120 players attend inaugural East Ayrshire Open event

Clubs in Dunlop and Stewarton are now thriving, with plans in place to set up more by the end of the year. 

Players from as far away as Germany even turned out for the event, which was played in front of local dignitaries at Stewarton's Rose Reilly Sports Centre. 

Organiser Martin Oestmann says the growth of the sport in East Ayrshire has been building momentum in recent years. 

He explained: "I moved to Dunlop about seven years ago and there was a little group there with four players in the church hall. 

"Slowly we started growing, buying more equipment and applying for funding, and we now have over 75 members. 

(Image: Dunlop TTC) "There was nothing for table tennis in East Ayrshire, and we wanted to see it grow, so we got funding to employ a development officer.

"We now go into schools across the region, we have a thriving club in Stewarton, and are looking at opening in Fenwick and Kilmaurs before the end of the year."

The sport's success in the region led to the first ever East Ayrshire Open, which Martin says was a great event. 

He said: "We had always wanted to organise a big tournament and have a more serious side to the clubs where we play events and try to improve players. 

"We had 11 people come over from Berlin, in a connection to my previous life, and others came from all over Scotland. 

"We had over 120 people in total participating across 13 categories, and even the VIPs including Provost Jim Todd got to play."

Martin reveals there is no slowing down for the sport, with lots of exciting plans in the works moving forward.

He added: "We're hopefully going to open these two new clubs, and then we want to focus on growing more sessions and doing more work in schools. 

"We also work with a local Parkinson's group who love coming along to play, so doing more like that would be great too."

To get involved, visit https://eastayrshiretabletennis.co.uk or email eastayrshirett@gmail.com.