Organisers of the Ael-y-bryn Table Tennis Club annual tournament had to run the tournament over three days this year due to the number of new players attending the club.
The Rhymney tournament, held last month, was again free of charge for entrants due to generous sponsorship from the Pen y Dre Tenants and Residents Association, who have sponsored the event for the last six years.
Winners included Ashley Perry (best male player), and Beth Roberts (best female player), who played on the Friday.
The ‘Best Newcomer’, and ‘Under 11 Boys and Girls’ events were played the following day.
Organisers expected the ‘Best Newcomer’ event to have a large entry, so ran a consolation event for those not getting through their groups.
This decision was great news for Jack Llewellyn who narrowly missed out on the main event, but went on to win the Consolation event. One of biggest surprises over all three days of the competition was Ben Morgan, who has only been playing at the club for a few months.
In the main Newcomer event, favourites Ryan Watkins and Elis Burgess made the final, following good semi-final wins against brothers Iestyn and Anthony Kidley.
In the final Ryan took the win from Elis.
The ‘Under 11 Boys’ event saw Ryan having to sit the event out, due to age, thereby giving Elis the chance to take do well. Elis made no mistakes taking the title from Iestyn Kidley in second place.
The ‘Under 11 Girls’ event was entered by some of the youngest club players on court. Ruby Elliot won and Riley Llewellyn was runner-up.
In total, 14 trophies and two shields were presented by Cllr Carl Cuss, who said: “The participation of the tournament is increasing every year which is great to see.
“The young people always enjoy themselves and I would like to put on record my appreciation to the organisers of the event for putting on a vital service for the young people in the community to participate.”