Scottish Schools National Championships, Sunday 13th April

137 players took part in the 2008 Scottish Schools Championship which took place at The Bells Centre ,Perth on Sunday 13th April.

After Queen of the South's exploits on Saturday it was appropriate that the first two titles headed down the M74. In the Under 14 Girls event an on form Holly Porteous created a small upset when she defeated defending champion Lesley Atkins to take the title. In the semis Holly saw off Renee Ho in four while Lesley had a comfortable victory over Alice Williams.

The early stages of the boys event was dominated by the performance of Christopher Wheeler who turns the ripe old age of nine next week. He reached the semi final by knocking out both number three and five seeds Colin Dalgleish and Adam Gaffney respectively. In the semi he ran up against the powerful Scott Barton and lost in four.

In the other half Liam O'Shaunessy strolled through to the final comfortably beating Blair Fowler in his semi. Blair had earlier comeback from two sets down to beat Robbie Fairley in the fifth. In the final Scott could not repeat his performance in the Scottish Closed Final and Liam ran out a deserved straight sets winner.

Glasgow was miles better in the under 16 events as Sean Doherty and Natasha Milliken dominated both events.

In the boys event Sean comfortably beat Steven Fowler in straight sets in his semi and repeated the feat in the final against Daniel Swiatek. Daniel came through his semi final in four against Calum Main. Both Daniel and Calum had to work hard in the quarters both being taken to five by Ian Johnston and Stuart Halliday.

In the girls event newly crowned Scottish Ladies champion Natasha had a comfortable passage to the final beating Rhian Williams in straight sets in her semi. In the other half Emma Notarangelo came through from a seeding of eight after beating number two seed Rhian in the group stage and fourth seed Kathryn Miller in her semi. Natasha showed her class in the Final however with a straight sets win.

In the under 18 events Richard Main continued his recent good form by taking the under 18 boys title. Richard who last week in Blackpool was 9-9 in the fifth against Darius Knight beat top seed Craig Hardie 3-1 in the final. In the play off for third place Calum Morgan had a surprisingly comfortable straight sets win over Stewart Armitage

Finally in the under 18 girls event Corinna Whitaker comfortably retained her title, coming top of the pile in a six girl group. Best performance here came from Stephanie McCalllum who held her nerve (just) to come through 12-10 in the fifth to beat Roxanna Milne and take second place. Roxanna was third and Tracy Peacock took fourth.

The top four in each event with the exception of the under 18 Boys, where only the top three qualified, now head for Cardiff in June for the 2008 Senior Schools International.

As always well done to Stewart,Alison,Charlie and Tricia at the top table for a well organised event.

Report by Mando Notarangelo

Top Four Placings:

Under 14 Girls
Holly Porteous - Lockerbie Academy
Lesley Atkins - Hawick
Renee Ho - Dumfries Academy S/F
Alice Williams - Eaglesfield Primary School S/F

Under 14 Boys
Liam O'Shaughnessy - Castle Douglas Academy
Scott Barton - Knightswood Secondary
Christopher Wheeler - Wallacestone Primary S/F
Blair Fowler - Wallacestone Primary S/F

Under 16 Boys
Sean Doherty - Hillhead High School
Daniel Swiatek - St Stephen's Glasgow
Calum Main - Lockerbie AcademyS/F
Steven Fowler - Braes High School S/F

Under 16 Girls
Natasha Milliken - Drumchapel High
Emma Notarangelo - Falkirk High School
Kathyrn Miller - St George's Edinburgh S/F
Rhian Williams - Lockerbie Academy S/F

Under 18 Boys
Richard Main - Ardrossan Academy
Craig Hardie - Rosshall Academy
Callum Morgan - StJoseph's College Dumfries S/F
Stewart Armitage - Dunblane High S/F

Under 18 Girls
Corinna Whitaker - Dollar Academy
Stephanie McCallum - Drumchapel High
Roxanna Milne - Dunblane High S/F
Tracey Peacock - Castle Douglas High S/F

Within a few days of securing 4th Scottish National Championship Mens Singles title Gavin was on his travels again with the BTTF Development Squad, this time to represent Great Britain at the qualifying tournament for a place in Bejing Olympics.

Gavin qualified to play in Nantes by attaining a World Ranking of No.299 in February, which was inside the qualifying target of WR 300. The 64 men entry for the Nantes event contained the best players in Europe who had not already gained an automatic entry to the competition in Bejing.

