Players do rally well in contests
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THE last three weeks has seen Halton table tennis players taking part in events round the country.
Anais O’Connor travelled up to the North East to win the cadet and junior girls singles titles at the Bishop Auckland Tournament.
Meanwhile in Grantham, Lincolnshire, as well as Jack HunterSpivey winning Class 5 at the British Para National Championships, Jordan McGarry picked up a silver in Class 11 Open and gold in Class 11 unclassified. Paul Ledward won silver in the Class 5 Wheelchair Open B/C event while junior Joe Davies also participated celebrating his selection to the GB Para Futures squad.
Harry Watson and Robyn Cosgrove were selected by the Talent Development programme to go to Sweden on a training camp. They will now be going to play in the Cro- ● atian Open later this month along with Anais O’Connor
Back at base in Halton, the Senior British League Premier team had two home matches losing 7-1 to Drumchapel Glasgow but then on Easter Saturday they secured their first win of the season beating Cardiff City convincingly 6-2.
Richard Lightowler, man-of-thematch Kevin Dolder and Jake Shaw recorded the wins supported by Kin Fung Chan.
This new format of home and away has seen the team travel twice to Scotland and on two occasions to London over 14 days facing up to Olympians. They have had some very tough matches but it nevertheless has been a good experience for the younger players.
The National Cadet League also concluded after four days with Halton ‘A’ wining Division One, third in Division Two and first and second in Division Three.
Halton’s ‘A’ team featured James Courtney, Matthew Fox, Owen Hopwood and Ben Moore.
The ‘ B’ team was Liam Bibby, Thomas Naylor, Braden Jones and Alain Barthelemy.
Halton ‘C’ side was represented by Liam Murphy, Niamh Scarborough and Ruby Bennett while Halton ‘D’ team featured Joe Davies, Nathan Hughes, Sean Mannion and Riely O’Brien. ● The new England ranking list features Halton Talent Centre players in the top 50. Niamh Scarborough is nine in U12 Girls with Ruby Bennett 29; Liam Murphy is 48 in U12 Boys; Liam Bibby is 43 in U13 Boys; Niamh Scarborough 26 in U13 Girls; Harry Watson is 16 in Cadet Boys; Anais O’Connor is 46 in Cadet Girls. Connor Whitehead is 45 in Junior Boys (U18s) and Robyn Cosgrove 28 in Junior Girls. ● Some of these players will be on show in Halton Table Tennis League Finals Night this evening (Thursday) at 7.15pm.