Sixteen-year-old Lewis Sumner has joined the Table Tennis Academy at Grantham College, but still turns out in Oxfordshire colours at weekends. He was one of three Oxford juniors competing in a field of 17 at the Southern Regional Championships at Cippenham on Saturday. The prize for the top four would be a place in the Nationals (top 64 in England) at Harlow at the end of November.

Lewis won all his morning group matches, notching up a particularly fine victory over the higher ranked Oliver Hack (Hants). Simon Price also qualified for the top six by finishing 2^nd in his group, but Niall Harris, with two defeats, only came 3^rd, which put him in a play-off for positions 7-12, in which he ended up10^th.

Lewis achieved further wins over Leo Long (Berks) and Simon, but lost out to both Daniel McTiernan (Berks) and Jimmy Yeung (Hants). However his 3^rd place finish carries him through to Harlow.  He will be accompanied by Teisi Tamming (17), who had already gained qualification in Junior Girls. Simon just missed out in 6^th place.

The competition continued on Sunday with the Cadets (Under 15) qualifiers. Josh Selby (11) came 13^th/18, but both Niall Harris and Ethan Ball progressed into the top group of six. Ethan came 6^th and Niall finished in a very creditable 3^rd position, thus qualifying for the Nationals for the first time.

Pictured at Cippenham after the Southern Junior Championships are Oxford’s Lewis Sumner (3^rd) and Simon Price (6^th).