Top Barrow Juniors Cruise To Title
Three members of Thwaites table tennis club were selected to represent Barrow and District table tennis league in the Lancashire and Cheshire Junior League. The trio of Scott Barker, Jack Cullen and Tom Huddleston, travelled to Our Lady’s School, Blackley, Manchester for their Division One fixtures.
Their first match was against Southport “B”. Scott Barker and Jack Cullen gave them an excellent start with comfortable straight sets wins against Max Davies and Felix Anderson. Tom Huddleston had a very close battle with Elliot Cooper. Twice Tom took the lead only for his opponent to creep back into the match with 12-10 sets. The decider also went to deuce but this time it was Tom who held his nerve and won 13-11.
Jack Cullen’s game against Max Davies was equally close and exciting. Having taken the first set 16-14 his opponent took the next two sets with some brave attacking when the scores were close . This triggered a positive response from Cullen who became more offensive and closed out the next two sets for his second win.
Scott Barker was comfortable in his next match despite dropping the first set and Tom Huddlestone wrapped up the whitewash victory when he outplayed Felix Anderson.
The next match was against Manchester “A” who were only able to field two players. With their confidence high the Barrow league team raced to victory dropping just one set in the four matches played. Scott played two and won both whilst Jack and Tom both played once and won. The Manchester team were Jhoti Mahapatra and Jacob Isaac.
The final match was against Wirral. Jack Cullen started strongly going 2-0 up against Jack Norton. In a dramatic change of form Norton hit back taking the opening win with three comfortable sets. Scott Barker also started his game against Tom Peake in complete control with 11-2, 11-5 sets. However, Peake reached the top of his form in the third set and suddenly a repeat of the previous match looked likely. At deuce Barker remained composed and took the two points needed to win and end Peake’s comeback.
Wirral regained the match lead when Nathan Bradshaw defeated Tom Huddleston in straight sets. The fourth rubber was played out between the respective number ones: Jake Norton for Wirral and Scott Barker for Barrow. Barker won the encounter comfortably preserving his unbeaten recoed for the day.
Jack Cullen was again involved in a very close match. He took the first end 15-13 but lost the next 2 sets 10-12, 7-11. This time it was Cullen’s turn to turn fortune around and with wins in the next two sets he secured a vital victory for Barrow. In the final match Tom Huddleston found the luck against him as Tom Peake edged the first set 10-12 and then took the next two sets to ensure a draw in the match.
With their previous results this put the Barrow League team top and winners of Division One earning promotion to the Premier Division. This was an excellent achievement for these top Barrow juniors. Thanks go to Fingerprints for their shirt sponsorship.
