BUDMOUTH’S table-tennis youngsters continue to make excellent progress.

Having qualified as county champions in the boys’ under-19, girls’ under-16 and boys’ under-13 age groups, the students made the long trek to Plymouth for the South West Zone finals to compete against the best schools in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.

The tournament was run on a round-robin basis with the top two teams in each pool both moving on to the next round of the competition, the regional finals in Bournemouth on March 21.

The first match for the boys’ under-19 team of Tom Cherry, Sam Millar, Brad Webb and George Morrissey was against a very strong Truro team.

The opening game saw Cherry play some outstanding table tennis and push his opponent all the way until going down 11-9 in the deciding leg.

The strength-in-depth of the Truro team saw them race to a 6-0 lead and then it was Millar’s turn to fight all the way, but eventually he succumbed to an 11-7 loss in the fifth leg and could not prevent a Truro clean sweep.

However, it was a different story in the second match against the Devon champions where the Budmouth boys secured a comfortable 6-2 victory with two wins for Webb and Millar and one each for Cherry and Morrissey.

This victory secured the runner-up spot in the group and ensured progress to the next round.

The girls were unable to field the team which won the county title and two Year Seven girls were drafted into the under-16 side.

Snigdha Maganti, Erin Stow, Rosa McKechnie and Edith Ded-man all acquitted themselves very well.

Budmouth lost 7-1 in their first match against the eventual group winners from Falmouth with Maganti playing well to win her opener, and both McKechnie and Dedman came within a whisker of winning a game each.

In their second match against Stover School, the Budmouth girls ran out 6-2 winners with Maganti and Stow winning two games and McKechnie and Ded-man one each.

The Dorset champions had to settle for third place in the group following a 6-2 defeat to Haygrove School with Maganti and Stow each winning a match.

The boys’ under-13 team of Eddie Knell, Tom Lydford, Ollie James and Dan Henman were involved in the closest and most exciting group of the day which consisted of five teams.

A comfortable 7-1 success against Falmouth was followed by a big game against Haygrove.

In the end it was decided by an amazing comeback from Knell, who found himself 2-1 down in legs and 9-2 down in the fourth but a run of nine consecutive points from the Budmouth youngster took it to a deciding leg, which Knell also won to secure a 5-3 victory.

A 5-3 defeat to Bournemouth left things in the balance but with Henman improving all the time and Lydford and James playing well, the Budmouth boys beat Devonport and finished runners-up in the group to book their passage to the next round.