Junior League - The Play Offs
The Junior League’s final day of competition came to an exciting end with some excellent play, close finishes and teams achieving a place on the roll of honour for the first time. North Ayrshire finished club of the day with two titles and Drumchapel A just held off their B team to win Division 1.
Division 1
Drumchapel A 3-2 Drumchapel B
Having already qualified for the final, Drumchapel A waited patiently on
the outcome of the clash between Holyrood A and Drumchapel B. Holyrood managed a consolation win in the doubles but Drumchapel B won the four singles to qualify for the play-off in convincing style.
The final proved to be a showcase for the talented Daniel Swiatek, he convincingly won both of his singles and combined well with Graeme Donnelly in the doubles to pick up the Division 1 title for Drumchapel’s A Team. There was consolation wins for Adam Gaffney and Scott Barton and the B team will have, I’m sure, many opportunities in the future to win this title.
Division 2
North Ayrshire 3- 2 Drumchapel
This Division served up a dress rehearsal of the play off when North Ayrshire 2 and Drumchapel met in the final fixture of the league. The result was a convincing 5-0 win for North Ayrshire. Luckily for Drumchapel, East Kilbride 2 lost out to East Kilbride 1 in their remaining fixture, just missing out on a berth in the final. The scene was set for a 
repeat performance from the now confident North Ayrshire side. Drumchapel’s Connor Moran had other ideas however and duly won both his singles to make North Ayrshire work for the title. But Jamie Skelton, Grant and Stuart Lewis proved to have too much fire power for Jillian Hyslop and Lucy Elliot, securing the title for North Ayrshire by the narrowest of margins.
As an aside there was apparently an incident in one of the league matches in this division where a player had a match point and in the next point his shot hit the net assembly before returning to his opponent’s side. The point was incorrectly awarded against this player and brought the score back to deuce. His opponent went on to win the match – lesson: players should know the rules - read the rule book.
Division 3
North Ayrshire 3-1 East Kilbride A
This play-off brought together North Ayrshire and
East Kilbride A. The Ayrshire side was unbeaten in the league and secured the title in fine style by a 3-1 margin. Congratulations to North Ayrshire’s Andrew McPherson and Chris Barclay.
Division 4
Knightswood A 3-2 East Kilbride
The final pairing brought together league debutants Knightswood and East Kilbride, who were unbeaten in the league. This match proved how much Knightswood have improved since the first match of the season when they lost to East Kilbride 4-1. They ran out 3-2 winners in a very close match, securing a league title at their first attempt, a great effort. Congratulations to Alistair McDougal, Steven Bowie and Tony Hay of Knightswood.
As another Junior League draws to a close it is worth reflecting on the increase in numbers and in general the higher standard of play in all divisions. The new play-off format did produce some exciting matches and was a good experience for the teams involved. The additional coaching sessions organised through the West’s development programme is beginning to produce results. There is talk of additional teams next season and hiring the whole hall, time will tell, but we appear to moving in the right direction.
Thanks as ever to Alex Hardie for organizing the league and to everyone who has helped with setting up the hall. Hope to see you back again next season.