It was a busy week for members of St Andrews Table Tennis Club with both matches in the Dundee and District League and the annual St Andrews Day tournament.
In Division One, Prefects managed a strong 8-2 win against Thumpers. Michael Hahn and Justin Yang both played very well and lost only a single set each — Michael to Jordan Ednie and Justin to Ian Hunter. Particularly impressive was Justin’s 3-0 win over Jordan in what could have been a very close game. Howard Lee, playing up for Prefects, played strongly and extended all three of his opponents to a fifth set, managing to defeat Ian and losing to Jordan and Tony O’Shea. Michael and Justin lost one set in the doubles against Jordan and Tony, but were otherwise reasonably untroubled in a 3-1 win.
Truants put on a very strong performance against Brechin in Division Two, the top end of which is now looking particularly close. Sascha Roschy dominated proceedings, not losing a set in his three singles games, including against previously-undefeated John Anderson. John proved too strong for Knut Radmer and Graham Wood, although Graham was able to win one set. Graham won his two other games, against William Balfour and Aaron Robertson, both 3-1, and combined with Sascha to defeat John and Aaron 3-2 in the doubles. Knut did his part; beating William Balfour 3-0 in the final game to close out an excellent 7-3 win for Truants.
New Kids also had a strong win against Chieftains. Howard Lee was the best player on the night, defeating the strong trio of Fiona Kinloch, Jacob Munro, and Jim Tawse, 3-2, 3-0, and 3-1, respectively. Colin Bleak, playing up, also had a good night, defeating Jim 3-1 and coming through in a particularly close game to defeat Jacob, 9-11, 12-14, 11-3, 12-10, 12-10. Kong Wang was unfortunate not to pick up any sets on the night, despite many close scores. Howard and Colin did well to win the doubles against Fiona and Jim, winning 3-1, with all of their three sets being by the minimum two-point margin.
Swots, however, had a much harder fixture against Villa, losing 8-2, but were close to having a much more positive result. In the opening game, Emma Bissett won the first two sets against Ian McLagan with ease, 11-1, and 11-3; however, Ian fought back to win the third set 11-8, saved a match point in the fourth set to win 12-10, and then closed the game out 11-8. Colin Bleak was particularly unfortunate to come away with no wins, having had match points in two of his games. He recovered from 2-0 down against Sandy Bertie to have match points in the fifth set, only for Sandy to recover to win 12-10. He also led Ian 10-6 in the fifth set, only to lose the next six points. Emma and Dave were also unfortunate to not win the doubles, having extended David Hay and Ian to five sets.
Prospects had a similarly difficult match against Princes. Stewart Mason and Eddie Dougan were too strong on this occasion for Prospects, although Sandy Pearson won sets against both Stewart and Eddie and Dave Goddard won one set against Eddie. The pair of Stewart and Eddie also beat Sandy and Dave 3-0 in the doubles. Dave Goddard had a strong 3-2 win against Derek Johnston, and Neil Lea was unfortunate not to follow suit, having extended Derek to five sets. Sandy also beat Derek in five sets, to close out an 8-2 defeat for Prospects.
Michael Hahn collecting his trophy from club chairperson, Alain Leger
On Friday night, the club hosted the now-annual St Andrew’s Day tournament. Michael Hahn was seeded straight through to the semi-finals whilst the other players competed in three groups of three or four to join him. The winners of the groups were Graham Wood, Ian Smith, and Howard Lee. Howard drew the short straw and played Michael in the semi-finals. Michael was ruthless in the first set, winning 11-2, and won a closer second set 11-9. He had two match points in the third set at 10-8 before Howard recovered to win 13-11. Michael got revenge by finishing the game with an 11-1 fourth set. Ian played very strongly to beat Graham 3-1, with the fourth set being particularly topsy-turvy before Ian closed it out 12-10. Michael didn’t let Ian into the match in the final, winning 11-5, 11-6, 11-7. The remaining players all played out a consolation doubles event, rotating partners, with Dave Beveridge being declared the winner.
This weekend saw Bathgate host the Scottish Schools Primary Championships with Keir Paterson, a P7 pupil at Lawhead Primary School, doing particularly well. Keir won two of his group games but lost the third. He then enjoyed more wins to progress through the early rounds of the consolation event, reaching the quarter finals.
St Andrews Table Tennis Club Scotland 