambers – this time with the bit between his teeth after words of support and encouragement from his captain.

In a complete reversal of his earlier display, Chambers commanded from beginning to end to post a comfortable straight-sets victory to give the local team a 3-1 cushion.

This lead was extended further when Rumsey won a five-set thriller but only after being down two sets to one.

Unfortunately, Flockhart was unable to avenge the prior defeat of Chambers so that the score stood at 4-2 in favour of West Lothian.

Of the remaining four games all but one went to a fifth and deciding set.

Firstly, in the game of the night Rumsey and Flockhart won the doubles with a winning score of 10-12, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8, 14-12 in a match that could not have been any closer.

Gaining in confidence, Chambers then demolished his next opponent in three easy sets to make a claim for regular inclusion in the team.

West Lothian’s fighting qualities were never in question during the match and this was underlined when Flockhart took his second singles win of the night after overcoming a two-set deficit.

The final game of the night brought together the only two players remaining undefeated in their singles matches and Rumsey completed an excellent night’s work when he won in five sets.

The final score was 8-2 to West Lothian and Rumsey remains undefeated.

This win should take them to within the top of Division Three where their main challenge might well come from the other West Lothian team, which remains unbeaten.

When these two meet there will be the added interest in which of the two unbeaten players, Drew McLaren or Martin Rumsey, remain undefeated.

In Division Two, C team continued its unbeaten run with an easy 8-2 victory against Edinburgh International.

Kevin Milne, Zbigniew Stryzewski, and George Anderson turned out with Keith MacKay the as squad back-up.

Milne and Stryzewski both won their three singles games and still have 100% records, with Milne in particular looking too good for this division.

They then won the doubles and Anderson pitched in with the other victory.

At this point in time they top the division and are among the favourites for the title and presently top the table on games difference.

West Lothian B travelled to Edinburgh International where they inflicted a 7-3 defeat on the home team.

Their team on this occasion comprised a trio of seasoned campaigners in Barry Hills, John McCulloch and Andy Wyles.

McCulloch mirrored his performance of the previous week by winning all three singles games but only after an incredible comeback in one game.

In this game he immediately took a 4-0 points lead and seemed to be cruising, only to lose the set. He then lost a disappointing second set and looked down and out at 5-9 in the third, but came back to triumph, with the final score 8-11, 3-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-4.

Hills chipped in with two wins, and was extremely unlucky to lose the other in a tight five-ender, marked by long rallies where both players ensured that they did not make many, if any, unforced errors.

Wyles won one singles game and combined with McCulloch to win the doubles and, again, these games went to five sets, with the eventual result masking a close match. The team now lies third top, albeit on the same points tally as the teams above.

The anomaly in what has been a series of bad results for West Lothian is that the club has registered four wins out of five in the doubles.