Six players from the Lisburn Parkinson’s Bat & Chat group played in the Scottish International Open, held at the sportscotland National Sports Training Centre Inverclyde, Largs, from 16th to 17th August. Representing the group—established only on 27th February 2024—were Ric Brown, Mark Johnson, Patrick Crossan, Gary Cowan, Albert Hunter, and Valerie Williamson. The event drew an international group of competitors from 11 countries, and there were three classes of competitors.
For all our players, this competition marked their first experience of table tennis outside their regular weekly gatherings, making it an exciting leap into the unknown.
Competition Overview
Men’s Singles & Doubles Class 3
Saturday morning featured our four men in Class 3, all playing in groups of four, each with three matches. Ric was unbeaten in his group, while Gary and Patrick both finished as runners-up in theirs. Albert played three matches in his group and entered the Plate competition, where he lost to Ken Booth 3-1 (Scotland) in the quarterfinals.
Patrick won his last 16 match against Thomas McLean, and proceeded to defeat Brendan Hawdon in the quarterfinals and guaranteeing at least a Bronze medal. Ric met Gary in the quarterfinals, winning in a close five-set match to reach the semifinals, also ensuring a minimum Bronze. Patrick and Ric then played each other, with Ric advancing to the final to meet Germany’s Henry Dürr, who had been undefeated all day (in singles and doubles).
In the Men’s Doubles Ric and Mark won their group and then defeated Gary and Patrick in the quarter finals, before proceeding all the way to the Final where they lost to German players Dürr and Kalkhoff. But a fantastic silver medal achieved!
Shortly after that final, Ric played his singles final against Dürr and with great support from the spectators, team-mates and friends, handed Dürr his only loss of the day – a well deserved gold for Ric!
Mark, our only player in Class 2 Singles, arrived late on Saturday due to flight delays and had to play immediately after landing. With fatigue and jet lag limiting his performance, he finished 3rd in his group and went into Plate event where he lost in quarter finals to Steve Lobel. I think Mark will ensure his holiday next year doesn’t clash with the 2026 event!
Mixed Doubles Class 3
Albert was teamed up with wheelchair user Maria Waneskog (Sweden) in the Mixed Doubles event, and played in a group of 4, finishing 3rd – so they progressed to the Plate competition where they defeated Bob Meredith and Wendy Lee 3-0 to reach the Final. They lost in the Final to Ken Booth and Lynn Tearse 3-1, and a delighted Maria had to get a photo under all the flags afterwards!
Mark teamed up with Valerie in Mixed, finishing runners-up in their group. They then lost to Casha and Tabone (Malta) Malta in the semi-finals.
Valerie began her competition with the Ladies’ Doubles on Saturday morning, partnering Maria Waneskog from Sweden. They SO narrowly missed medals, losing to the eventual gold medallists Sally Clarke and Joanne Dallachy 11-8 in the fifth set, and to silver medallists Diane Kennedy and Alison Williams 12-10, also in the fifth set—an agonisingly close margin.
Ladies’ Events
In the Ladies’ Singles, Valerie played three group matches before advancing to the Plate event. She defeated Alison Williams in a tight five-setter in the semifinals but lost to England’s Dawn Brown in the Plate final.
Medal Summary
- Ric Brown: Gold, Class 3 Men’s Singles
- Ric Brown & Mark Johnson: Silver, Class 3 Men’s Doubles
- Patrick Crossan: Bronze, Class 3 Men’s Singles (semi-finalist)
Plate Finalists: Valerie Class 3 Ladies Singles; Albert & Maria Class 3 Mixed Doubles
Special thanks are due to tournament organisers Terry McLernon and Brian Sanderson, who travelled from Glasgow in July to our ‘club’ to help with player classification and answer numerous questions. They brought Drumchapel players John Duddy, Derek Main, and Alan Drummond, who, alongside Brian, participated in a round robin with the Ulster team. This session, complete with Table Tennis Ulster umpires and scoreboards, provided a taste of tournament conditions and what it means to play a best-of-five match—very different from the usual one-hour weekly session.
Weekend Summary
Everyone enjoyed a fantastic week of table tennis, camaraderie, meeting new friends, supporting each other and the craic! It was full on, exhausting, challenging, exciting and our Scottish hostesses were fantastic thanks to them all!
