Veterans Div 2a and Cadets 1a - It was a case of the young and the not so young at Halifax Table Tennis Centre as the Cadets Division 1A played a round of fixtures alongside the first round of fixtures from Veterans Division 2A.

The mixture of players worked well and there was a marvellous atmosphere generated between the counties, particularly from Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire who had both junior teams and veterans playing, in fact due to some confusion within the South Yorkshire camp the veterans had arrived an hour early and were able to get behind their cadet team.

The cadet event was the first to start and had completed the first round of matches by the time the veterans started and at the end of their three rounds of matches it was South Yorkshire, spurred on by their veterans, who lead the way with two wins and one draw from their three starts as they recorded 6-4 victories against Lancashire and Nottinghamshire before drawing their final clash with Cheshire.

It was a solid all round team effort from South Yorkshire with all five of their youngsters contributing to their success although Laura Robinson caught the eye by winning five out of her six starts.

Laura was well supported by all her team mates as Charlotte Dixon recorded a four from six record with James Grayson and Louis Havenhand both recording 3/6 records and Jamie Hudd 2/6.

Nottinghamshire were only a point adrift of South Yorkshire with their boys doing all the damage as Aidan Keyworth and Joseph Thursby both recorded 5/6 records with no.1 Sam Walker scoring heavily on 4/6.

Veterans Division 2A - In the veterans event Yorkshire 3 won three and drew one of their four matches, drawing in an exciting derby clash with their higher ranked team who themselves also drew their opening match with South Yorkshire.

It was skipper Sandra Rider from Pudsey TTC who inspired the Yorkshire third team with a 100% record including a win over her higher ranked county colleague, Bradford’s  Helen Shields although Sandra received excellent support from fellow Pudsey clubmate, Phil Cawser, who recorded six wins from eight with Paul Stephenson of Leeds three from six and Bradford player Steve Kosmowsky two from eight giving valuable support.

As with many successful county championship teams, the doubles were vital with Rider contributing in seven out of eight successful mixed doubles with Cawser and Stephenson, whilst the men’s doubles pairing of Cawser and Kosmowsky won two from four of their sets.

Yorkshire 2 themselves were inspired by their skipper, Nigel Pennock of Harrogate, who matched Cawser’s six from eight and contributed in three significant doubles wins over the weekend.

The second team were boosted by the inclusion of York representative player Steve Cooper for the second day, and followed up their two draws on Saturday with 7-3 and 8-2 victories on Sunday against Nottinghamshire and Norfolk.

A major contribution to the Yorkshire second team success was the performance of Helen Shields who lost only to Rider in singles play and matched Rider’s performance of seven from eight doubles successes which once again testifies the importance of a solid lady player in the county championship format.