JESS Moggeridge emerged victorious in the girls’ under-15s continuing on her success at the Weymouth and District Schools Individual Tournament, hosted by the All Saints School.

Moggeridge’s victory comes off the back of her recently reaching the quarter-finals of the Under-12 National Championships.

The schools tournament saw 48 players from 15 schools in Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester take part which saw an encouragingly high entrance in the under-11 boys’ and girls’ age groups.

A large number of primary schools are now delivering table tennis in school time and the skills shown by these younger age groups is encouraging for the future of the sport in the district.

There was also a very high standard of girls taking part in the Weymouth & District League where they have been running girls’ squad sessions this season, which has led to success at schools, Weymouth and county events.

To claim her crown Moggeridge, from Budmouth, faced an event where most of the girls have represented Dorset over the year and it was always going to be close.

When Edith Dedman defeated Moggeridge over three close games, it looked like the Thomas Hardye School student would win the title, but Sophie Storey, from Budmouth, then came out on top over Dedman in a close three-game match.

Moggeridge then beat Storey 2-0 so the result was based on points difference, as Moggeridge won the title, with Dedman second and Storey third.

In the girls’ under-11s, Millie Downton from Holy Trinity, came away with victory in an event that Radipole, Holy Trinity and Chickerell have dominated for many years.

Downton beat Serren Ismaili from Chickerell in the crucial game between the pair to decide first and second places with Abi Gittins, from Radipole, finishing third.

The boys’ under-11s saw the biggest entry of the day with eight schools competing, with Oliver Storey from St George’s taking home the title.

Zach Barras and Liam Clark, both from Holy Trinity, Storey (St George’s) and Daniel Scotchmer from Damers came out on top of their round-robin groups to play each other in the final.

Storey then played superbly to win all three of his matches, with a great match between Barras and Clark, which the consistent Clark won 11-8 in the fifth game to secure second place.

Budmouth’s Ben Howe won the boys’ under-15 title Weymouth’s senior cadets battled out in this event and it finished with a play-off between Jed Brackenridge, Howe and Ted Paul with the trio all from Budmouth. Brackenridge and Howe both defeated Paul, who had earlier caused a shock knocking out Ethan Clark from All Saints.

The decider between Howe and Brackenridge was a classic with all three games going to deuce.

The defensive Howe lost the first game 13-11, but edged the second game 15-13, with the former winning the decider 12-10 and his first Weymouth schools title.

Josh Clarke proved victorious in the boys’ under-19 as he beat his Budmouth team-mates Nathan Calton and Liam Critchard to win the title.

However, it didn’t all go Clarke’s way in a 3-1 win over Critchard, as two of the games were won 13-11 and could have gone the other way.