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Cream of Kent's table tennis players set for battle

A NUMBER of close encounters are expected at the Kent Senior and Junior Closed Table Tennis Championships being held at Canterbury High School this weekend.

The men's singles has been weakened with the absence through work of reigning champion Justin Goodall (Thanet) and past champion Mark Brown (Tunbridge Wells) as well as junior international Dominic Hall (Maidstone) who is competing in the National Junior Masters at Slough.

The spotlight will once again fall on many times past champion, Bromley's Joe Kennedy who recently won the Nation 040's title and Thanet's up and coming star, Stephen Beerling, who has spent the past year playing and training full time in France.

Medway's ex-junior and senior international Christian Thompson, who these days only plays local league, is seeded at No 3 and could cause a real upset, but it is unlikely that anybody outside these three can land the title.

Gemma Yarnley (Folkestone), who won the Kent junior under-12, under-14 and under-17 titles last season, has made a spectacular climb up the national rankings this year and has been given the top seeding in the women's singles ahead of Tunbridge Wells Angie Bristow. Medway's reigning champion Jackie Mersh and Canterbury's Tina Stewart are the third and fourth seeds.

Medway's John Harley and Ashford's William Harrington are the top seed for the junior boys singles on the Sunday.

Gemma Yarnley, who trains regularly with the England squad, will be the firm favourite for the junior girls' singles with opposition coming from Hazel Clucas (Tunbridge Wells), Anusha Seneviratne (Ashford) and Medway's Jodie Stringer.

The Kent Senior Championships is on Saturday starting at 9am with the main finals scheduled for 3.30pm. The Junior events are on Sunday also starting at 9am again with the main finals scheduled between 3pm and 3.30pm.

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