County Juniors shine as team emerges unbeaten against three opponents

THE County Junior team had its second batch of matches at Knighton Park TTC and non-playing skipper Jane Rogers was delighted to see Kai Bhakta, Khaalid Patel, Corey Lancaster, Roma Morjaria and Catherine Lv emerge undefeated on the day, securing second place overall, writes John Bowness.

Roma and Catherine were in top form, each winning five of their six sets.

First up of three matches were Cheshire with the two girls beating the opponent’s number one player.

Kai won both singles while Corey took a set 11-9 in the fifth to set up the 5-5 draw.

South Yorkshire were next with the two girls again unbeaten to give their team a terrific foundation.

Corey provided the vital fifth set for the draw while Khaalid played extremely well before just going down in five – another draw when the dust had settled.

The team finished with a flourish to thrash Northamptonshire 9-1.

Kai and Khaalid won two apiece, with Roma and Catherine the same, and it was so nearly a full house before Corey went down in a close five-gamer.

As the Leicester and District League’s season approaches its finish not only are teams vying for promotion or, in some cases, possible relegation, individuals are also looking at the opportunity to top their divisional averages.

Division One sees Knighton Park’s Chris Rogers firmly in charge having won 50 from 51 and needing to win four from six in the two final matches.

The big disappointment is that the long awaited clash of the top two teams, KP and Unicorn, has been postponed.

Unicorn have key players unavailable so hopefully their opponents will be able to put out their best team on the new date.

Division Two is close individually with Holwell Sports’ Martin Brunning (86.0 per cent) just ahead of KP VI’s James Lancaster on 85.7 per cent.

Vishal Parmar at 82 per cent could catch up but would need to play the final three matches and win eight from nine.

Providing he plays in his team’s final match, the Park’s Mitch Davidson, who is still undefeated, will top Division Three.

Slipping down to Division Five we see Chris Wilson (Nomads II) at the top on 95.8 per cent.

This leaves an interesting position at the top of Division Four where the undefeated pair of Martin Bolton (Syston Casuals IV) and John Quadri (KP XI) have to play each other in one more match which should decide the individual outcome.

A few weeks ago, several local people were put forward for the Pride of Table Tennis Awards and I understand that Karen Smith has been shortlisted in the Female Volunteer of the Year category. We wish her well.