Table tennis vets finish third in Six Nations event

Sep 22 2011 West Lothian Courier

VETERAN table tennis players Barrie Hills and Drew McLaren led Scotland to a third-place finish in the Six Nations Championships.

Taking part in the 70 age group, the two men jetted off to the Channel Island of Guernsey where the competition was being hosted.

Hills of Avonbridge and McLaren of Bathgate took on England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Isle of Man teams who made up the full complement of nations involved. Along with Doug Sinclair of Aberdeen they finished in third place behind England and Wales.

Dense fog in Guernsey threw the competition into doubt as competitors were hit with transport delays.

In the case of Hills, the reigning Scottish champion, and McLaren they were put up overnight at Manchester Airport but sill found themselves among the first to arrive. Over the past couple of years both players have become regulars in this team and have impressed with their consistency without actually winning honours.

They returned home particularly impressed with the sports facilities available to a small community such as Guernsey, and delighted with the hospitality afforded them by the local population. Next year the event moves on to Cardiff.

The Edinburgh and Lothians League season started with the first round of the Handicap Cup, with West Lothian looking to register a hat-trick of wins, having won the past two.

However, the local club suffered a series of setbacks resulting in only two of six teams, at best, going through into the next round. Even that statistic is flattering as one match is currently the subject of a dispute.

Of the four sides losing out it was a team of veteran John McCulloch of Livingston juniors, Kieran Boyle and Aaron Cameron, both of Bathgate, who came closest to winning in a particularly exciting and tense encounter. With the match on a knife-edge they lost the deciding game to go down 4-5 to Premier Division opposition from Edinburgh Sports Club. Throughout the match there was never more than one game of a lead as it swung first one way then the other.

First to the table for West Lothian was young Boyle who lost out in a five ender, three of which went to deuce. McCulloch then took the next game in four ends, of which three went to deuce, and taking one of them by winning seven straight points. Cameron, playing at this level for the first time, then gave his team a 2-1 lead by taking the third game in four sets.

In the second series of games Boyle again played first and again lost in the deciding fifth set. At this point Cameron lost in straight sets but this fact flatters his opponent as each of these sets could not have been closer. Now behind for the first time there was greater pressure on McCulloch to win and he duly obliged, but again in five sets.

In the final phase of the match both teams needed two wins from the last three games to move into the next round. First up was Cameron who played the game of his young life so far, despite which he still lost but only 17-19 in the deciding set. In winning only one of his three encounters young Cameron had nevertheless impressed and marked himself down as one to watch for the rest of the season.

West Lothian now needed to win the final two games. Boyle then won with surprising ease to put the score at 4-4. In winning one from his three games Boyle can consider himself very unlucky not to have finished with a better record, having lost the other two so closely.

At 4-4 both undefeated number ones faced one another in the decider. Conscious of the time and the fact that two juniors were out longer than wise, McCulloch played at a quick tempo, probably too quick, and in losing in four sets to allowed Edinburgh Sports Club to go through to the next round.

Next week sees the start of the normal Edinburgh league season but the West Lothian League is not scheduled to start for yet another two weeks. In the meantime anyone interested in joining the club should contact chairman Drew McLaren on 01506 655373. General information can be found on www.tabletennisclub.co.uk and table tennis gossip found on the club's Facebook page.