Table Tennis British League
With another unbeaten run Ormesby Girls clinched their second major title at the Junior British League in Stoke, scoring a unique double of the Senior and Junior British titles in one season.
In Doncaster, with a team of Karina Lefevre, Karen Shepherd, Chloe Whyte and Jessica Dawson, won the Women’s British League title with a run of 5 consecutive wins. In Stoke this weekend they followed this up with another run of 4 wins to take the Junior title. Over the full season Ormesby won all 8 of their matches and had 16 points – a 7 point lead over the team in second place, Grantham’s Cliffedale Chandlers.
Ormesby opened the weekend with a 5-1 win over the Slough club Cippenham and followed this up with a 4-2 victory against Burton Uxbridge so that by Saturday evening the Championships title was secured. On Sunday the Teesside club went on to increase their lead at the top of the table by beating the Irish club, Ballina, 5-1 and, in the last match, the team in second place Cliffedale Chandlers by 4-2.
Whyte produced the best overall performance with 7 wins from 8 matches played, including victories over Natalie Slater of Cippenham and Yolanda King of Ballina. Lefevre at No 1 made another major contribution with 6 wins, including beating both the Chandler top 2 players, Emily Bates and Mary Fuller. Dawson completed the line-up with 5 wins including maximums against Cippenham and Ballina.
Records are being checked but it is believed that this is the first time in the 20+ year history of these competitions that the same club has won both the Senior and Junior Women’s competitions in the same season. This achievement is made even more remarkable by the senior title being won with three quarters of the players still of a junior age.
The Ormesby boys’ team in Division 2A finished mid table with 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw in Stoke. Paul Smith, playing at No 1, won 5 out of his 10 matches. Adam Smith at No 2 won 6 out of 10 and Anthony Phoenix at No 3 won 3 out of 10.
The Ormesby B team met their objective of avoiding relegation in Division 4B by winning 2 of their matches and drawing one. John Bousfield at No 1 won 5 of his 10 matches and Shannon Walker at No 2 won 7 from 10, whilst Ashley Scott at No 3 won 3 out of 6 and Billy Forster, also at No 3, won one out of 4.
