The last three weeks has seen Halton table tennis players taking part in events round the country.
Anais O’Connor ventured north to win the Cadet and Junior Girls Singles at Bishop Auckland Tournament.
Meanwhile in Grantham as well as Jack Hunter-Spivey winning Class 5 at British Para National Championships, Jordan McGarry won silver in Class 11 Open and Gold in Class 11 unclassified; Paul Ledward won silver in 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 Croatian 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 1-7 to Drumchapel Glasgow but then on 15 April securing their first win of the season, beating Cardiff City convincingly 6-2 with Richard Lightowler, man of the match Kevin Dolder and Jake Shaw securing the wins supported by Kin Fung Chan.
This new format of home and away has seen the team travel twice to Scotland and twice to London over 14 days, facing up to Olympians, and have had some very tough matches but a good experience for younger players.
The National Cadet League also concluded after four days, with Halton A winning Division 1, finishing third in Division 2 and first and second in Division 3.
The ‘A’ team was James Courtney, Matthew Fox, Owen Hopwood and Ben Moore; the ‘B’ team was Liam Bibby, Thomas Naylor, Braden Jones and Alain Barthelemy; the ‘C’ team was Liam Murphy, Niamh Scarborough and Ruby Bennett; and the ‘D’ line-up was Joe Davies, Nathan Hughes, Sean Mannion and Riely O’Brien.
The new England ranking list features Halton Talent Centre players in the top 50 lists. Niamh Scarborough is No 9 in Under-12 Girls, with Ruby Bennett at No 29; Liam Murphy is at 48 in Under-12 Boys; Liam Bibby is No 43 in Under-13 Boys and Niamh at 26 in U13 Girls; Harry Watson is No 16 in Cadet Boys with Anais O’Connor No 46 in Cadet Girls; Connor Whitehead is No 45 in Junior Boys (U18s) and Robyn Cosgrove No 28 in Junior Girls.
Some of these players will be on show in Halton Table Tennis League Finals Night on Thursday 20 April starting at 7.15pm.
Last but not least, a group of players including Jordan Abbott and Anais O’Connor, plus Club Chairman Karen Tonge MBE, carried the flag on the pitch for the so-called BIG ONE as Widnes Vikings faced Warrington Wolves live on Sky Sports in the Super League last week.