Report by Richard Crowther (11/01/2006)

James Parker and James Atkins through to National Trials

Two York juniors have qualified for the national table tennis trials being held in Bristol in March.

James Parker, having reached the national trials last year at under-15 level, raised his standards even higher by qualifying in the under-18 age group in the recent regional trials held at Bradford Grammar school, coming third overall. This was after he had qualified by coming joint first in the Yorkshire trial the weekend before, tying with another York junior, Stephen Robinson.

James Atkins, playing in the under-13 regional trials, came second after qualifying first in the Yorkshire trials. He also qualifies for the national trials.

Stephen Robinson was beaten to the third and automatic national trial place by losing in a tense five set match to James Parker, coming fourth in the regional trials.

York were further represented at under-18 level with Tom Wright coming sixth in the regional trials and Nathan Horsley coming eighth in the Yorkshire trials.

In the under-13 girls’ section Gemma Atkins came sixth in the Yorkshire trials and then eighth in the regional trials but unfortunately did not qualify for the national trials, but will no doubt be cheering on her twin brother.

Junior County Championships

James Parker and Stephen Robinson both represented the Yorkshire second team when they travelled to Grantham for the first round of fixtures in the Junior County Championships Division 2A. Both were undefeated in the three matches, beating Northants 2nds 6-4, Lancashire 2nds 7-3 and drawing 5-5 with Staffordshire.

The second and final fixtures were played on January 7^th with James Parker playing a further five matches (against Cheshire 2nds, Cleveland, Durham 2nds, Lincolnshire 2nds and Northumberland), losing only twice. This included playing Cleveland, the winners of the division and runaway champions, when James won the only match, beating Andy Durham, a player ranked over 60 places above him in the junior rankings.

Yorkshire 2nds eventually came second in the division with their only defeat being against Cleveland 1-9.

Junior Yorkshire League

York, the holders of the Yorkshire Junior League title, had a mixed first round of matches in Halifax, being represented by Nathan Horsley, Tom Wright and Laurence Houlison.

First up were Halifax 2nds who they beat 9-0. They also beat Harrogate by the same score in the last match of the day. Unfortunately, in between these two excellent results, there was a 2-7 defeat to Halifax 1sts with the two wins coming from Nathan Horsley.

This will make it difficult for York to retain the title but not impossible.