By Geoff Ware.

Defending Champions Emma Vickers (Under 21 Women) and Keith Williams (Veteran Men) both took an unexpected early departure in their respective bids to become triple Champions.

Emma’s glory bid to become three times consecutive Under 21 Women’s Champion went astray at the hands of classic defender Melissa Wright at the group stage, whilst defending Champion Keith Williams (Veteran Men) also lost out in the groups to Chris Clinton. Chris Clinton is scheduled to meet Jerome Jonah at the last eight stage of the Veteran Men’s whilst Melissa reward for her brilliant victory is a quarter final clash against Chloe Whyte.

In the Under 21 Women’s event Jessica Dawson gained a famous victory against higher ranked Natalie Slater in the groups but later went out of the event to top seeded Karina Le Fevre at the first round hurdle.

The Under 21 Women’s event was shaping up nicely with last eight mouth-watering clashes with top defender Hannah Hicks S2 to play the dynamic  all action attacker Tressa Armitage whilst two superb attacking players in the form of Emily Bates was to play Yolanda King. The other match concerned Chloe Whyte versus Melissa Wright as Karina was safely through to the semi final to await the winner of the Emily v Yolanda clash.

Whilst all this superb action was taking place the Women’s Veteran round robin event came to a conclusion with the all out aggression of Sue Collier taking her first National title at the expense of title holder for the last 2 years, Sanja Clements.

Back to the Under 21 Men’s action with quarter final results going to Darius Knight 3-0 over Matt Ware, Chris Doran a 3-1 winner against Will Maybanks, Liam Pitchford easing past Tom Maynard 3-0 and top seed Paul Drinkhall taking a 3-0 win over David McBeath.

Semi finals were soon in full flow in the Women’s competition with two sensational clashes on adjacent tables that saw Hannah Hicks grind out a titanic victory over Tressa Armitage (surviving a match point down in the fifth) 3-2, whilst Melissa had a similar epic clash with Chloe Whyte that also went the full distance with the defender Wright getting the better of her gallant opponent by 3-2. Emily Bates proved too strong for Yolanda King by 3-1.

So the last four in the Women concerned the matches between Karina Le Fevre and Emily Bates with a battle of the defenders with Hannah Hicks to play Melissa Wright.

The Veteran Men’s event had also reached the last four stage with Lawrence Trumpauskas having to play Andy Trot with Jerome Jonah to face Chris Bartram.