Sunderland and District Table Tennis Association has had further success in ETTA national competitions.

In the Carter Cup, which is played on a group regional basis, Sunderland came second to Darlington and both will go through to the next round.

As in all these competitions the runners-up will be placed in a group that will include two other regional winners, while Darlington will go into a group that will include two runners-up as well as one other winner.

Sunderland's team in this junior competition, which is for boys under the age of 18, was represented by Chris Dixon, Philip Dixon, who still both qualify for the U15 cadets competition and Anthony Barella, who is still eligible for the Under-13 age section from a table tennis point of view.

This very young side beat Northumbria 5-0 and Leeds by 5-3 before disappointingly going down 0-5 against a Darlington side that was a little below strength.

Darlington beat Leeds 5-2 and Northumbria 5-1.

In the remaining match Leeds beat Northumbria 5-1 in a competition that is played up to nine singles and the match finishes as soon as a team reaches the winning margin of five sets.

Chris Dixon won four of the seven sets that he played, Philip Dixon four of the six sets and Anthony Barella at such a relatively young age and who should not be disheartened by his performance, won two of his sets out of the five that he played.

Sunderland hosted this regional competition in their new Sandhill facilities at Grindon.

The next stage of this competition is due to be played on January 25 with the Leach Cup for cadets scheduled on January 24.

On the same weekend a cadet team represented Sunderland and District Table Tennis Club in the National cadet competition at Northfield Billingham. Because of other commitments the team had to compete with a player short, thus having to sacrifice a third of their results where in this competition each player in the team of three have to play against each member of the opposing team and all nine sets are played to a finish.

Jennifer Dixon, who was making her debut for Sunderland in an ETTA competition, played very well to win six of her 12 sets and Joseph Collins won nine of his 12 sets in the four matches that finished Sunderland 5, Northfield B 4; Sunderland 3, BRS Hemsley 6; Sunderland 4, Ormesby A 5; Sunderland 3, Northumbria 6.

Could a sporting record have been made in Sunderland where all three triplets in a Sunderland family all represented town/city in national competitions of any sport on the same day?

Anthony Barella had a tremendous day at the Cramlington Table Tennis Centre for young players residing in the Tyne and Wear area where he won all three singles competitions, namely U13s, U15s (cadets) and U18s (juniors) and throughout the day he won every set and only conceded one game in a very consistent performance.

Sunderland's other representative was Joseph Collins, who reached the semi-finals in both the U15s and U18s competitions and was unfortunate in drawing and losing against Kevin Watson in each of these events.

Division One

Boldon CA 6, Southern Stewart and Walker 4; St. Gabriel's A 8, Silksworth CC B 2; Seaburn Dene NC 10, West CA B 0.