Gavin, who was WR308 by the time of the tournament, was drawn into a qualification group along with Rui Wu Tan of Croatia WR45, Thomas Keinath of Slovakia WR94 and Mihai Bobocica of Italy WR 130. Despite having the lowest ranking in the group Gavin made the best possible start by defeating Thomas Keinath 4-3 to record another win against a player ranked in or around the top 100. In his second match, Mihai Bobocica proved to be too strong for Gavin, winning 4-0. In his third match Gavin pushed Rui Wu Tan all the way before losing 1-4 and being eliminated from the tournament.

Gain Rumgay
bt Thomas Keinath (Svk) 4-3: 8-11, 4-11, 13-11, 11-2, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6.
lt Mihia Bobocica (Ita) 0-4: 9-11, 7-11, 12-14, 5-11
lt Rui Wu Tan (Hrv) 1-4: 11-7, 1-11, 12-14, 9-11, 6-11

The April world rankings released recently show that Gavin has taken a slight fall to WR319, which will mean he will miss out on the World Olympic Qualifier in Budapest in May. Consolation for Gavin may come in May with the possibility that his excellent win against Thomas Keinath will push his world ranking back inside the top 300. He will also compete and train in Asia with the BTTF squad during May.

Primary Schools Interlational Championships,
Isle of Man 4th - 6th April 2008

The Primary Schools Interlational Championships took place at the weekend. The event was a great success and both the boys and girls teams came away with a bronze medal. Gold went to England and Silver to Wales in both events.

Jennifer Hart and Blair Fowler both made it through to the Consolation Singles finals. Jennifer won her match 3-0 and Blair was a worthy runner up in his match.

This is the first year that many of these players have attended an international event and it was a very good experience for all involved.

Please click here to see a few photos taken during the event.

A full match report will follow shortly.

The Scotland squad had a successful weekend of competition in Guernsey, collecting the silver medal in both junior team events and the bronze medal in the cadet boys competition. Natasha Milliken produced the best individual performance by reaching the final of the junior girls singles event and Craig Howieson, Craig Hardie and Corinna Whitaker all collected a bronze in the junior singles.

Junior boys

The boys team of Craig Howieson, Craig Hardie and Richard Main finished in second place behind an English team of Matthew Ware and Chris Doran. Wins against Guernsey (4-1), Ireland (3-2) and Wales and Isle of Man (both 5-0) set up a final match with England that produced a disappointing 1-4 scoreline but contained some exciting play.

After Craig Howieson had lost the first singles match to Matt Ware, Craig Hardie fought hard for 5 sets against Chris Doran but missed the chance to tie the match at 1-1. A Howieson/ Hardie doubles win that finished at 26-24 in the 5th set followed the singles. This match contained most things, including a tenacious Craig Hardie demonstrating his legendary footwork to execute winning forehands whether in midair, landing on his butt or by using the more upright technique generally employed by mere mortals. Unfortunately neither Craig nor Craig could produce a win in the remaining singles matches.

Craig Howieson and Craig Hardie were seeded 3rd and 4th respectively for the singles competition but again couldn't make it past the English boys once they had reached the semifinals stage. Craig Hardie reversed a team event defeat to Sam Hanley with a 3-1 win in their quarterfinal match. Richard Main lost to Chris Doran in his group, which meant that he met Matt Ware in the quarterfinals, losing 0-3.

Junior girls

The girls team of Rebecca Russell, Corinna Whitaker and Natasha Milliken recorded three 4-1 wins against Guernsey, Ireland and Wales before they too met England in the deciding match. As with the boys match the girls only win came in the doubles when Corinna and Natasha combined to defeat Karina LeFerve and Natalie Slater. The singles results were all disappointingly lost in straight sets.
Rebecca lead the team with 5 wins, Corinna contributing wins against Guernsey and Wales and Natasha won her 2 singles against Ireland including a good 3-0 win against Fiona Dennett.

The top performance on Sunday came from Natasha as she qualified through her group with wins against Rebecca (3-2) and Sara Dolan (3-0). She then recorded a close but excellent 3-2 semifinal win over Karina LeFerve, which went all the way to 12-10 in the 5th set. Although Natasha lost the final 1-3 to Rachel Jamieson, this tournament marked a return to form and included a number of impressive wins.

Corinna Whitaker reached the semifinal stage with group wins against Paul Le Ber (3-0) and Fiona Dennett (3-1) but was outplayed by Rachel Jamieson and lost 0-3. Rebecca failed to come through a tough group and had losses in 5 sets to Natasha and Rachel Jamieson.

