Junor champions are crowned

THE recent Hinckley Junior Table Tennis Championships attracted a good entry from across the Borough. Entries came from the three main clubs which offer junior coaching, George Ward Barwell, Market Bosworth and Sport in Desford.

The age range was from 8 to 18, most of these players had never competed in league matches but the skills shown were outstanding.

In the Under 11/13/15 events matches were played in two groups for each event with the winners of the group meeting in the final. In the Under 11’s, there was a surprise when Saxon Beardmore (G Ward) overcame the second seed Oliver Harris (G Ward) 14-12 in the third to pull off a major shock in the group stages.

In group two top seed Ruben Mellor (G Ward) was made to work hard by nineyear-old Charles Rowell (Mkt Bosworth) in a match that went to five games, Ruben claiming the win 11-9 in the fifth game.

The final between Mellor and Beardmore was also a close affair with Ruben Mellor coming out as Champion by virtue of and 11-9 pts win in the fourth game.

The Under 13’s also provided some close and competitive matches. In group 1 Ruben Mellor came through to get to his second final but in group 2 it was again Charles Rowell who took the eye winning all four of his matches to get to the final. Mellor was again successful taking his second title of the evening defeating C

Rowell 11-8, 11-4 & 13-11 in a close final.

The Under 15’s groups saw Finlay Bacon (SID) easily qualify for the final from Gr 1, but group 2 was much closer with the deciding match being between Dylan Lowther (G Ward) and Saxon Beardmore (G Ward), Dylan running out the winner by three games to one. In the final Finn Bacon showed his class taking the title in three straight games.

The Open Under 18 event was run as a straight knockout culminating in two semi-finals and a final. F Bacon defeated the impressive C Rowell in the first semi-final and R Mellor saw off D Lowther in the second to set up a final of Bacon versus Mellor. The Sport in Desford lad Finn Bacon coming out as Champion in a four-game match.