STTA Bulletin Contribution
The following is a contribution passed to the STTA Bulletin Editor on 14 May 2001 for insertion into the next Bulletin. This contribution is simply an unpate of the article submitted on 21 February as the February article was not published due to shortage of space in that Bulletin.
Contribution to ‘Round the Leagues
by Terry Allan 14 May 2001
ADTTA’s last contribution to Round the Leagues appeared in Vol. 26 No 3 (March 1999). This article has been written to provide an update from that point to ensure continuity within the Bulletin records. Some of the following has been extracted from articles written by Terry Allan and Alison MacBean for the ADTTA Handbooks (1999-2000 and 2000-2001).
Season 1998-99
League
Although twenty-five teams registered for league play, including the newly formed McClymont Girls and Toppers the season ended with only twenty-three teams taking part. Aberdeen College and Pecten Pumas both withdrew early in the season.
The newly promoted McClymont (Nick Baxter, Michael Bruce, Stuart Matthew, Nicol Craig) took the division 1 title with University Eagles their nearest challengers. In a closely fought second division Ellon Ospreys (Harry Geddes, Robert Stephen, Stephen Will, Dennis Sutherland) won the title, with Seaton Seniors just pipping Triangle Veterans for second position. A strong finish from CS Mariners (Derek Murison, Ian Davies, Dave Fraser, Gary Milwain) saw them overtake Triangle Trio at the top of the third division.
The best players in the city competed against each other on a regular basis in an Invitation League consisting of 6 teams of two players each. This was won by the Ashvale team of David Low and Nick Baxter. Without any doubt this league had a significant influence over the outcome in the main league structure. Many of the participants in the Invitation League did not play at all or played only infrequently for their league teams. University Eagles for example had the services of Euan Liddle who was unbeaten but only played 18 matches out of a possible 42; Ross Martin who was unbeaten but only played 15 matches out of a possible 42; Ko Choong Woo who lost only 5 from 29 matches played; and Niall Cameron who did not play at all. In most fixtures the University had to bring in reserves.
The winner of the Coaches Award, Calum Findlater, was also the winner of the Junior Singles League with Kris Stuart the runner-up. In the second division Queenie Henn took the honours following a play-off against John O’Hanrahan.
Cup Competitions
University Eagles gained some consolation for finishing second to McClymont in the league by beating them in the final of the KO Cup. Eagles fielded a strong line-up (Euan Liddle, Ross Martin and Kenwin Liu) and although several of the matches went to three ends, they held their nerve to record a 5-2 victory. In the final of the Grampian Trophy, CS Mariners beat Triangle Swifts 5-2 to cap a fine end to their season. In the North of Scotland Shield University Eagles beat Triangle Athletic to take their second cup trophy of the season.
North Confined
The North Confined was originally scheduled to take place at Woodbank in January, but, following a poor entry from senior local players, was finally held at the McClymont Hall in March. David Low regained the Confined Singles trophy following a three game victory over last year’s winner Niall Cameron in the final. Niall and Euan Liddle paired up to take the doubles title and Charlie Matthew predictably won the Veterans. The Watt Cup, open to players outwith the first division, went to Triangle’s Brian Robertson who defeated Abby Birnie (Seaton Seniors) in the final. In the ever-popular handicap singles, Euan Liddle - playing off -30 - defeated young Philip Adams. Michael Bruce overcame Stuart Matthew in the final of the Under 17 Singles and Calum Findlater claimed the Under 12 title. Shock of the day was Natalie Gallon’s three game victory over Nicol Craig as she became the first girl to win the Bert Park Cup in the Under 14 event.
Season 1999-2000
It was decided after consultation with other players at the AGM that a three-league structure should be continued this season with each team playing three fixtures against each other. The venue for the third fixture between any two teams was determined by the toss of a coin.
In the handicap cup competitions for the first time all three players in each team played one game against each player in any fixture. Each fixture thus consisted of only 9 games. This was implemented because of the handicapping situation which tended to make cup matches long affairs. Each game was also played on a first to 61 points basis starting from the individual players’ own handicaps. At the end of a fixture players' points from all games were aggregated for each team. The winning team had the greater number of points.
League
A total of 22 teams registered at the start of the season. Toppers was the only loss from season 1998-99.
Although McClymont A was arguably only the second best team in Aberdeen, the McClymont players (Nick Baxter, Stuart Matthew, Nicol Craig and Michel Bruce) showed continuous commitment and were run-away winners in division 1 for the second successive season. Bruce (4 losses from 35 played), Baxter (6 from 38) and Matthew (5 from 36) had excellent statistics for the season. Unfortunately these players are unlikely to experience any effective opposition in Aberdeen and District Table Tennis Leagues in the future unless some of the former top players make a return to league play. Aberdeen is not short of quality players to provide the competition that teams like McClymont deserve but their continued lack of involvement in mainstream competition locally is counter-productive to the development of the sport. University Eagles had indisputably the best players (George Pittas, Euan Liddle, Niall Cameron) and had able reserves in Richard Willman, Ko Choong Woo and Barry Allan but even with that pool of players the team only managed to attend 11 of the scheduled 18 fixtures and Cameron only managed to play twice and Liddle four times. On several occasions the team turned up with two players. The distraction at the beginning of the season of an Invitation Singles League which subsequently failed also caused problems for the league structure generally and for Eagles in particular.
