The North East Sports and Leisure Club Eagles based in Longbenton are the new champions of the Northumbria Table Tennis league. For their final match of the season against Saint Columba's they were able to turn out their strongest team including the County's top two veteran players Andrew Wilkinson and Eddie Smith along with Steve Penman and they were far too strong for the opposition, running out 10 - 0 victors.

This meant that the Dunston club, The Mount, had to win by at least 7 - 3 when they visited Saint Chads. However they were unable to turn out their regular first team players apart from Phil Prady  and had to bring in Dan Dodds and Jamie Dent. As a result they went down 9 - 1  with the home team turning out a strong side of Keith and Josh Weatherby and Chris Blake. Dodds was their only winner when he defeated Blake.

Whickham based Saints completed the third division fixtures when they came away from Matfen Cohorts with an 8 - 2 victory under their belts, Vince Killen and Steve Dawson both unbeaten.

Cramlington Trojans team of Alastair Johnson and the two youngsters Israel Shodeinde and Jack Cairns beat The Mount team of Dent, Dodds and Bailey Pye in the  semi final of the Handicap Cup 5 - 4  and will now face Prudhoe and District United Services Club side of Andrew Firth, Mark O'Connor and Maurice Cheek in the final which will be played at the Tyneside Badminton Centre on Tuesday April 30th.

After a short break in League play the Northumbria Summer league will start on May 13th.

Aubrey Drapkin