Friday March 8 saw the first day of a junior table tennis tournament held at Wensum Table Tennis Club in Norwich.

The event was funded by the Be TT Table Tennis initiative, which funded hall hire, trophies and balls for the event.

The event is aimed at players in the Norwich area who do not yet play in a local league. The event will give them match play experience and will be held over four days, with winners at Under-12 and Under-18 age groups.

There were eight entrants to the competition, four in each age group, and the standard was consistent for all players, so they will play each day on a round-robin basis, giving them a total of 28 matches over the four days. All matches are the best of five games.

The event was organised and run by Lindsey Dare on four tables and started at 6.45pm and was finished by 8.45pm, which was appreciated by the players and parents alike, very different to League matches finishing at 10.30pm in many cases.

Results of day one of the event were as follows:

Under-18
1 Leigh Claxton (Norwich City TTC) 7pts; 2 Adam Fowler (Wensum TTC) 5pts; 3 Ben Martin (NCTTC) 3pts; 4 Lily Calver (WTTC) 1pt.

Under-12
1 Eva Eccles (WTCC) 8pts; 2 Harry Wells (WTTC) 6pts; 3 Liem Hodgson (WTTC) 4pts; 4 Billy Eccles (WTTC) 2pts.

The idea moving forward is to make the event self-financing and to expand it to more players. With the lower division of the Norwich League being very competitive, and tending towards late finishes, this event is the perfect way to set young players on their way in competitive table tennis.

The next round takes place on Friday March 22.