Cadet boys

Calum Main and Liam O'Shaughnessy won the bronze medal in this category. After losing 1-4 to Guernsey in the first match the boys recovered to record 4-1 wins over Ireland and Wales and a 5-0 win against Isle of Man. The English pairing of Daniel Lowe and Sean Cullen proved to be too strong as they won 5-0 with the loss of only 3 sets.

The Scottish boys were, lets say, less than effective as a doubles pairing but made up for this with good wins in the singles. Calum defeated Oliver Langlois of Guernsey and Daniel O'Connell of Wales and both boys won 2 singles against Ireland.

Calum was placed, not drawn, into qualifying Group 1 along with Danny Lowe and was rewarded for finishing in 2nd place with a quarterfinal against Sean Cullen. This was the toughest draw possible and he couldn't get past either of the English players. Liam lost to Daniel O'Connell and Declan O'Brien of Ireland in his group and was eliminated.
Still this competition showed that both Calum and Liam are making steady progress. The 6 Nations following on from a successful weekend at the Derby 4 Star, 8-9th March, where Calum reached the final of the Cadet boys losing 1-3 to Daniel Lowe and Liam reached the semifinal of the Minor boys.

Cadet girls

The cadet girls made a good start to the competition on Friday evening with Lynda Flaws and Lesley Atkins, who was making her cadet team debut, just losing out to a Guernsey team containing top player Alice Loveridge, 2-3. They followed this by beating Ireland 3-2 with Lynda winning both of her singles and Lesley winning one. Saturday defeats against Wales (1-4) and England (0-5) saw the girls finish in 4th place, which was to be expected against more experienced opposition.

Lynda had a tough group in the individual event and lost to Alice Loveridge 0-3 and to Megan Phillips of Wales in a very close 5 setter. Lesley qualified for the quarterfinal stage with group wins against Elizabeth Priest of Guernsey and Deirdre Murphy of Ireland. Martha Travis of England was too strong for Lesley in the knockout stage and won 3-1.

This was a reasonable effort by all of the Scottish teams over the weekend with the only downside being the lack of a true challenge to the England teams. So well done to Natasha for going that little bit further by reaching the individual final.

Scottish National Championships, Bell's Sport Centre, Perth, Sat 29 March

The Scottish National Championships took place on Saturday 29th March.

Results as follows:

Mens Singles Gavin Rumgay beat Stewart Crawford 4-0
S/Finalists Craig Howieson and Niall Cameron

Ladies Singles Natasha Milliken beat Julie Lawrence 4-1
S/Finalists Corinna Whitaker and Rebecca Russell

Junior Boys Singles Craig Howieson beat Craig Hardie 3-1

Junior Girls Singles Rebecca Russell beat Corinna Whitaker 3-2

Mens Doubles Howieson and Crawford beat Cameron and Rumgay 3-2

Ladies Doubles C Whitaker and N Milliken beat G Edwards and L Powell 3-1

Mixed Doubles G Rumgay and R Russell beat N Cameron and G Edwards 3-0

Vets Ian McLean beat Peter Shaw 3-0

Junior Boys Doubles C Hardie and R Main beat S Doherty and N Courtney 3-0

Junior Girls Doubles C Whitaker and N Milliken beat R Russell and R Milne 3-1

Mens Band 1 Sean Doherty beat Richard Main 3-1

Ladies Band 1 Rhian Williams beat Lynda Flaws 3-1

Cadet Boys Calum Main beat Liam O'Shaughnessy 3-0

Cadet Girls Rhian Williams beat Lynda Flaws 3-1

Minor Boys Liam O'Shaughnessy beat Scott Barton 3-2

Minor Girls Lesley Atkins beat Holly Porteous 3-1

Match Report

Gavin Rumgay retained his Scottish Closed Mens Singles Title in a Marathon Day's Table Tennis at The Bells Centre Perth on Saturday.

In a surprisingly one sided final, Gavin beat Number 2 seed Stewart Crawford in four straight sets. The result was somewhat surprising as Stewart made it to the final without dropping a set while Gavin was pushed all the way. First in a tremendous quarter final tussle with Craig Hardie where he had to comeback from two sets down to overcome Craig who played a magnificent match. He then needed 4 sets to overcome the other Craig (Howieson) in the Semi Final.

