THE last two weekends have been doubly successful for Denbigh table tennis twins Angharad and Megan Phillips.
In Doncaster, they gained promotion to the First Division of the Women’s British League, while last weekend saw them promoted to the Premier Division of the Junior British League - and a place among the top six teams in Great Britain and Ireland.
Promotion in the women’s competition was reasonably straightforward as the twins’ team Halton won seven and drew two of their 10 matches to finish runners-up to Scottish giants Drumchapel.
Both girls achieved notable victories, with Angharad beating Scotland’s number one senior Rebecca Russell and England number three junior Melissa Wright, whilst Megan defeated England’s highly ranked Laura Robinson and Rebekah Griffith.
If promotion in the women’s league was comfortable, it was anything but in the Junior British League.
The girls’ team BATTS Racquetsports, who comprised last weekend of Chloe Thomas and the twins, had won only two of their matches during the first weekend of matches back in October and were a distant third in the league.
They realised that if promotion was to be achieved, every match had to be won and that other results had to go their way.
As the weekend progressed, the Welsh trio played superbly and beat all the other teams - their dominance exemplified by winning 25 out of the 30 sets.
Promotion all depended on the last match and, playing some of their best table tennis of the weekend they defeated the Bridge Club, the team with the highest combined ranking points, by 6-0!
It was truly a team effort with all three players finishing in the top-five in the individual averages of players.
Among Chloe’s wins were remarkable comebacks from 2-0 down against England’s U-15 number two and five ranked players, Tin Tin Ho and Vicky Smith, whilst Megan also claimed notable scalps against Rachel Farquhar (England U-19, 15th seed) and Vicky Smith.
Angharad, who finished top of the player averages had notable wins against Rachel Farquhar and second-ranked Ireland U-19 Sara Dolan.