Category: News

I’m delighted to report that we secured the £50,000 award for our plan to establish TT in schools, community centres, and sheltered housing across East Lothian.

Now the hard work continues to purchase and install some 60 tables and associated equipment and to develop the volunteer coaches to run the sessions and to pass on the appropriate coaching skills to school and other staff to sustain the programme. We will also encourage local “satellite” clubs to start in North Berwick, Dunbar and Tranent; one has already started with our support in Musselburgh.

From the beginnings a few years ago with an advert in The Courier seeking interest in starting a TT club in Haddington, we have gone from strength to strength, with now well over a hundred members. We run weekly sessions for over-50s and for folk with physical and learning difficulties in the Corn Exchange in Haddington, a venue which we as also very pleased to see is due for major council investment to enhance its facilities and maintainability. Our club nights continue at the Corn Exchange on Monday and Thursday evenings and anyone interested in trying – or even resurrecting – their TT skills are very welcome to just pop in.

To round off our year of great success we have also done well in only our second year of competing in the Edinburgh & Lothians Table Tennis Leagues. Our first team are Division two champions and will play in Division one next season. Our second team came third in division three and we have a good chance of winning promotion to division two next season, which is our target. Our third and fourth teams – featuring our up-and-coming junior players (and a couple of “more experienced” ones, too) finished in the middle of division four.

A huge thanks to all those who voted to help us secure this award!

Regards,
Roger Thomas
Chairman Haddington TT Club

Elise Hayman, competing at her first Scottish Senior Schools event in Bathgate, finished a fantastic 7th in a strong field of U14 girls. Credit to Elise and a result of lots of hard work on the table at the Corn Exchange.

The top 2 teams in Division 2 met at Ladywood recently as Team 3 of James, Gary and Abby took on title favourites Haddington Table Tennis Club 1. At 3-0 down it looked like a heavy defeat was on the cards but Team 3 fought back and in the end were unlucky not to salvage a point as they fell to a 6-4 defeat – first defeat of the season – a terrific run brought to an end by an excellent side. Hopefully both teams will be playing in Division 1 next season.

Congratulations to Haddington (and Penicuik ) youngsters Hannah McDonnell (Winner) and Euan Mckerron (Runner-Up)  at the recent Edinburgh Schools Championships at Royal High School in Edinburgh.

Colin Green of Penicuik Table Tennis Club followed up his Edinburgh Championship victory by taking the two main prizes at Saturday’s Had-Fab East Lothian Table Tennis Open Tournament. The Melrose-based teacher defeated his clubmate Greig McDonell 3-2 in a tense Band 1 final in the morning.

In the afternoon he was a comfortable winner in the Open Singles final – beating Peter Aird (Fife TTC) 3-0. The band 2 final was an all Haddington affair with Graeme McKinnie overcoming Gordon Aien. In total, 59 players took part in the tournament-run by the Haddington Table Tennis Club at the town’s Corn Exchange.

The trophy winners were:

Under 9 Singles: Ollie Anderson
Band 1: Colin Green (Penicuik)
Band 2: Graeme McKinnie (Haddington)
Band 3: Aaron Barclay (Murrayfield)
Band 4: Neil McKinnon (Haddington)
Band 5: Luke Krievs (Haddington).
Under-12: Charlie McGowan (Murrayfield)
Under-16: Jake Somerville (Murrayfield)
Veterans: Jim Macfarlane (Haddington).
Open Singles: Colin Green (Penicuik).

The various photos below show the tournament in progress, and Colin Green being presented with his trophy by Gary McCulloch, the General Manager of Hab-Fab Ltd, sponsors of the tournament. Shots by Gordon Muir and Roger Thomas.

Had-Fab Limited of Macmerry and Haddington Table Tennis Club are pleased to announce a 3-year sponsorship programme to expand and develop table tennis across East Lothian.

Had-Fab Ltd make steel and aluminium structures for a wide variety of businesses across the whole of the UK and Ireland, including Rail, Telecommunication, Construction, Renewable and Power Transmission and Distribution sectors.

Had-Fab owner Simon Harrison founded the company in 1993 with 4 people and since then the company has grown from strength to strength, building on the principles of quality and customer service, into now one of Scotland’s leading Steel and Aluminium fabricators. Over 120 people now work at the factory on the Macmerry Industrial estate undertaking a wide variety of roles from designers and detailers to fabricators, machine operators and welders.

Simon Harrison said “without the support of the local community and the professionalism and dedication of our predominantly East Lothian work force, we could not have become as successful as we are. This sponsorship opportunity with Table Tennis East Lothian is very exciting and enables us to give something back into the East Lothian community as a means of saying thank you for the support over the last 23 years. In addition, it also enables us to reach out to local schools and colleges with the aim of raising awareness of the opportunities for local employment within engineering, including apprenticeships and graduate placements.”

Table Tennis East Lothian is a programme in schools and community centres across East Lothian to provide equipment and coaching to enable people of all ages to participate and enjoy the sport.

Haddington Table Tennis Club is currently the centre of the programme, with 90 members aged from 7 to 87, playing on Mondays and Thursday evenings at the Haddington Corn Exchange. They are already supporting clubs – both during and after school – in over 20 schools across East Lothian. Recently day-time sessions have been started for over-50s and for adults with special needs. The club has 12 qualified coaches who run these sessions to give participants both the basic and increasingly more advanced skills in playing a most enjoyable game that is recognised to develop and maintain a healthy mind and body.

Club Chairman, Roger Thomas, welcomed Had-Fab’s sponsorship. “This partnership brings together one of East Lothian’s fastest growing employers and the recently awarded Best Emerging Sports Club in East Lothian. The result will be to strengthen our programme in schools and to enable us to start up and nurture table tennis clubs in other communities in the county. One immediate benefit will be sponsorship for the Had-Fab East Lothian Open Table Tennis tournament to be held in the Haddington Corn Exchange on 28th January.”