The County Senior team travelled  to Harlow in November to play all it's matches over one weekend. Led by Chris Cockburn the whole team put on some magnificent performances to win six out of their seven matches only to be denied promotion to the Premiership on count back.

Representing Norfolk were:-

                Chris Cockburn

                Andy Hawes

                Tony  Zeqiri

                Lauren Charles

                Ella Barnard

               Well done all!!

The Veteran team played their first three matches at St.Neots in November losing one and drawing the other two.

All the players, Mats Olsson, Jamie Mcintosh Stuart Laws and Janet Kelly all played their part in earning some points.

The Vete played its second round of county games at the end of January 2022 boosted by the return Neil Charles and inc;uding Jan fuller for the first time.

 In its opening match Norfolk played a strong looking Buckinghamshire team. Jamie Mcintosh won his first match against Ian Musk depite winning the first set 11-1. Mats Olsson then won a long,hard match against Alan Cherry, winning 12-10 in the deciding set after being 10-6 down. Next up Neil Charles played Stephen Munson and found himself two sets down before fighting back to win.  Jamie and Jan were well beaten in the first mixed doubles to make the overall score 2-2. Jamie then beat Alan Cherry 3-1 to put Norfolk back in the lead before Julie Lawrence overcame Jan to take the overall match back to all square. Neil and Mats then won their doubles match 3-1 and with Mats winning  3-0 against Munson norfolk were 5-3 ahead. Neil then sealed victory with a 3-1 win over Musk before losung his mixed doubles with Jan to make the final score Norfolk 6 Bucks 4.

The next match saw Norfolk up against a Herfordshire  team containing thre highly ranked men and the number one ranked lady Veteran in Sara Williams. Neil opened with a great win 5 set win over Jimmy Walsh before Mats won 3 close sets against young Veteran Zoltan Hosszu.That was as good as it got however with Herts winning the next 6 matches before Neil gained some consolation by winning the battle  of the no 1's against Richard Jermyn 3-0 in a top quality match. Herts won the final mixed doubles to make the final score 7-3.

All in all a good day and team capatain Mats reported a good effort by all team members.

On 18th January the County Vets team made to the trip to Harlow to face a strong Middlesex team. Mats Ollson and Sean Molloy lost the first two singles convincingly but wins for Neil Charles followed by an excellent victory for Neil with Janet Kelly in the Mixed Doubles brought the match score level. A great singles win for Mats followed by defeat for Janet kept the score level at 3-3. Mats and Neil teamed up in the doubles to put Norfolk ahead but Sean found james Sprackling too strong and the score was back to 4-4. Neil Charles overcame Costas Papantoniou  in a five-setter to put Norfolk ahead but a narrow defeat for Mats and Sean in the final doubles meant a final result of 5-5.

A Great effort by thw whole team against very strong opponents.

The County Vets team started their season with a trip to Harlow to play matches against Essex, Cambridgeshire and Sussex2.

Against Essex two wins for Neil Charles together with one each for Mats Ollson and Sean Molloy added to a doubles win from Neil and Mats gave Norfolk a 5-5 draw.

It was a similar story against Cambs in which Jamie MacIntosh replaced Mats in the singles. He scored one win while Mats had success in the doubles with Neil who again added two points from his singles. A great win from Neil and Janet Kelly in the mixed doubles meant that the final result was another 5-5 draw.

In the match against Sussex Sean played the singles instead of Mats and scored one win. He added another when partnering Neil in the doubles and two wins each for both Neil and Jamie gave Norfolk the win, but the outsatnding result was in the mixed doubles where Sean and Janet scored a three set victory. Final score Norfolk 7 Sussex 3.

Overall a solid start, with one win and two draws. All the players made a contribution with Neil Charles having a great day by winning all his singles. Special mention must go to Janet. Playing with an injury and suffering from the after effects of a recent illness, she nevertheless played her full part in the team's efforts.

On November 9th the Norfolk County Juniors made a second trip to Harlow within a few weeks. The trip in October proved very disappointing in that two of the teams they were due to play pulled out at the last minute leaving them with just one match to play, On this occasion a full compliment of teams arrived although the Dorset team were two players short.

The Norfolk team was without two of its more experienced players in Ella Barnard and Lewis Ross who were unaavailable on the day. In there place came two more Norfolk Junior debutants in Marisssa Brooks and Will Humphrey. 

Norfolk's first match was against Surrey 2 who proved to be formidable opponents for the much less expereienced Norfolk youngsters. In the first game Alfie Nicolls quickly found himself two sets down but fought back well in the third before just going down in three. This set the trend for the rest of the match and Norfolk soon found themselves 8-0 down with Marissa and Will in particular finding it hard to cope with the strong opposition. It was left to Darcy Brewer and Toby Bland to recover a lttle pride before they both suffered defeats in four closely fought sets. Overall the match was a potentially dispiriting 10-0 defeat. 

In the next match the Norfolk youngsters had some encouragement ftom the fact that their opponents Dorset were two players short. However their three remaining players proved to be experienced players and despite great efforts by each of the Norfolk players, in particular the debutants Marissa and Will, they carried Dorset to a 6-4 victory.

Against Sussex 2 the Norfolk team scored their first successes with Darcy playing a superb match against Sussex's Sasha Ward. After going two sets ahead she saw Sasha fight back to draw level but won a great decider 13-11. Toby then lost in five close sets before Marisssa matched Darcy's performance by taking the first two sets againt Sasha who again fought back to level at 2-2 before Marissa regrouped to win the decider 11-6. This was as good as it got however as the Norfolk lads found their Sussex counterparts simply too strong, making the final score Sussex2  8  Norfolk  2.

In their fourth and final match Norfolk's opponents were Sussex1 who, not surprisingly, were much stronger than Sussex2. Nevertheless there were some excellent performances from both Darcy and Marissa who both lost close matches against very experienced Sussex girls. Alfie,too, played his best table tennis of the day in going down in four close sets against Fraser Kent. Overall though, another 10-0 defeat.

It had proved a tough day against teams of a very high standard. The Norfolk team had little luck thoughout the day but none of them let their heads drop. They will each have learned a lot from the experience and will come back older and stronger next season. Marissa and Darcy, in particular, showed that they have the game to score even more successes in the future.

What was particular pleasing was the exemplary attitude, sportsmanship and determination shown by all the Norfolk players. They can be very proud of their efforts.

Special thanks go to coach Ernie George and all the parents for making the trip and giving great encouragement to the team.