The start of the new season saw Bishop Auckland Table Tennis Club host the 2nd Tri Club Cup event.
This year’s cup added a Cadet event. The junior team of Zak, Carl, Tom and Robert started the day with an 8-0 victory over the all-girl team from Sacriston. Rob, Zak and Tom all won the singles and doubles games. The young under 15’s team made up of Harry, Jack and Luca also started the day off with a win over Sacriston. A 5-3 victory saw Jack pick up his two singles with Harry and Luca both picking up a singles win each and a doubles win for Jack and Luca.
Sacriston took on Lanchester in the afternoon session. The Lanchester juniors secured a 6-2 win and the cadets also took a 6-2 to set up a final with Bishop. The winner of each match would take the title.
The Juniors saw Carl brought into the team with Rob swapping to the cadet team. Some below par performances from Zak and Tom saw Lanchester take a 3-0 and only needed two games more to win the match. Lanchester clearly motivated for this match took the lead in the next two singles before a workhorse performance from Carl saw him win his two singles and with Tom and Zak winning their second singles saw the match boil down to the last doubles. Tom and Carl clearly worn down after grafting in their other matches didn’t hit their best and lost, which made it a draw.
Thanks to winning two extra matches versus Sacriston, Bishop Auckland TTC retain the Junior Tri Club Cup. The Cadet was much more evenly balanced with the score going into the last singles was 3-3 with Rob having won his two singles and Luca winning one of his. Jack not to be out done by his team mate showed the reason he had been selected for the regional development squad with a 3-1 win to set up the final match. This match saw Rob and Luca combine to play the last doubles, Robs class and Luca’s potential shone through to take a 3-1 to make it a 5-3 win and the title.