Rose Rainton (Hollington Academy) and Sheila King (Tigers) represented the Hastings table tennis league in the national finals of the J M Rose Bowl competition for women, held at the Westfield TTC in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.

In their first match Hastings beat Cambridge 4-1.  Rose won both her singles, Sheila won one singles and they combined to win the doubles.

The second match in their group was against Central London.  It started badly when Rose and Sheila both lost their opening rubbers but the doubles went to Hastings 11-4 in the fifth game.  Then Sheila won her next singles, as did Rose (both 3-0), so making the final score 3-2 to Hastings.

This meant that the Hastings team had won their group and so went through to the final against Warrington, the other group winners.

Rose won the first rubber but Sheila was defeated, and then the doubles was lost in four games.  This meant that the match hinged on Sheila’s second singles but despite only losing the first game 12-14, the next two games also went to Warrington and therefore the whole match.  Thus Hastings failed to win this national competition for the second time, the first occasion being in 2011 when Rose and Lisa Standen comprised the victorious Hastings team.