Top notch

The Wairarapa team which finished fourth in the boys C grade event at the New Zealand table tennis championships held in Auckland.The team of Caleb Haxton (left), Myles Collins (centre) and Joro Quaedvlieg beat Nelson 7-2 and Counties-Manakau 9-0 and lost narrowly to Canterbury 4-5, Wellington 4-5 and eventual winners Northland 3-6.One more win against either Wellington or Canterbury would have taken them into the top three.Collins and Quaedvlieg also played in the individual competition and while not amongst the major prizes did win games against players they had not beaten before. Another promising Wairarapa player in Beth Tait won the open C grade women's doubles title, the first time since 1995 that a national title had come to the province. Back then Richard Field, Leroy Ruhe, Kingi Ruge and Liam Orange from Wairarapa won the C grade teams event.