Christopher and Richard Main have just signed up to play with a club in Belgium. 
  
After 6 years of dedication to the sport they have signed to play SEMI PROFESSIONAL in Belgium for one of their top clubs.
The Main brothers have signed until the end of May to play for IMMO MORTSEL in the Belgium 2nd division where they play each weekend. The club based in Antwerp pay for all flights, accomodation and expenses.

Table Tennis is massive sport in Europe and especially Belgium. The culture of the sport is different to Scotland. Christopher & Richard play for the same club and all matches are played on a Saturday evening starting at 7pm.

This is a higher level than playing in the UK and they will obviously benefit from the experience of playing in such an environment,as well as meeting world class players who play in the Belgium super league.

They have just played their 1st match with the their club winning 13-3 with Christopher winning 4 matches out of 4 and Richard winning 2 out of 4.The team consists of 4 players per team and there teammates come from Lithuania and Ireland.

Chris and Richard have been going to Belgium for 5 years now playing in the Ostend Masters each AUGUST and that is where the head coach of Mortsel saw them playing and hence the offer.

Both boys are currently at College and Univercity and both have to Train / study / coach and compete at the highest level.

Both are in their words living the dream.

Chris & Richard Main both displayed their best performances at the National Senior Assessment, on  Sun 8 November at Meadowmill, achieving 4th & 5th spot respectively. 

The WOSTT junior league will begin this Saturday 31 October.

Unfortunately entries were restricted and only 4 of our teams were accepted. The Ayrshire Table Tennis Association League will provide competition for those who missed out.

Our four teams are as follow

Division 1

North Ayrshire A- Jamie Skelton, Grant Lewis, Stuart Lewis                

North Ayrshire B- Andrew Macpherson, David Shanks, Chris Barclay

Division 2

North Ayrshire C- Jordan McGinlay, Martin Hanna, Jamie Danks

Division 3

North Ayrshire D- Katie Hanna, Jill Taylor, James Kennedy

The League Program can be downloaded below

North Ayrshire have 2 teams entered in this season's senior WOSTTL. We will be looking to retain the Premier Title for the third year running with Chris & Richard Main in good form. We have entered a development team in Division 2. This will be managed by Ian MacPherson. The members of this team are yet to be confirmed. The club selection panel is also working on the Junior & Minors to play in the WOSTTL. These remaining selections will be anounced shortly. 

20^th anniversary of Drumchapel Glasgow Table Tennis Club took place on Monday 22^nd June 2009. Two very special guests made the trip from Sweden to join Drumchapel for what was to be possibly the greatest night in the history of the club. Jan Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson - the greatest ever table tennis players ever took on the challenge of the Drumchapel players including North Ayrshire's Richard Main.

Richard, who was the leading player in the Drumchapel division 3 winning team in the British National league was up against 5 time World Champion who won a Bronze medal at the Olympic Games last year as a 42 year old. With the crowd thoroughly behind Richard, he was absolutely flying and playing forehand winners from all over the table. Richard managed to win a set and with the match levelled at 9-9, the crowd were on the edge of their seats, looking for a major upset, Jorgen – However had other ideas and showed his world class to win the match.

Chris & Richard Main have completed a succesful season by being selected to represent Scotland at the CTTC being held in Glasgow from 19-25 May 2009. The North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club wish them both well against world class competition.

They will be playing in the Individual & Doubles events later in the week. The playing schedule can be seen in the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships website.

Live Games Can be viewed online here.

North Ayrshire Table tennis Club have successfully retained their West of Scotland Table Tennis League Premier Title. Chris and Richard Mian with the assistance of Ian MacPherson headed the table all season remaining undefeated. Richard also finished top of the individual table only dropping one match.

Hopefully next season we we will have The Ayrshire Table Tennis Association League running so we can include more of our young talent and encourage some of the old hands to be competitively active which will in turn give us the opportunity to raise the standard in Ayrshire Table Tennis and gain entry to Inter League.

Richard was the "Main" man enjoying a super brace of banded title wins in both the Men's Band 2 and 3. He was simply on fire all day and none of his adversaries could extinguish his burning flames of power and shotmaking. Taking the band two title was at the expense of Gerry Campbell, Sean Doherty and his final opponent Scott Crawford, however Mr Main proved just too strong.

Later in the day Richard took the band three event beating local Lancashire resident Tomasz Rzeszotko in a five set close encounter final, to put himself firmly in the running for player of the tournament.

