West Lothian Secondary Schools Table Tennis Championships prove a big success

Mar 11 2010 West Lothian Courier

THE Schools Table Tennis Championships for West Lothian secondaries took place at Bathgate Academy last month, where a young rising star again showed his worth.

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 to give many youngsters their first taste of competitive table tennis and to find qualifiers and champions for the National Championships.

Kieran Boyle, of St Kentigern’s, showed why he has been deemed worthy of a Scotland place when he retained his title in the boys’ under-14 event by defeating first-time entrant Aaron Cameron (Bathgate).

Losing semi-finalists were Callum Marshall and Troy Lawton (both Bathgate), 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 for the boys at under-16 level brought together 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 Margaret’s) with Marcin Romaszewski (St Margaret’s) taking third spot.

Imogen Black (Bathgate) was a worthy winner in this age group for the girls.

Pupils at Bathgate and St Margaret’s then continued their fine run by taking all four qualifying positions.

Top of the heap was Craig Holden (Bathgate), closely followed by Michael Kelly (St Margaret’s), Darren Bett (Bathgate) and Matthew Piper (St Margaret’s).

The run-up to the competition had not been without its problems, however, and only two days before it took place it had looked as though it might not go ahead. Despite headteachers having been notified by educational authority officials of the date for the event, they had called a teachers’ meeting for the same day, which meant that teachers were unable to get involved and so only five schools were able to take part.

Luckily, Bathgate Table Tennis Club had provided volunteers to attend, which meant that it was mainly club members and pupils from Bathgate who competed.

The qualifiers from the tournament then took the road to Bell’s Sports Centre, in Perth, to compete in the Scottish National Secondary Schools’ Championships, where the standard of competition was fierce.

For years Scotland has 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 Robbie Fairley and Kieran Boyle have achieved Scotland calls-ups 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 16 in what was probably the most hotly contested competition of all.

Imogen Beck finished fifth in an entry line-up 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.