LEICESTERSHIRE TABLE TENNIS ASSOCIATION
Two players who have been associated with table tennis in Leicester for more years than they care to remember are Steven “Chalky” White and Chris Rogers. Both have been county champions several times in the past and Rogers is still well up in the national veteran rankings and both are now avidly watching the next generation take their first steps into the league play arena.
White plays for Leicester Electricity in the Leicester League’s division one and is still performing well while his son, Harry, made his debut for the same club in the newly installed Division Six, winning all three singles in his team’s 8-2 win over Lutterworth Rotary, themselves a completely new team in the league. It is early to judge but things look promising for the younger White.
The other son making his debut is Jack Rogers, son of Chris, the latter at present playing in the Nottingham league but still retains his membership at Knighton Park in Leicester and is there practising most weeks. Jack won two in Division Six for Knighton Park against Regent Sport in an 8-2 win, withRogers losing one to the experience of Keith Tointon.
My review of the Leicester League’s Division One might have been a little premature in assessing how four teams on the fringe might attempt to wrest Leicester Electricity’s title away.
Jumping right into the mix immediately is Unicorn. It is never easy assessing the University teams in advance for the simple reason of their being so unpredictable with regard to players available. Unicorn have a very useful new pair in Trev Kerry and Tim Sheppard as they showed against Knighton Park in the first week. This pair both won all three against useful opposition as well as the doubles in a 7-3 victory.
In Division Two Knighton Park 3rd got off to the best of starts with a 9-1 success over Leicester Electricity 2nd with just the doubles getting away. New signing, Reza Kiani, made a good impression with a debut maximum along with three each from George McClurkin and John Underwood.
John Bowness (September 24, 2013)