Natasha Milliken continued her recent rich vein of form by taking the Ladies Singles Crown. In the semi final she overcame defending champion Rebecca Russell in the final set. In the final she defeated Julie Lawrence four sets to one. Julie had earlier beaten Corinna Whitaker in the other semi final. A surprise result to a few but a richly deserved winner for the most improved girl on the circuit.

In the Junior Boys event the two Craigs faced each other with Howieson coming out on top after losing the first set to Hardie.

In The Junior Girls, Rebecca Russell gained some compensation for losing her Ladies crown by winning the event, albeit after two titanic five set epics. First in the semi against Natasha Milliken and then in the final where she saved three match points to overcome Corinna Whitaker.

The Cadet Boys Category saw Calum Main comfortably overcome Liam O'Shaughnessy in the Final. Liam retained his Minor Boys Title but only after a tremendous five set match against the ever improving Scott Barton.

In the Girls events an on form Rhian Williams won her first Scottish Title defeating Linda Flaws in four sets and Lesley Atkins took the Minor Event defeating Holly Porteous by the same margin.

The Vets title went South as Ian McLean travelled up to beat Pete Shaw in the Final after knocking top seed Gerry Campbell out in the semis.

In the Banded Events Sean Doherty produced the comeback of the day in the semi final of the Mens Band 1 when he came back from two sets and 6-10 in the third to beat David Atkins. He then went on to defeat Richard Main in the final.

In The Ladies Band 1 Rhian Williams capped a tremendous day winning the event overcoming Linda Flaws and Lisa Notarangelo in a final group of three.

Finally in the Doubles events Stewart Crawford and Craig Howieson came from two down to defeat Gavin Rumgay and Niall Cameron in the final set .
Corinna Whitaker and Natasha Milliken completed a double by winning both the Ladies and Junior Girls categories.

The Junior Boys Doubles went West as Craig Hardie and Richard Main defeated surprise finalists Sean Doherty and Nathan Courtney.

Last but not least and with even the top table drinking Red Bull by this time (they wish!) the Mixed Event went to Gavin Rumgay and Rebecca Russell who defeated Niall Cameron and Gillian Edwards in straight sets.

Congratulations also to Stewart McGowan and his team for a tremendous day and night's work.

Report by the Mando Notarangelo

For full results please click here.

South of Scotland Junior and Senior Open - Saturday 24th May 2008

The South of Scotland Junior and Senior Open will take place at DG One
Hood’s Loaning, Dumfries DG1 2HT on Saturday 24th May 2008. For full details and entry form click here.

Senior Assessment, March 22, Meadowmill Sports Centre

At the 2nd senior assessment Stewart Crawford from Falkirk was a clear winner, dropping only 2 sets over the day. He proved too strong for the number 2 seed Craig Howieson in the final match of the day winning in three straight sets.
Top 7: Stewart Crawford, Craig Howieson, Kenny Lindsay, Peter Shaw,
Chris Main, Stewart Armitage. David Atkins

Natasha Milliken continued her good form from the Junior Home Countries, winning all her matches in the ladies event. She came through several close 5 setters, one to Julie Lawrence from Dundee who came second, and also against Roxanna Milne and Josie Bruce.
Top 4: Natasha Milliken, Julie Lawrence, Josie Bruce, Roxanna Milne

Full Positions

The points lists have now been updated.

Junior & Cadet 6 Nations, Guernsey, 14 - 16 March

Team Event
The Junior Boys Team of Craig Howieson, Craig Hardie & Richard Main and the Junior Girls' Team of Rebecca Russell, Corinna Whitaker & Natasha Milliken both won silver medals. In the vital last matches against England both these teams won the doubles but lost overall by 1/4.
The cadet boys' team of Calum Main & Liam O'Shaughnessy won a bronze medal.

Individual Events
The best performance was by Natasha Millken who won a silver medal in the junior girls event. In a very exciting semi-final Natasha beat the number 2 English Girl Karina Lefevre (Eng) by 3/2. She lost in the final to the number 1 seed Rachel Jamieson (Eng) by 1/3.

There were bronze medals in the individual events for Craig Howieson and Craig Hardie who reached the semi-finals of the junior boys' event, and for Corinna Whitaker who reached the semi-final of the junior girls.

Full Results can be seen by going to Guernsey Web Site ( links page )

World Team Championships, Guangzhou, China

For a full report of the World Championships, written by the team coach, Euan Walker please click here.

