Two local players excelled at the East Sussex Schools Table Tennis Championships recently.
Sacha Ward won the Under-16 Girls event, representing St. Leonards Academy.
Sacha began playing table tennis at the Academy where coach Teresa Bennett was a great influence. She first played in the Hastings Junior League in the 2015 - 16 season and has made steady progress. Since 2017 - 18 she has played for Hollington TTC in Division 3 of the Hastings League and is a member of the young Hollington E team challenging for the Division 3 title.
Additionally, Sacha has previously reached the English Schools' National Individuals competition (under-13 in 2017) and during the past two seasons has represented Sussex at Cadet (under-15) and Junior (under-18) levels.
Emily Koester (Bexhill Academy) won the under-13 Girls event
She started playing table tennis 5 years ago at a club held after school at Little Common School run by Kevin Haffenden. She then joined Bexhill Junior Table Tennis Academy under the same coach, and she plays in the National Junior League for the Table Tennis Rother team. She trains with Trevor Towner at Bexhillians and has started to play in the local league with them.
Emily won the East Sussex Schools under-11 title two years running and has now won the under-13 title two years running. She has represented East Sussex twice in the National School Championships in Wolverhampton and has also played there in the National Junior Championships. She currently plays for the Sussex Cadet and Junior teams.
In a quiet week for senior competition, favourites Hastings Academy A (Fraser Kent, Ryan Heselden, Paul Barry) cruised past Tackleway B 9-0 in Round 2 of the Watts Cup.
Bexhill B won by the same score against Academy F with Pete Robinson, Andy Summers and John Ellis relatively untroubled.
In a re-arranged Division Two match, Nalgo A ended their disappointing run with a 6-4 win at Academy H with Paul Hyland unbeaten and Mike Courtnage winning two. Jamie Martin won two for Academy who welcomed back Dave Mitchell after illness.
