Lillington Free Church lift title in Division One of the Cadet League

Lillington Free Church A's trio of Ricardo Bolanos, Nikit Sajiv and Emily Beasley played outstanding table tennis on Sunday in Wellingborough to take the Division One title on Day 4 of the National Cadet League.
Division One winners Ricardo Bolanos, Nikit Sajiv and Emily Beasley.Division One winners Ricardo Bolanos, Nikit Sajiv and Emily Beasley.
Division One winners Ricardo Bolanos, Nikit Sajiv and Emily Beasley.

Level on points with a strong St Neots team after Day 3, Church romped to 6-0 wins over St Neots B, Milton Keynes, Bedford A and Rugby.

By the time they faced St Neots A they were already three points to the good and a 5-1 victory assured them of the title.

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A special word of praise must go to Beasley who only faced one other girl, Chloe Pryke of St Neots B, but won nine of her ten singles matches.

The Rugby quartet of Daniel Burgess, Joshua Adams, Alex Bowe and William Chen had done extremely well to gain promotion to Division One given their comparative inexperience and were unlucky to finish bottom of the pile by just a point.

A draw with Milton Keynes (Burgess 2, Bowe 1) proved their best result.

Nicholas Ho was promoted from the C team after Lillington B lost their number three due to a last-minute illness and he raised his game considerably, winning a terrific six out of ten to help Josh Yarrow and Eduardo Bolanos to runners-up medals in Division Two.

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Lillington B beat Westfield (Wellingborough) 4-2, St Neots C 5-1, Lillington C 6-0 and Lillington D 5-1, only losing to champions WDHA (also of Wellingborough) 4-2, with Yarrow taking both points.

Church C also had a reserve, Jake Simmons, joining Seb Priest and Dan Gunthorpe.

Their best result was against their D team whom they defeated 4-2 but they were unlucky to go down by the same scoreline to St Neots C.

Church D had unexpectedly gained promotion from Division Three for Day 3 and found the going tough.

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However, despite suffering from having only two players, Tom Yarrow and Eleanor Fletcher upped their levels considerably and this young duo will be mainstays of the club for several seasons in this competition.