Highland hit the ground running in table tennis National Leagues
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Members of Inverness Table Tennis Club got off to a flying start in their Scottish National League Division Six debut, topping the table after the opening round of games.
Competing in the league as Highland, wins against Drumchapel Glasgow D and Haddington B were backed up by a draw against Heriot-Watt University to go top on five points.
Inverness club captain Rae Jack, from Alness, was joined by Arthur Laws and Sebastian Askasi in the matches, with Fahmad Faulkner the extra man who missed out on the three-player squad.
Club coach Stephen Gertsen had high hopes for the team going in, talking about possibly winning promotion this season, and he was delighted with the start that has been made.
“They were brilliant results,” Gertsen said.
“When I said we had a good chance of winning the league obviously that was the hope. I said that really without knowing because we had never played in this event before.
“Drumchapel Table Tennis Club are a pretty prestigious club in Scotland, and I know it was their D team so it wasn’t obviously their best team, but to win against a club that have been so successful for many years was a good start to the day.
“Haddington are a really big club down in East Lothian as well, and we beat their second team. The university teams have youngsters, and our team is made up of older players but we’re managing to hold our own with the younger guys.”
Highland will play Haddington’s A side as well as Edinburgh University at the next round of games in February.
Those two teams will be the real measure of where Highland are, according to Gertsen.
“Edinburgh University and Haddington A look like they’re going to be the two toughest challenges to see who wins that league,” he explained.
“We will need to improve. I think the guys all realise that they’re probably not favourites to win those matches in February, but there’s still a few months to go before that, and they will put a lot of work in to try and win that division.”
