Press Correspondent:   Peter Thompson      
ETTA Senior Coach
Tel or Fax 0113 2047082                             

Atkins enjoys day at seaside

It was the Yorkshire county trials at the weekend in Scarborough with the top four in each age group going to the regional trials in December. On the Saturday Pudsey had four boys competing in the cadet boys (U15) trials. Seeded at number two James Atkins came through his group with a hard fought five end set over Chris Hazard from Doncaster. Daniel Adams the number one seed was a comfortable group winner. All the group winners were then placed into one group. Atkins winning this group undefeated to take top place including a 3-1 victory over 3RD placed team mate Adams. Danny Beech and Tom Fell finished 10th and 14th respectively.

On Sunday Pudsey’s under 13 boys and girls were in action. For some of these players it was there first ever tournament and all performed admirably. It was the most experienced player Vishal Dattani who was the top performer by winning his group. In the battle of group winners he beat the number 3 seed in a five set thriller and also beat the number two seed. Vishal failed to win his last game and ended runner up in the event. Matthew Hull produced the shock of the day in his group beating the number one seed. There were some good individual wins for Andrew Francis, Wayne Pattison and Jack Taylor. Pudsey girls found the going hard but Ellen Auty managed to finish fourth and qualify. She had the same number of wins as team mate Nicole Finn but finished the highest as she won there  head to head meeting.

10 year old Neil Dattani is another player with a bright future ahead of him and his attacking play was a delight to watch as he finished third in the U11 boys event.