Table Tennis: West Lothian clubs back in action after big freeze left league on ice

Jan 28 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THE West Lothian table tennis teams were playing catch-up this week following an inability to travel to games during the dismal January weather.

This made it one of the busiest weeks for the club with not only league matches but postponed matches and the Edinburgh Handicap cup to be played.

The first round of the handicap cup, whereby teams of players compete under a handicap system not unlike that of golf, proved tough with West Lothian’s first team of Keith MacKay, Kevin Milne and George Anderson unable to overcome the difference in handicaps given to their lower ranked opponents. Only MacKay managed to win his games with Milne finding the 10-0 start given to his opposition too much to claw back.

West Lothian's other three man team was led by the experienced Andy MacDougall and also consisted of the father and son pairing of Kevin and Kieran Boyle.

This team had just the right balance of experience, youth and tenacity and the combination saw them successfully through the first round against the highly fancied Murrayfield team.

Kevin Boyle, the teams least experienced player, took two crucial games as did MacDougall to grasp the 5-3 win for the local side.

The second half of the Edinburgh league season also started this week with all of the teams in action.

In Division Three, West Lothian 4, led by veteran international Drew McLaren, played the most games of any of the West Lothian sides with the family pairing of Kevin and Keiran Boyle back in the thick of the action.

Helped by the talented Daniel MacKay the team took 10-0 and 9-1 wins over Corstorphine.

This was followed by the toughest match of this half as they played the Murrayfield team lying second in the division away from home.

They successfully managed to carve out a 5-5 draw keeping them firmly at the top of the table.

West Lothian 5, also in the same division completed a convincing 10-0 victory against a multi-national team, with Jim Stewart, John Swift and Martin Rumsey all currently doing well in the individual league averages.

The team is lying third and is still in with a chance of promotion along with the fourth team who are dominating the division with Drew McLaren having dropped only one game all season.

West Lothian 3, Keith MacKay, Kevin Milne and Zbigniew Strzyzewski, have regained the lead at the top of Division Two with a decisive 9-1 win over Edinburgh University and a hard fought 7-3 victory against a strong Edinburgh Intrernational side.

Things may become tougher however as Strzyzewski, who has won 85 per cent of his games, returns to Poland following a successful two year stint in West Lothian.

Finally this week West Lothian 1 were unfortunate to come out with a 10-0 defeat against the Premier Divisions top team.

North Merchiston 1 have not lost a league game for two years and all of their players are ranked in the top 10 in Scotland making any match against the supremely confident and consistent trio of Willie Mabon, Dave Atkins and Stewart Armitage a real challenge.