WEYMOUTH stars once again impressed on varying stages around the area.

A contingent of players from the area travelled to Christchurch to compete at the Grange Table Tennis Centre in the annual Cadet Invitational Tournament.

In the girls’ Tyro event, Jess Moggeridge finished as runner-up to the hugely talented Sophie Barcsai from Bournemouth.

In the Tyro Plate, Jaimee Browne came through some tough matches to come out as winner.

The main girls’ event saw Moggeridge get her revenge on Barcsai to end up as winner and claim the prestigious, and rather large, shield.

The boys’ event saw the top eight after the first round of matches go through to complete for the shield, with the remainder going on to compete for the plate.

Adam Titcombe from the Dorset Table Tennis Academy won that plate event but Weymouth’s Nathan Calton was a very respectable runner-up in one of his first tournaments.

Jamie Blair won the main event shield after a titanic five-set victory over the much-improved Jack Trafford from New Milton. He took the first set but then found himself 2-1 down before sneaking a very tight fourth set. The final set went his way and saw him lift the shield.

A number of the same players travelled to Eggbuckland College in Plymouth the following day for their closing two-star event of the season.

Once again Moggeridge and Barcsai went heat to head, this time in the girls’ under-11 tournament.

It ended up being decided on the match between the two of them and it went all the way to the fifth set. That fifth set went the way of Barcsai and so Moggeridge came away with the runner-up trophy, meaning she ended the weekend with a winners and two runners-up trophies.

This was Blair’s last tournament as a cadet (under-15) before moving up to juniors (under-18) in September and so he wanted to sign off with a good performance. He had won three other two-star events this season, including one at the same venue.

He came through his opening group of six players with five victories and moved on the winners’ group, which included the two winners of the other boxes, to decide the overall winner.

In his first match he overcame Torbay’s Herbie Sage 3-2, after being 2-1 down.

Sage then lost to Devon’s Ben Edmunds 3-0, which meant the match between Blair and Edmunds was effectively the final.

Blair started slowly and struggled to stay with Edmunds as the Devon player took the first two sets.

Blair then changed tactics and this did the trick as he fought back to take victory 3-2 and end his highly eventful season on a high.

A spokesperson for the Weymouth set-up said: “The success of the Weymouth youngsters is a testament to the hard work of Weymouth & District League’s development officer Andy Millar along with his team of dedicated coaches.”

CONTACT US:

t: 01305 830990

e: sport

@dorsetecho.co.uk

twitter: @Dorsetechosport