Stewart Crawford, Craig Howieson, Gavin Rumgay, Euan Walker (Coach)

Last Update on Scotland Team at the World Championships

Scotland lost their last match in the Evergrande Real Estate World Team Championships in China when they fell to Latvia 1-3 in the Division 3 final. Gavin Rumgay beat Igors Sidorovs in the first game but the Latvian No.1 Matiss Burgis had wins over Stewart Crawford and then Gavin to seal the win.

Scotland 1-3 Latvia
Gavin Rumgay bt Igors Sidorovs 3-0: 12-10, 11-5, 11-3
Stewart Crawford lt Matiss Burgis 2-3: 13-11, 12-10, 8-11, 3-11, 8-11
Craig Howieson lt Sandjis Vasiljevs 1-3: 7-11, 11-8, 9-11, 6-11
Gavin Rumgay lt Matiss Burgis 1-3: 9-11, 12-10, 4-11, 9-11

Despite this final loss the Scotland team of Gavin Rumgay, Stewart Crawford, Craig Howieson and Coach, Euan Walker can consider this a successful championships as they attained their objective of gaining promotion to Division 2 in the next World Team Championships in 2010. This was an excellent team effort with Gavin Rumgay playing the No.1 role with 13 wins in 17 matches, Stewart Crawford provided 4 wins at No.2 including major contributions at the knockout stages and finally Craig Howieson's solid performance at No.3 supplying 6 wins and his best international performance to date.


Scotland's Winning Run Continues at the Worlds!!

Scotland beat Estonia 3-0 to reach the Division 3 final. This result guarentees Scotland's promotion to Division 2 at the next World Team Championships in 2010. This was another great team performance against a previously undefeated Estonian team and sets up a final match against Latvia.

Estonia 0-3 Scotland
Vallot Vainula lt Stewart Crawford 0-3: 5-11, 8-11, 8-11
Alexandr Smirnov lt Gavin Rumgay 2-3: 5-11, 11-2, 13-15, 13-11, 6-11
Sergei Petrov lt Craig Howieson 1-3: 10-12, 3-11, 12-10, 8-11

Scotland win again at Worlds!

A good team performance was needed and delivered as Scotland defeated Finland 3-2 in the Division 3 playoffs. Craig Howieson would have been the Scotland player most familiar with this young Finnish team having played them all at the European Youth Championships in the past few years. It was however Scotland's most experienced team member, Stewart Crawford, who secured the win with a 3-0 defeat of Benedek Olah in the deciding match.

It was Olah who had upset the seedings by defeating Gavin Rumgay 3-2 in the first match and Finland went 2-0 ahead when Stewart lost to Timo Tamminen, also 3-2. Craig Howieson turned the whole match on it's head when he came back from 1-2 down to defeat Toni Soine in five sets. The fourth 5-setter of the match was secured by Gavin Rumgay before Stewart stepped in to seal the win.

Scotland now meet Estonia in the semi-final of the division playoffs.

Scotland 3-2 Finland
Gavin Rumgay lt Benedek Olah 2-3: 11-6, 10-12, 10-12, 11-3, 7-11
Stewart Crawford lt Timo Tamminen 2-3: 4-11, 11-6, 6-11, 15-13, 8-11
Craig Howieson bt Toni Soine 3-2: 11-9, 7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-3
Gavin Rumgay bt Timo Tamminen 3-2: 11-9, 6-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-8
Stewart Crawford bt Benedek Olah 3-0: 11-6, 11-9, 11-7

World Team Table Tennis Championships

Scotland defeated South Africa in their first play-off match in China and now face Finland in the Division 3 quarter final stage for positions 49-56. Gavin Rumgay again won both of his matches with Craig Howieson winning his fourth match of the championships to set up the win.

Scotland 3-1 South Africa
Gavin Rumgay bt Theo Cogill 3-0: 11-9, 13-11, 11-5
Stewart Crawford lt Shane Overmeyer 3-2: 12-10, 12-10, 6-11, 7-11, 7-11
Craig Howieson bt Luke Abrahams 3-1: 15-13, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10
Gavin Rumgay bt Shane Overmeyer 3-0: 11-8, 13-11, 11-7

First stage

The Scotland team, of Gavin Rumgay, Stewart Crawford and Craig Howieson, are the top seeds in Division 3 but haven't had it all their own way in the initial group stage. After winning the first two matches against Kuwait and Armenia, Scotland lost to Saudi Arabia and Algeria, both matches going to the deciding game. They managed to win the final group match against United Arab Emirates to finish 2nd and qualify for the Division 3 play-offs for positions 49-60. Their next match will be against South Africa with the winner taking on Finland in the quarter final.

