Table tennis: Summer boom in player participation at St Andrews club

Hawdon, who lost this match 3-1 on the Saturday, returned a day later and impressed his supporters by also taking silver medals in both the men's and mixed doubles.

With a number of recent worldwide research projects promoting thebenefits to PWP (People with Parkinson's) of playing table tennis, a number of the sport’s groups within Scotland came together to present the tournament.

Over 50 competitors took part, from England, Wales, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Chile and the Scottish contingent. Players were allocated to one of three categories - beginners, intermediate and advanced - playing singles, level doubles and mixed doubles.

Meanwhile, numbers attending summer evening sessions at St Andrews Table TennisClub have hit an all-time high, partly attributed to the new club tables obtained thanks to a grant from St Andrews Community Trust.

The Trust invites applications from local bodies for grants which will bring benefits to the local community and can be contacted through their website www.standrewscommunitytrust.co.uk

Committee member Henry Paul visited Cosmos Centre last Thursday evening to inspect the club's new tables and watch the players in action.

St Andrews players acquitted themselves well when playing in the recently concluded Dundee & District Summer League.

Myke Kiernan joined up with three players from a variety of clubs "over the water" to form the winning team, Chameleons, while the St Andrews "Titans" foursome of Sandy Pearson, Charlie Ross, Jie Guo and Lilian Horton showed great team spirit in finishing third – a fighting performance from all in singles and doubles against teams fielding players higher ranked on paper.

The club now looks forward to returning to daytime social sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, while the competitive players await the new fixture list for the forthcoming season.