The Ayrshire Padel tennis championships reached an exciting ending to the season with John Byrne of West Kilbride winning the year ending number one spot.

John overtook Mercedes Perez of Spain in the final week to regain his number one position which he has occupied for most of the season.

There was also a dramatic rise in the rankings for West Kilbride's Derek Ballantyne who arrived late to the rankings system, but finished in number four position.

Padel is similar to tennis but is played in the confines of four perspex walls, with underarm serve, and the ball is allowed to bounce off the back glass, ensuring long rallies, utilising the same scoring system as tennis, although using shorter padel racquets.

A weekly Tuesday and Thursday double session has seen players compete on a weekly basis to become King of the Court.

The final positions were as follows: 1 John Byrne 2 Mercedes Perez 3 Stuart Alexander 4 Derek Ballantyne 5 David McCulloch 6 Andrew Boyle 7 Alex Bruce 8 Claudio Nardini 9 Paul Wilson 10 Mark Henry 11 Brian Corrigan 12 James Armstrong 13 Stephen Alexander 14 Kevin Donnachie 15 Willie McKnight 16 John Wilson 17 Ian Ivory 18 Robert Hughes 19 Marcos Marin 20 Andy Brown 21 Chris McMail 22 Calum Corral 23 Alistair Green 24 Malcolm McAulay 25 Stephen Clarke 26 Robert Goldie 27 David Mackie 28 Blair Pettigrew 29 Ewan Alvarez 30 George Holland 31 Colin McEwan 32 Lewis McAulay 33 Stephen Dowdalls 34 Scott Ramage 35 David Brown 36 Chris Usher 37 Brian Stewart 38 Jim McCaig 39 Scott McLean 40 Stuart Lyon 41 Colin Thomson 42 Paul Miller 43 Callum Robertson 44 Paul Fisher.

There are many padel players from the Largs, Fairlie and West Kilbride area, and a Christmas party was held at the Seamill House Hotel last Friday evening. The Ayrshire Padel Tennis also hosted its second British Tour championships, and the Ayrshire Padel Tennis group have been invited to compete in an international event in La Manga in Spain in April.