West Lothian Community Table Tennis Club opened Livingston’s first Pop in and Play venue at The Centre Livingston, in May 2022.
WLCTTC believe that their sport can be enjoyed by anyone of any age or ability. And want to share their sport with as many people in the community as possible. We would also love to share some of our community stories from the Pop in and Play Livingston with you. And have chosen two of our regular visitors- Rachel & Linda!
With help from Table Tennis Scotland and amazing support from The Centre, Livingston in giving the club the retail unit FREE -for a year! The Centre has supported the club to provide a free service to the local community and shoppers alike. You may have spotted Rachel & Linda in some of the snaps our volunteers take at the Pop in and Play, as they kindly have given consent for a snap or two over the months.
Rachel & Linda’s Story
Rachel and Linda started coming in to the Pop in and Play, just after it opened. And in the 4 months in between, at the time of writing. Both, having never held a Table Tennis bat before, have developed enough ability to get decent rallies (that’s keeping it on the table) together! Any of us who have chased a table tennis ball around the floor, after hitting it once and failing to hit it back -will know what a major achievement this is!
Linda is Rachel’s support worker and they’ve been together for 9 years. Rachel is 29 and has a busy social life and away from table tennis; she also goes to craft making on a Tuesday, plays pool on a Tuesday, and normally makes a visit into Edinburgh every week with Linda. They also have regular visits to the cinema or the 5 Sisters Zoo.
We now have one day in the week at the pop in and play, which is a very popular day for adults and their support workers, to come in to play a free Table Tennis session. Many of our visitors previously attended a club called Enable, and Linda knew many of the volunteers from Enable very well.
Unfortunately, Enable had to close during Covid, and so far hasn’t reopened. Mainly due to a shortage of volunteers. Although it’s a real shame that Enable might not be able to reopen, we think it’s fantastic that folks like Rachel & Linda, through our Pop in and Play sessions, have found another avenue of sport and entertainment in the community.
All of this has been made possible with the incredible support of The Centre, Livingston, in giving us the facility free for a year. And also our amazing West Lothian Community Table Tennis Club volunteers. Who week-on-week, volunteer their time to have the Pop in and Play open for a few hours – every day -7 days a week!
If you would like to find out more about the pop in and play check out our page here. It has all the information about a visit to us, where we are and we also update our opening times weekly too. So you too can pop in and play table tennis with us soon!
Rachel and Linda also kindly gave us a video of their great rally recently , and we hope you enjoy the video too! Well done Rachel & Linda!
