TOM Cherry, Ben Graham, Sam Millar and Lily Cherry made the journey to Slough and gave an excellent account of themselves in their first tournament of the year in the under-18 events.

Tom Cherry competed in the first qualifying group of seven players and enjoyed a superb early run as he stormed to four consecutive wins against very good opposition, before narrowly losing the final two games, to finish in third place.

Graham and Millar played in the second group of players and although they won several legs, match wins were harder to come by.

In fact, it was the match bet-ween the two Weymouth players that decided the only win for the town in that group and that went to Graham.

Cherry’s fine early performance meant he qualified for the main knockout draw for the top players.

Unfortunately, he came up against the eventual winner, Romayne Stewart, ranked in the top 50 nationally, and lost out 3-0.

Cherry ended up the top-ranked Weymouth boy on the day.

Graham and Millar both qualified for the consolation knockout event and both players played some excellent table tennis to make it all the way through to the final after their disappoint-ing group games.

This final set up an all-Weymouth re-match and, this time, Millar won a tight 3-2 contest against Graham, the final game ending very close at 13-11.

Lily Cherry played in a group of seven girls. She lost the first match against highly-rated Shristi Ghosh (national rating 12th-placed cadet), but bounced back to win the next.

Cherry also lost to Zoe Davies 3-1, but then came back to win her next four games as she really started to find her form.

In fact, the most impressive win was against eventual winner Megan Ashfield, who only lost that one game all day and Cherry eventually claimed third place overall.

Coach Andy Millar was delighted with the players’ performances.

He said: “It was very encouraging start to the season and a great experience for these young players.

“Even when players’ results were not successful early on they worked really hard and Sam Millar and Ben Graham battled back to pick up trophies.

“Twins Tom and Lily Cherry showed how much they have improved and they will both be rewarded with improved national rankings.”

Next up are the National Qualifiers in Bristol and National Junior League in Fareham this month n The Weymouth League runs training for all abilities, for age eight upwards, on a Monday and Saturday.

Top England player Matt Ware is a visiting coach on Mondays for youth and adult sessions. All enquiries should go to Andy Millar by email at a.millar212@gmail.com or telephone 07710507075.