ANDOVER table tennis player Jeremy Wilson became the first local player to lift the coveted Hampshire senior championship crown on Sunday.

The 24-year-old from Hillbury Avenue was the only player from Andover lining up with 35 top players in the county at the annual event at Redbridge School in Southampton.

Wilson breezed into the quarter-finals where he was matched against unseeded Southampton University player David Falls.

After a slow start and a game down, Wilson fought back to win a close battle 15-21, 21-15, 21-18. In the semi-finals Wilson, who plays for the Sussex-based Horsham team in division one of the British League and also for Hannington in the Basingstoke League along with other local stars Malcolm Cummins and Tony Brown, took on former county champion Graham Toole from Portsmouth.

In the first game Toole, who has won the county title on no less than seven occasions, had no answer to Wilson's blistering all-out attacks as a series of thundering forehands saw the Andover player to a 21-7 victory in the first game. The second leg was a closer affair with Wilson emerging a triumphant 21-18 victor, having trailed 14-8 at one stage.

In the final the former John Hanson School pupil played British League team-mate and No 1 see Rhamesh Bhalla from Aldersthot.

After a tight first game Wilson took control with his powerful forehand to win in straight games 21-18, 21-13 to add the senior title to the junior (under-17s) and intermediate (under-23s) tournaments he won in 1992 and 1997 County officials confirmed afterwards that Wilson is the first player in Hampshire table tennis history to achieve that coveted treble.

A delighted Wilson, a trainee journalist, said afterwards: "It was about time I won this competition as I have come close on a couple of times. I would like to thank Ken Giles who taught me to play when I was younger and also John Clarke who has helped me a lot in the last few years."