Grantham table tennis teams return to the competition

The Cliffedale Chandlers Table Tennis Club has finally gotten on the race track after 20 months of disruption caused by a pandemic in their training and tournament schedule.

The sessions started again with limited capacity a few months ago and are now being held in the main hall of the Meres Leisure Center, but easing the restrictions has allowed the club to have some normal feeling and there have been many participants. Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday sessions are increasing recently.

The easing of restrictions has allowed English table tennis competitions and tournaments such as the National Cadet League and the National Junior League to be relaunched, so Cliffedale did not waste time taking one team to each of these.

They usually have three or four teams in each race, but they decided to limit it to just two teams to reduce the number of people going to the Nottingham venue and to facilitate coaching.

Both sets of players performed well against St Neots, Peterborough, Wellingborough, Leicester and Nottingham.

The club’s National Cadet League team (under 15), which included Ben Ward, Phoenix Mason, Jothen Parker and Joseph Hazzledine, ended the day in two 3-3 draws (Nottingham and Archway Peterborough B) and two losses (6-0 Archway Peterborough A and 5-1 West Bridgford).

The National Junior League team (under 19), featuring Akvile Erol, Flynn Connolly, Jai Mistry Moulton and James Hobbs, performed better and finished third at the end of the first day, winning two (5-1 West Bridgford A and B). exactly one (3-3 Knighton Park) and lost one (5-1 to St Neots).

Both teams will have the opportunity to improve their series rankings in early December on the second day of the competition.

l If you want to play table tennis, Cliffedale Chandlers hosts the Meres Leisure Center three times a week on Tuesday and Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, and people of all ages and abilities are welcome. You can find more information on the club’s Facebook page @CliffedaleChandlersTTC.