Table Tennis: Shieldhill star out to seal fifth Scottish Championship title

The pair, who have collected the 2019, 2023 and 2024 doubles prize together, head to Largs this weekend for the Senior Scottish National Championships hoping to retain their trophy.

And for popular sports therapist Stirling, 30, the idea of winning a sensational fifth title has given her even more motivation to come out on top in this year’s competition.

She told the Falkirk Herald: "It would be easy to go into it thinking there is no pressure because we don’t train together, it would be easy to make excuses if we don’t manage to win it.

"But we both know that we are top players who work so well together and our goal should be to come out on top again. For me personally, to come away from the weekend having won the doubles for the fifth time would be amazing.

“We will both enjoy it and have fun but we really want to win too. There is that professional element to it.

"Rebecca and I keep in touch and I know she has been training just as hard as me. There are a lot of good trainers near her and she is proper pro-athlete despite her job.

"She’s represented Scotland loads including at the last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She’s been Scotland’s top female player for a reason.

"Rebecca has won so many national titles she probably couldn’t tell you them all.”

Kilbirnie native Plaistow lives in Newcastle working as an NHS dietician, and that leaves the duo unable to train together unless they are actually at a tournament.

Their preparation for the doubles event, for which they are top seeds, will have been totally different to most of the pairs they’ll come up against at Scotland’s biggest table tennis event.

“Rebecca is in Newcastle so we cannot train together at all,” Stirling added.

"We keep in touch via social media and we are great friends, but in terms of actually playing together, we simply don’t get the chance to play together until it comes to a big event.

"That would make it more special to win again with her. Three in a row would be some going.”

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