Flaws is Scottish junior women’s table tennis champion and runner-up in seniors

Table tennis player Lynda Flaws had a good weekend in Glasgow at the Scottish national championships, winning the junior women’s singles, finishing second in the senior singles and reaching the semi-final of the doubles.

On Saturday Lynda, 17, had a tough opening group match in the singles against reigning champion Corinna Whitaker from Drumpchapel TTC. Lynda fought hard to earn a 2-1 lead before Corina proved her number one seeding by winning the final two sets.

Lynda went on to win both of her remaining group matches 3-0 which meant she finished second in the group and progressed to the quarter-finals. There she continued her fine form by winning 11-4, 11-4, 11-4.

That set up a semi-final encounter with Scottish number two ranked Gillian Edwards and Lynda caused an upset by winning 11-8, 11-9, 11-9. She played a very good match showing how much training in Denmark has improved her game as last year Gillian beat her comfortably 3-0.

The semi-final victory earned Lynda a deserved place in the final against 19-year-old Natasha Milliken of Drumchapel TTC and the repeat of last year’s junior final was an intense and close affair.

Natasha took the first two sets 13-11 and 11-8. Lynda was up 10-7 in the third set but Natasha showed her experience and quality to win five points in succession, taking the set 12-10 to give her a 3-0 lead.

As the final is a best of seven match Lynda was not out of it. She showed some fight, winning the next set 13-11 to make the score 3-1. In what was the final set both girls played some great table tennis, making it quite clear how much they both wanted to win the title.

Just like the previous four sets there was virtually nothing to seperate the girls. After some exciting rallies, Natasha won 13-11. Even though Lynda just missed out on taking the senior title, she was very pleased with her performance and second place.

Lynda competed in the women’s doubles with 12-year-old Lucy Elliot from Drumchapel. This was the first time the two had played together and they did very well to reach the semi-final of the main event.

Lynda also competed in the mixed doubles event with Tom Lawlor. They won their first match 3-0 before they met number one seeds Gavin Rumgay, the world-ranked 230, and Linda Powell. Gavin was too strong for Lynda and Tom, winning the match 3-0.

On Sunday it was the junior events where Lynda was seeded number one for the girls’ singles. She proved that seeding by winning the tournament and only dropping one set in the process.

Lynda paired up with Lucy Elliot once again, this time for the junior girls’ doubles. They won their first match 3-0 to set up a final with the same pairing that defeated them the day before.

With the sets tied at 2-2, Lynda and Lucy found themselves 8-3 down.They were not going to go down easily, and fought back to level the scores at 8-8. Unfortunately Lynda and Lucy could not do enough to win the set, and they were unlucky to lose the match 3-2.

Overall Lynda said she was very sastified with her performance and pleased that all the hard work she had put in over the last few months was showing. She will be looking to continue her good form when she represents Scotland at the Junior Six Nations in Limerick this weekend.

Lynda said she would like to thank Vaila’s Fund and the Callum Younger Reach Fund for the financial support they have given to support her during her year in Denmark.