Southend’s hopes of glory in this year’s Carter Cup competition ended in disappointment in Derbyshire as the finals were played out at the Long Eaton Table Tennis Club.

Having done well to reach the finals they found the opposition just too hot to handle exiting after defeats to Birmingham, Worksop and Sutton.

The team was made up of Elliot Brackenbury and William Evesham from Hockley TTC and Vivaan Babbar and Josh Freeman from Stanford who had all played in the previous round.

Each match consisted of four singles and one doubles and unfortunately their first match ended in a 5-0 defeat to Worksop. Elliot and Vivaan  played the singles whilst William and Josh stepped up for the doubles. The opening singles turned out to be their best chance of picking up a win as Elliot took on Samuel Batty and led 2-1 before succumbing 11/4 11/6 to lose in five sets. After that Worksop won comfortably to complete the whitewash.

In the second group match against Birmingham coach Mitchell Jones rang the changes and William and Josh came in for the singles with Elliot and Vivaan taking on the doubles. A second defeat followed but there was a first win for William and two other five set matches which could have gone Southend’s way. William’s first match against Hassan Damji saw him lose the first set but then fought back to lead 2-1 before Hassan proved just too strong winning the last two sets 11/7 11/5. Josh then took on Maysum Damji and things started badly losing the first two sets before fighting back to level the scores at 2-2. The decider turned out to be a step too far however, as he lost 11/7.

Defeats in the doubles and the remaining singles left Southend 4-0 down and facing another whitewash but the tide finally turned in the final singles as William took on Maysum and, despite going 2-0 down, he came back magnificently winning the next three 11/9 11/7 11/3. A first point on the scoreboard for Southend albeit in a 4-1 defeat.

Thanks to the withdrawal of another team Southend did go through to the play offs where they met Sutton with the match being decided as best of five games. Keeping the same side as against Birmingham William stepped up for the first singles and in a tight match it was level after four sets against Jayden Griffiths and he came out on top 11/7 in the fifth to set Sutton on their way. Straight set defeats followed quickly for Josh in the singles and Elliot and Vivaan in the doubles and Southend bowed out of the competition with a 3-0 defeat. Leamington Spa won the trophy beating Birmingham in the final.

Coach Mitchell Jones was far from disappointed afterwards saying ‘’the performance from the boys was outstanding and played some of the best table tennis I have seen them play. Considering all the boys are aged 12-16 they have at least two years left in that competition’’.

Southend did record one success however as William was chosen as Player of the Day by the organisers. No small feat when you look at the team’s results but recognised for his performance and conduct throughout. Congratulations William!