The weekend of 19th/20th February see the County Championships Cadets Premier Division being staged at a new venue The Triangle, Burgess Hill, West Sussex when Middlesex attempt to make it three titles on the trot as they face challenges from Surrey, Kent, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Glamorgan, Yorkshire and the home county as all county face an exhausting weekend with four matches on Saturday followed by a further three on Sunday as the division is concluded over the weekend.
As last year the bottom three teams in the division will be relegated and we already know two of the teams who will replace them in next seasons event as both Lincolnshire and Staffordshire have already won their respective divisions as Lincolnshire took division 1a with Staffordshire being runaway winners of division 1b.
At Halifax, Lincolnshire took division 1a by virtue of winning all their five matches in a six team division and completing the division on 10 points, 3 clear of runners up Cleveland and in the end it was a hard fought 6-4 victory by Lincolnshire when the sides matched up that was the difference between the sides.
It was a splendid all round team effort from Lincolnshire with all their six cadets on duty scoring heavily in their championship winning performance which saw Adam Harrison and Hannah Noutch lead the way with 9 wins from 10 starts and the squad was made up by Ross Jarvis (5/6), Matt Leete (6/8), Tom Jarvis (5/ 6) and Olivia Churchill (7/10) who all scored heavily for their county.
Harrison’s only loss was in the clash with Cleveland against the unbeaten Paul Smith but with Noutch remaining unbeaten in this clash and Leete, Churchill and Tom Jarvis also chipping in with one win apiece it was Lincs who recorded and important 6-4 victory and with it the league title.
On the same day at Burton TTC it was Staffordshire who defeated all before them and only dropped three sets all days as they recorded 9-1 victories against Clywd and Leicestershire before overwhelming Northansts, Shropshire an Suffolk 10-0 as they eased into next seasons’ premier division.
We will have to wait until the last weekend in February before finding out who will join Lincolnshire and Staffordshire in next seasons premier division as division 1c is not completed until them.
For anyone in the Burgess Hill area over the weekend of 19th and 20th February you could do worse than pay a visit to the Triangle as the cream of English Cadets Table Tennis will be on show, play commences at 10am both days.
Barry Snowden
County Championships Press Officer