To date Gavin Rumgay has won 8 out of 10 matches and Stewart Crawford and Craig Howieson have contributed 5 wins between them when they have played at No.3 in the team order. A big team effort will be needed as they attempt the difficult task of gaining promotion to Division 2 by finishing in the positions 49/50.

Results
Kuwait 1-3 Scotland
Armenia 1-3 Scotland
Saudi Arabia 3-2 Scotland
Scotland 2-3 Algeria
Scotland 3-1 United Arab Emirates

Opening Ceremony

Interleague Tournament - Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd March 2008

The Interleague Tournament took place on 1st and 2nd March. Winner and Runner Up results below.

The entry saw 54 competing teams and over 150 competitors representing seven associations which was an increase on last years total.

The events themselves produced some tremendous tussles. The Minor Boys event produced one of the best matches of the weekend. The title went down to the deciding rubber between West of Scotland 1 and Stirling and Midland 1 after a Scott Barton double and victories from Blair Fowler and Christopher Wheeler saw the match tied at two apiece. Adam Gaffney held his nerve in the decider beating Alexander Wheeler to take the title West.

In the Minor Girls event the Dumfries 1 pairing of Holly Porteous and Alice Williams overcame an early round robin defeat to take the title on countback from Dumfries 2 and Stirling and Midland.

In the Cadet events the powerful Dumfries squad of Calum Main, Liam O'Shaughnessy and Neil McDonald swept aside the opposition with Edinburgh finishing runners up.

There was better luck for Auld Reekie in the Cadet Girls category when Lesley Atkins and birthday girl Madeline Miller saw off Dumfries to take the title.

The Junior Boys event had an unfortunate end when Calum Morgan injured his knee in the deciding match against The West and had to pull out of the deciding rubber with the match tied at two apiece. This resulted in a three way sets countback which saw The West 1 and Stirling and Midland 1 finishing first and second and Dumfries 1 going home empty handed. This was perhaps the surprise result of the day considering the West were weakened with the late withdrawals of both Richard Main and Daniel Swaitek but Nathan Courtney and Basil Razouk who teamed up with Sean Docherty proved solid replacements.

In the Junior Girls Event the strong West squad of Corinna Whitaker, Natasha Milliken and Stephanie McCallum took the title without too much fuss with Stirling and Midland finishing best of the rest.

The Mens event or the Marathon Mens event as it could have been renamed produced some epic tussles. At the end of the long day it came down to East meets West in the final game and it was the Edinburgh Trio of James Russell,Willie Mabon and Luc Leboutieller who saw off The West 1 who were unfortunate to lose Craig Hardie through injury earlier in the day and had play with two players. Edinburgh though were deserved winners of the event and had earlier played in one of the ties of the day just edging out their strong second team (David Atkins,Stewart Armitage and Glynn Edgar)

The Ladies event saw the experienced Elaine Forbes and Julie Lawrence retain the title for Dundee beating the West into second place. Finally the highly competitive Vets event was retained by the Stirling and Midland 1 trio of Gerry Campbell, Stuart Fowler and Mando Notarangelo beating The West 1 into second place.

All in all another tremendous two days of Table Tennis which was enjoyed by both players and spectators. A special thanks to the unsung heroes of the event especially Alison Woods,Charlie Flint and Match Referee Stewart McGowan and all other League Coordinators etc who put a lot of time and effort into making the event the success that it is.

Finally to finish on a lighter note, if one word could sum up this years event it would YELLOW.

League officials please start communicating before next years event as we don't want anymore requests for dark glasses on the Sunday.

Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation Championships, Glasgow 2009

At a media launch at Scotstoun Leisure Centre in Glasgow, Table Tennis Scotland and Culture & Sport Glasgow were delighted to announce that the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation Championships will be held in Glasgow from Tuesday 19th May to Monday 25th May 2009.

TTS will act as host to the participating Commonwealth Nations and will be holding the event in partnership with Glasgow City Council.

The Games themselves will take place at Scotstoun Leisure Centre. TTS would like to extend a warm invitation to all the Commonwealth countries and their teams.

