Drumchapel Table Tennis secured their place in the sport’s history in completing their unbeaten season in the most emphatic fashion by whitewashing their closest neighbours North Ayrshire in their final British Premier Division match.
They had clinched the Scottish title against the same opponents a fortnight earlier, before wrapping up the British Championship the previous week by travelling to Lancashire club Halton and registering a 7-1 win and Saturday’s 8-0 victory in Saltcoats rounded things off.
Former Drumchapel player Richie Main raised the prospect of a major upset when he took the opening game of the first match 11-6 against Liu Song, one of the ex-pat Chinese players in the powerful opposition line-up and after losing the second 11-8 he also led 9-6 in the third.
However the tone for an afternoon of hard fought matches that all ultimately went the way of the visitors was set when Song won five points in a row to take that set, then edged out the fourth 12-10.
"I told Richie afterwards how impressed we were with the way he played. He had a chance of winning that match and overall it was much harder than the 8-0 scoreline suggested," said Drumchapel's head coach Terry McLernon.
"It was a great way to end what has been a great season, though and we're now turning our attentions to next season."
He added that their top imports He Zhi Wen and Song, both of whom are multiple Olympians, have indicated that they want to return next season, in turn encouraging the club to aspire to set their sights even higher in competitive terms with the prospect of bringing overseas opposition to Drumchapel.
"We will decide in the next week or so whether we are going to apply to host a home tie in the European Cup," said McLernon.
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