Stars serve up a treat on the tables

The fourth staging of the annual Hunts 2 Star Open was a roaring success last weekend.

The Burgess Hall in St Ives was the venue for two days of terrific competition featuring players from across the country.

The Saturday spotlight fell on the junior ranks with eight events taking place and there was plenty for the local contingent to celebrate.

Great Stukeley Table Tennis Club talent Charlotte Boston won the Junior Girls section with clubmate Abigail Facey finishing as runners-up in the Under 11 Girls bracket.

Another Stukeley star, James Kelly, narrowly missed out

on a place in the Junior Boys and Cadet Boys finals while the club also provided the youngest competitor in the history of the tournament in six year-old Emily Sheldrake.

There were a record number of entries for the Sunday senior sections. Surrey player Darius Knight took the Men’s Singles crown for the third successive year while Polish ace Malgorzata Muda emerged victorious in the Women’s Singles.

Boston continued her fine weekend with a silver medal in Band 1 of the Women’s competition, which was also won by Muda, while Adam Jepson of Cambridgeshire provided a relatively local success in Men’s Band 2.

Deputy mayor of St Ives, councillor Debbie Townsend, was on hand to present the Saturday prizes along with Victoria Parchment of sponsors Alconbury Weald.

Councillor Daryl Brown, deputy mayor of Huntingdon, did the honours on the second day along with Table Tennis England chairperson Sandra Deaton, who gave the event a glowing reference.

Deaton said: “The tournament is doing wonders for the sport in Huntingdonshire.”

The tournament was also backed by Top Spin Sports.