Chairman Jonathan Whitaker said, "This is the culmination of over two years of negotiations and is a major victory for Table Tennis in Scotland. It is an excellent opportunity to further promote the sport in Scotland and to prepare for our forthcoming role in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow."

Cadet Assessment Results - 24th February 2008

Top 10 Final Positions

Boys
1. Calum Main
2. Neil McDonald
3. Aidan Flegg
4. Blair Fowler
5. Colin Dalgleish
6. Adam Gaffney
7. Robbie Fairley
8. Basel Razouk
9. Philip Houston
10. Kenneth Beaton

Girls
1. Lynda Flaws
2. Lesley Atkins
3. Bethany Ross
4. Rhian Williams
5. Holly Porteous
6. Renee Ho
7. Fiona Scott
8. Jennifer Hart
9. Ciara Hayes
10. Emma Carnaghan

Full Results

Calum Main and Neil McDonald

Lesley Atkins and Lynda Flaws

Minor Assessment Results - 3rd February 2008

Top 10 Final Positions

Boys
1. Scott Barton
2. Adam Gaffney
3. Alexander Wheeler
4. Garry Wright
5. Blair Fowler
6. Duncan Smith
7. Ying Jin
8. Christopher Wheeler
9. Duncan Muir
10. Alistair Scott

Girls
1. Lesley Atkins
2. Renee Ho
3. Nadine Wright
4. Jennifer Hart
5. Alice Goldie
6. Lucy Elliott
7. Fiona Scott
8. Nicole Wright

For full list of final positions, please click here.

Doncaster Grand Prix, 2nd and 3rd February 2008

Several Scottish players performed well at the Doncaster Grand Prix held at the weekend at the Dome Arena.

Gavin Rumgay won the Mens singles title after coming through a couple of tough matches in the knockout stage. In the last 16 he was taken close in the 5th set by Lui Wanzhe, the Norwegian/ Chinese player who was definitely of a higher standard than his seeding of 22 suggests. Gavin used all of his competitive experience in the final set to take 5 of the last 6 point from 6-8 down. Gavin's 3-0 quarter final win over Michael Marsden, the current Grand Prix leader, led to an enthralling semi-final clash with Craig Howieson, who had advanced to this stage by beating seeded players, Damien Nicholls and Niall Cameron. The semi-final contain some excellent attacking rallies from both players and was a match that was well appreciated by the spectators, with Gavin eventually Gavin winning 9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-9.

Gavin won the final 3-0 against Ben Barlow, who had earned his place there by beating Tim Yarnall and Wang Zheng, the 2nd and 3rd seeds respectively.

As mentioned, Craig Howieson also performed well at this Grand Prix and as well as reaching the semi-final of the main event he also advanced to the semi-final stage of the Band 1 event on Saturday. He again beat higher seeds in Peter Graham and Niall Cameron but was eventually beating by Lui Wanzhe of Norway in four close sets.

Finally, Niall Cameron had his best finish in a Grand Prix this season by reaching the quarter final stage of the Mens singles. Earlier in the day Niall drew a lot of attention to his qualifying matches as he twice fought back from 0-2 down to win his group. He continued in this determined mood through a further three rounds which included wins against David McBeath and Stephen Denny before he met and lost to Craig Howieson in the quarters.

IU exam 2008

The ITTF will conduct an IU exam in 2008. Please click on each of the following links for full information. Please read these documents carefully and respect the deadlines. Note that all documents received after the deadline will not be accepted.

Letter - IU Exam 2008
Contact Details Form
Application Form

New Glue Rule To Affect Junior Tournaments in the New Year!

Please note that the ITTF change to glueing regulations released in May 2007 will affect Junior tournaments from the start of 2008. For full details of the change, please click here.

Kweilin Results

Minor Boys - Winner-Scott Barton R/up Blair Fowler
Minor Girls - Winner-Holly Porteous R/up Nadine Wright
Cadet Boys - Winner-Daniel Swiatek R/up Colin Dalgleish
Cadet Girls - Winner Bethany Ross R/up Maddy Miller
Junior Boys - Winner Mark Porteous R/up Daniel Swiatek
Junior Girls - Winner Corinna Whitaker R/up Steph McCallum
Under 21's - Winner Chris Main R/up Corinna Whitaker, 3rd Mark Porteous (final group of 3)
Consolation - (minors/cadets) Winner Thomas Chisholm R/up William Skinner

Ken Cadogan, Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis League, wishes to thank all those who participated in the event and those who assisted in the running of the tournament.