Table Tennis: Lowe primed for high-point (From York Press)

Table Tennis: Martin Lowe primed for high-point

11:19am Thursday 26th January 2012 in Table tennis By Stuart Martel, Sports editor

THERE will be a different name on the men’s singles trophy for the first time in four years at this weekend’s York & District Table Tennis Closed Championships.

A field of 65 players will compete for 18 trophies when they are staged on Saturday and Sunday, but a notable name missing from this year’s entry list for the tournament at York RI’s Queen Street gym is reigning men’s singles champion Richard Moss.

That means 2011 runner-up Martin Lowe, a four-time champion, is the top seed, with his Coneysthorpe team-mates Ashley Hodgson and Joel Wright seeded two and three respectively.

Bootham’s Jon Wooldridge is seeded four.

Lowe is also top seed in the veteran singles, with Hodgson seeded second.

The duo then team up as top seeds in the men’s doubles, while the top seeds in the veteran doubles are Holgate duo John Farmeary and Graham Hatfield.

The University of York pairing of Senri Ohara and Rudy Huang are favourites to take the mixed doubles title.

Jake McCarthy and Nathan Taylor are scheduled to meet in the junior singles final, while Matt Roberts and Ethan Lowe are the top seeds in the cadet event.

The main sponsors of the tournament are GMB.

Sponsors of other events are friends of the York & District Table Tennis Association.