With local lockdown curtailing the start of table tennis in Leicester when other areas were able to get back to playing it is good to report a building up of activity, especially coaching on various fronts.

Much ground has to be made up but the three clubs currently open include Winstanley and Fleckney, both of whom were able to get cracking a few weeks ago as they were outside the boundary, while Knighton Park began a couple of weeks ago and are catching up.

Winstanley and Fleckney even went as far as arranging four friendly matches just to get back into the swing of things as the chances of any leagues in the area is, to all intents and purposes, nil. Not because players don’t want to play necessarily but a very large percentages of local clubs who rely on one-table rooms that are hired for one or two nights have not been able to open. Most of them have a variety of different clubs and activities also use them all through the week and it is proving difficult to say the least to open up with the necessary safety measures in place.

Back to the friendlies, we find the four matches, organised by John Greening and Jason Prescott with two at Greening’s Winstanley and the other at Fleckney, end all-square at two matches apiece. There were almost identical scores with Fleckney winning 9-0 and 7-2 while the Wizards were 8-1 and 9-0 the other way.

A feature of the Winstanley teams was the inclusion of the Bhakta brothers, Kai and Kalan who were coming along so well in Division Five last year. They were joined by dad, Hemant who won two sets in their 8-1 victory. It was a great evening and provided a very positive note.