Archway stars went from ‘making the numbers up’ to picking up four English Junior Championship medals

Budding Archway Table Tennis Club stars picked up two silver and two bronze medals at the English Junior Championships (Under 10s-13s) at Warwick University at the weekend (July 3/4).
By Alan Swann
Published 7th Jul 2021, 13:41 BST
Amber Lemmon (2) and Hannah Saunders (3) with their medals from the English Junior Championships.Amber Lemmon (2) and Hannah Saunders (3) with their medals from the English Junior Championships.
Amber Lemmon (2) and Hannah Saunders (3) with their medals from the English Junior Championships.

It’s an invitation only event, but as Archway’s youngsters hold no national rankings the suspicion was they went to make the numbers up!

They did considerably better than that though.

King’s School student Hannah Saunders (8) picked up a silver and a bronze medal in the under 11 and under 10 competitions respectively.

The Archway squad at the English Junior Championships.The Archway squad at the English Junior Championships.
The Archway squad at the English Junior Championships.
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Hannah won her under 11 group and then beat clubmates Amber Lemmon (7, Hampton Hargate) and Laura North (8, Ravensthorpe) in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. Hannah lost in the final to Alyssa Nguyen from Devon after three close games, but still piucked up an excellent silver medal.

Laura picked up a bronze medal for her efforts.

Amber gained her revenge over Hannah in the Under 10 semi-final the following day to guarantee a silver medal before she was beaten 3-1 in the final by Alyssa Nguyen. Hannah still collected a bronze medal.

Lewis Wu (8, Coates), excelled to qualify for the main draw in the boys under 10 event by beating two higher ranked boys in his group. In the quarter finals Wu was up against the number two seed (and eventual runner up) Charles Donald (Essex) and went down fighting 3-1.

Other Archway players who competed and gave a good account of themselves were Oscar Ka Cheung Wan, Li Hao Chen and Wilson Zheng who secured an excellent victory in his group

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The seven players who played under the Archway banner (based on Lincoln Road, Millfield) are all part of the club’s under 10 HOPEs squad under the coaching of Hong Hong Peebles who said: “It was a decent effort to get medals at their first attempt and all part of their table tennis journey.

“We will go back to the training hall and come back stronger”.

Regular free training is available. Contact Steve Williams on 07957 132257.

Further information is also available on the club website at www.archwaytabletennis.co.uk.