In division 2 Triangle Lions (Peter Milne, Sean Kelly, Ian Gray, and a variety of other players) stole the title from Triangle Athletic (Brian Robertson, Doug Sinclair and Graeme McHugh) in almost the final fixture of the season.
McClymont B (Calum Findlater, Stephanie Matthew, Natalie Gallan, Philip Adams, Eric Vollaire, and Chris Stuart) walked away with the division 3 title with Triangle Swifts (George Keith, Andrew Keith, and Derek Keith) in second place.
Cup Competitions
McClymont B won the Handicap Knock Out Cup from Triangle Lions and McClymont A beat ALC Aces (Mike Booth, Roger Duncan, Arthur Anderson) in the final of the North of Scotland Shield.
Triangle Trio beat Banchory Pipistrelles in the final of the Grampian Trophy.
Eight-year-old Greig Matthew won the Coaches Award for season 1999-2000.
Season 2000-2001
It was decided after consultation with other players at the AGM to continue the three-division structure into season 2000-2001. Once again each team had to play each other three times. This season, however, the venue for the third fixture between any two teams had to be to be the same as for the first fixture, rather than the venue being decided by the toss of a coin.
The membership also decided that for season 2000-2001 the format played for the first time in season 1999-2000 in the Cup competitions should continue with each match consisting of one game played up to 61 points and it has once again proved to be a great success.
Many of the fixtures throughout these handicap competitions have been of the nail-biting type.
The third round North of Scotland Shield encounter between ALC Aces (Mike Booth, Roger Duncan, Arthur Anderson) and Triangle Veterans (Brian Robertson, Doug Sinclair, Andy Keith) played at the Lads Club emphasised the importance of the contribution of every player to every point. Although seven of the nine games were won by the Veterans the fixture was won by the Triangle players by a mere two points. Aggregation of all the points from all the matches flagged up the significant nature of the margin of the 61-37 victories of Duncan (25) over Robertson (17) and Duncan over Sinclair (18) by 61-47.
Round 2 of the Grampian Trophy provided a similar scenario in which Banchory emerged the victors by only three points after nine games with McClymont C. On this occasion McClymont C won five of the nine games but lost out on aggregation of the points.
In the final of the Grampian Trophy, University Falcons (Ian McLardy, Martin Fraser, Phil Hughes), played Banchory Pipistrelles (Richard Baxter, Les Chappell, Jackie Wharton) and the final result was a tie at 525 points each. Thankfully the Committee had foreseen such eventualities and on a count-back of games the University took the trophy by five points to four.
The final of the Handicap Knock Out Cup was a no less tense affair where McClymont C (Philip Adams, Grant Carnie, Kris Stuart) beat McClymont A (Lewis Wilson, Nicol Craig, Michael Bruce) by a mere six points. On this occasion McClymont A won six of the nine games.
The final of the North of Scotland Shield was won by Triangle Veterans (Doug Sinclair, Brian Robertson, Andy Keith) over Triangle Pumas (Mitch Reid, Ian Duncan, Derek Milne) by 36 points.
The honours in the three leagues have also been resolved (May 14) except for the runners-up positions in divisions 1 and 3. McClymont A once again were the run-away winners in division 1. For McClymont A the individuals’ statistics were impressive across the pool of available players. Lewis Wilson won 22 matches from 26 played; Michael Bruce 26 from 32; Nick Baxter 30 from 36; Stuart Matthew 36 from 42; and Nicol Craig 15 from 17. In division 2 McClymont B never looked to be anything other that eventual winners from the beginning of the season. Calum Findlater was the top performer for the McClymont B team with 47 wins from 50 matches played. Natalie Gallan recorded 22 wins from 38; Stephanie Matthew 34 from 47; Jim Clark 10 from 15; and Max Singer 8 wins from 8. Seaton Seniors (Raymond Rattray, Abby Birnie, Norman Horne, Bob Hart, Jim Furneaux) take second spot in that division. The only unbeaten team in the league structure, CS Mariners (Dave Fraser, Derek Murison, Ian Davies), take the division 3 title.
In addition to the McClymont A players the most successful individuals in division 1 include Niall Cameron (University Eagles) with 16 wins from 18; Euan Liddle (University Eagles) with 17 wins from 18 and Ross Martin (CS Surfers) with 31 wins from 36. Calum Findlater was the star performer in division 2 and Ian Davies took the honours in division 3 with 49 wins from 54 matches played.