ASHLEY WILLETTS is the new Hampshire junior table tennis champion following the highest quality competition in recent memory.

A member of the Fareham-based Generation II squad in the Southampton League, Willetts has improved considerably in recent months after spending time in Taiwan training with former international player Fei Ming Tong.

Willetts was victorious over Matt Ware in a four-game final. Ware, from Southampton, had earlier beaten the vastly-improving Winchester 13-year-old Garth Kinlocke in a five-set thriller, while Willetts disposed of Portsmouth's Mike Gibbs in straight sets. He then went on to make it a double when he teamed up with Sam Moon to take the under-18 doubles title from Kinlocke and Dom Cheeseman.

The under-15 final saw another clash between Ware and Kinlocke, with the Portchester player again victorious, this time in straight sets.

Kinlocke and Cheeseman did have some joy, however, when they won the under-15 doubles crown against Ware and Ruihao Zhang.

Southampton's Jenny Dobson underlined her promise by adding the junior girls' singles to the county women's title she won recently with a 3-0 beating of Gosport's Annabelle Morle.

Morle was victorious, though, in the under-15 event with a comfortable win in the final against Southampton's Sarah Warwick.

The under-13 boys' singles was won by Lewis Creighton, who beat Kieran Wells, while Becky House took the girls' title ahead of Lauren Owen.

The junior county team is the strongest it has been for more than a decade and the squad of Willetts, Kinlocke, Gibbs, Ware, David McBeath, Dobson and Morle has opened the season with successive victories.

The senior county team, however, has taken the unfortunate decision to pull out of this year's national championships due to problems with availability and a shortage of women players.