Town toasts table tennis triumph

The team of Lisa Standen and Rose Rainton won the JM Rose Bowl - the English Leagues Cup Competition event for senior women - at the Westfield club in Wellingborough on Saturday.

Standen won four of her six singles matches and fellow Hollington TTC player Rainton was undefeated as Hastings beat off competition from seven other sides at the national finals, edging out Derby 3-2 in the decisive clash.

Twelve teams entered the competition and were initially split into four zones with the top two from each advancing to the finals. Hastings were runners-up to Guildford in zone four.

Both players continued their fine form in the Sussex Top Eight event at Westergate on Sunday, Rainton winning the women’s competition and Standen reaching the semi-finals.

Rainton, the national no.19 senior woman, defeated Polegate-based Filsham Valley School teacher Teresa Bennett 3-0 in the final having beaten the up-and-coming Lois Peake (Chichester) in the last four. Bennett overcame Standen in the other semi-final.

Yolanda King, like Standen a Weald TTC (Cranbrook) member, is attending her final England training camp this week at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield, before flying to Kazan, Russia, next week for the European Youth Championships.

The full article will appear in tomorrow’s Hastings Observer.