The West of Scotland Minor League came to it's conclusion on Saturday 21 March .North Ayrshire had 4 teams entered in the competition. 2 teams in 4th division, 1 in 5th and 1 in 6th.

The two 4th Division teams had a difficult start to the season with games being deducted from the first round when it was discovered 3 of our players did not meet the age criteria. As the competition progressed North Ayrshire A in 4th Division established themselves as favourites with Katie Hanna & Jill Taylor topping the Individual tables throughout the season. Eventually taking the title and Katie winning the individual highest average. Jill was a close second.

David Benson & James Kennedy found the 4th division somewhat tougher and never really recovered from loosing all but 2 of their first Round points. Both had good individual wins but sometimes found finishing off a player difficult. 

Konnar Doyle & George Beattie played well throughout the season and were possibly our biggest improvers. After their first round shocker of a 5 love drubbing against Easterhouse they never dropped another match. But not winning by big enough margins was the difference at the end of the season. They entered the last round with the possibility of taking the title if they won 5-0 and Drumchapel could beat Easterhouse. However the later result didn't eventuate.

6^th Division lead from the front all season. With all four players performing well & Lewis Milligan maintaining a 100% record until the final game against fellow league leaders Bankhead. The team for the final round of Lewis Milligan, John Paton & Kieran Logue played under par with Lewis experiencing unfamiliar loss. With the match at 2 all John Paton had the unenviable task of bringing home a win. He was 2 games to one down and 10-4 down in the 4^th fighting back to 10 all. However luck wasn't on his side with Bankhead winning the match and the title. Lewis narrowly missed out on the top individual average award.

So a great performance from the team as a whole learning that every game counts on the way, especially the important doubles which so often swing matches.  

Congratulations to Jill & Katie and bad luck to all the others on narrowly missing out. Thanks to all the parents who supported throughout the Season.

The 2009 Ayrshire Schools Table Tennis Championships were at St Matthews Academy, Saltcoats on Sunday 15 February 2009. Initally under threat from lack of funding, Kilbirnie & Beith Councillor Anthea Dickson secured 11th hour support from North Ayrshire Council.

A very involved event which had great support from family and friends of the competetors.Thank you to the tournament Committee of Ian MacPherson, Jim Love, Billy Main & Sean Doyle.

Results Below.  

Primary School

Girls Winner: Jill Taylor, Runner Up: Nicole Abrahanssen

Boys Winner: David Benson, Runner Up: George Beattie    

Under 12 Boys

Winner: Andrew MacPherson, Runner Up: George Beattie

Under 14

Girls Winner: Georgia Campbell, Runner Up: Katie Hanna 

Boys Winner: Grant Lewis, Runner up: Stuart Lewis

Under 16

Girls Winner: Sarah Paton, Runner Up: Katie Hanna

Boys Winner: Jamie Skelton, Runner Up: David Shanks

Under 12 Doubles

Winners: James Kennedy & Fraser Wright, Runners Up: David Benson & Craig Grant

Under 18 Doubles

Winners: Greg Campbell & David Love, Runners Up: Grant & Stuart Lewis

The second senior assessment of the season will be held at St Matthew's Academy, Jacks Road, Saltcoats. 

The closing date for entries is 30 January.

Scotland top players will be playing on Sunday 8 February at St Matthew's Academy. It is a great opportunity for NATTC & ATTA to display our top calss playing facility and for our own representatives to confirm their rankings in Scotland's top 40 players. 

Ayrshire TT Association representatives.

Chris playing with an injury competed well and had some good wins and finished 2 places higher than his current ranking, finishing the day in 9th place with wins over players he had not beaten before.

Richard fresh from winning the Under 18 Junior title the week previous continued his excellent form in the seniors, again beating the No. 2 junior Sean Docherty in another 5 set encounter. Richard then had the biggest win of his career beating the Scottish men’s No. 2 Stewart Crawford by 3 sets to nil. Richard then lost out by 1 set on a countback to finish in the top 4, finishing in 6th place.

Table Tennis Scotland  held the Junior Assesment at St Matthews Academy on Sunday 14 December. North Ayrshire were well represented with Richard Main topping the Boys. It was a great experience for our team who had the oportunity to play against the countries top juniors.

FINAL POSITIONS

North Ayrshire Table Tennis Club will be hosting the Scotland Junior Assesment.  The venue will be St Matthews Academy on Sunday 14 December. 09:30 to 17:00 

Scotlands top under 18 talent will be competing. Come and support them and watch our top juniors in action.