A Gold Medal At Last!

What a fantastic weekend!

I have been looking forward to the inaugural Scottish Parkinson’s International Open for quite a while so it was good to arrive at the National Sports Training Centre in Largs on Friday afternoon. I’ve been playing at the centre with Largs TTC so knew that the sporting facilities are excellent. However I hadn’t appreciated just how good the centre is for a weekend event. All the rooms are fully disability friendly, a full catering service is provided and a bar gives the opportunity for socialising in the evening.

Friday evening offered the chance for a practice session in the sports hall which looked very impressive set up with 15 tables. This was followed by dinner and a beer (just the one!) in the bar.

National Sports Training Centre Main Hall

Saturday morning saw the arrival of several friends attired in the Donic tiger shirt that I found a few months ago! I really do appreciate the support of both friends and coaches over the last few months and I had several people come up to me over the weekend commenting on how good the shirts looked!

Saturday was singles day in which I was in Class 2. I lost the first match to my old adversary Stuart Robb 3-0 but all games went to 10-10 (deuce) which turned to be important in the final group standings (see below!). I then won the next match against Gordon Cameron before losing the last group match against Eric Riley. Fortunately for me Stuart and Gordon also won one and lost two leading to a three way tie in the group. I thought I’d be third or fourth and was resigned to playing in the consolation plate competition. But I actually came second on a points countback to progress to the quarter final where I lost 3-2 to eventual winner John Duddy. Chatting to John later he told me ours was his hardest match and I was also the only opponent to take two sets off him which somewhat tempered my disappointment at being knocked out. It is also worth noting that in group matches every point counts even if you lose as the main reason I finished second in the group was the closeness of the scores in the matches I lost!

Unfortunately in the afternoon I experienced problems with my right hand freezing making serving difficult. I had this issue a few months ago but it seemed to have calmed down recently so it was somewhat concerning for it to return. However on reflection I think part of the problem was that I’d taken my 12o’clock Sinemet a little early with the intention of taking a booster tablet mid afternoon but then I forgot to do so!

Sunday was doubles day. The morning saw myself and fellow Yorkshireman Phil Yeadon compete in Class 1 despite us both being Class 2 players in the singles competition. I’m not entirely sure why but it would seem that as there were twelve pairs it made sense to have six in each classification. It sounds like the natural split would have seen five pairs in class 1 and seven in class 2 so it was decided to move one of the class 2 pairs up a class. Unfortunately for Phil and I we were deemed to be the sacrificial lambs on the basis that on paper we were the best pair in class 2! As expected we lost both group matches 3-0 although we did take 7 points off the Swedish pair in the first game which we thought was very respectable! In the end we played in a 5th/6th place playoff against Brian Carson and John Duddy (again!) who had finished bottom of the other group. We again lost 3-0 but at least it was a slightly more even contest!

And so to Sunday afternoon and the final event of the tournament the Mixed Doubles. When the event was first announced I persuaded Lynn who is relatively newly diagnosed to enter. At first she wasn’t keen as she was completely new to playing table tennis and as concerned that she wasn’t good enough. But thankfully she did enter and won a silver medal in the Ladies Class 2 Singles on Saturday! We got off to a shaky start losing our first match but then won our other two group matches to finish second and qualify for a semi-final place. We subsequently won and found ourselves in the final against the pair who had beaten us in the group stage. A tough 5 set match followed which we won! I really cannot describe the feeling of euphoria on winning that final point! A special mention must go to Andre Sonnet for his encouragement in between games and particularly his advice on who we should make sure I served to – as a match strategy it was spot on! I wasn’t aware at the time (which was probably a good thing!) but the match was live streamed on the Table Tennis Scotland Facebook page – see Table Tennis Scotland Video.

Doubles partners Phil and Lynn

Medal presentation

Class 2 Mixed Doubles Gold Medal Winners!

So the tournament came to an end but there is already talk of making it an annual event. I really do hope so as it was a really well run tournament.

Finally well done Brian Carson, Terry McLernon MBE, Alison Woods, Table Tennis Scotland, Inverclyde National Sports Training Centre and the volunteer umpires and top table officials for all their hard work.