Night to celebrate season of success
West Lothian Table Tennis club mark achievements
West Lothian Table Tennis Club celebrated their tremendous season at the Edinburgh and Lothians Table Tennis League AGM.
The club sealed two division titles while two players won individual honours.
Lewis Hills won the Division One honours by the narrowest of margins, however, pride of place must go to Stuart Gibson who now boasts the league’s top individual honour, the Players’ Player of the Year.
With the club having as many as seven representative teams competing, there was always going to be an element of mixed fortunes, and so it transpired. Nowhere was misfortune more felt than in Team Four where they lost the services of Drew McLaren in such tragic circumstances so early in the season.
Overall though, success outweighed disappointment.
Team One has seen the settled trio of Dariusz Szymczak, Brian Hunter and Lukasz Kaska and they finished in fifth spot in a highly competitive league.
The talismanic Hills was almost unbeatable for Team Two in Division One as he won 90 per cent of his contests.
Supporting him was the evergreen Dave Fletcher and new arrival Steven Collins as they clinched the title with a record of 18 wins, two draws and two defeats from their 22 games.
Finishing in mid-table was Team Three who were ably captained by club stalwart Keith Mackay who was inconsistent, while summer signing Andy Honeyman caught many an opponent unawares and the club will be expecting big things from him next term. Calum Stephen played when studies allowed and looked strong.
West Lothian had two clubs in Division Two and the loss of McLaren meant Team Four had to find regular reserves which impacted their results but they were well marshalled by Gibson as they claimed fourth spot while the leader ranked second in the individual standings with an 81 per cent win rate.
Team Five struggled, finishing second spot and suffering relegation. It was a season to forget as John Swift left the club while Benny Flockhart and Jim Stewart both found work commitments hampering their involvement.
Holly Stephen featured on a few occasions as she tended to float amongst the club, representing several throughout the campaign.
The club’s second division title came in Division Three as Team Six grabbed 17 wins from their 22 games to finish two clear of North Merchiston’s Team Five to the title.
Their success was achieved despite a slow start to the season but they continued to improve throughout thanks to the efforts of Graham Honeyman, Stephen Gray and Barrie Hills, all of whom won at least 75 per cent of their individual matches while the surprise package was Brian Kelly whose nimble footwork and competitiveness helped him remain undefeated - although he played in too few contests to count towards the individual rankings.
Team Seven kept battling despite only claiming two wins during the campaign and they were relegated to Division Four.
It was a great introduction for many of the players into competitive action, though, and no doubt the 12 players who featured all learned from the experience.