The star of this week’s show is Steve Dickinson, a long-time representative and advocate of table tennis in Northumberland, as he was presented with a “Club Volunteer of the Year” award from Table Tennis England. Steve’s hard work and constant positivity and passion for table tennis is renowned across the region.

Back to the league, the Premier Division this week was host to a number of seemingly one-sided scores. Kevin Wilson played well to win 2 games against Mount A but Graeme Barella was too strong for the Cramlington Stingers as he picked up 3 wins alongside Ainley and Prady’s 2 to take the match 7-3. Michael Boyce for Cramlington Tigers and Mark O’Connor for Riding Mill A were the only players to win games for their teams as they faced Mitford A and Cramlington Casuals respectively. NECA beat St Chads 8-2 and NESLC achieved a healthy 10-0 win against Old England Jacks.

In Division 1, Riding Mill B did well to hold out for a draw when they were only able to field 2 players against Mount C, Shirley Gelder taking 3 wins and Player of the Match. Another top female player took Player of the Match for Mitford B when Karen Henry won her 3 games. Teammates Barry Hill and Bob Atwell also picked up 2 wins each as they beat Cramlington Reivers 8-2, Alex Hinchliffe winning the only games for the Cramlington side.

Matfen Senators lost their first match of the season when they travelled to Ouston this week. Ouston A’s Neil Wilkinson, recently returned to table tennis after a lengthy spell out of the game, won his hat-trick to take Player of the Match. Holliday won 2 for Matfen and Oxley won 1, but it wasn’t quite enough as Ouston edged out the win at 6-4.