THE 2024/25 North Cornwall Table Tennis League season gets underway this week with champions North Hill A looking to defend their Division One crown.

They edged out back-to-back winners Bridgerule A to take the title for the first time in several years, and along with Budehaven A will hope to be in the mix come the spring.

North Hill A – who name an unchanged squad of Shirley Luckhurst, Mike Briggs, Iain Oxenham and Martin Hynes; start with a home clash against Stratton – last year known as Budehaven C – on on Thursday night, while Bridgerule opened the season on Monday against North Hill B.

Bridgerule are unchanged with David Streak, Peter Freeburn and captain David Stone in place, although Helen Johns is also set to feature and could make the difference.

Budehaven A have a new look about them before Thursday night’s opener at Crackington A.

Long-time captain Dave Salisbury has stepped down to run the B side, with Aleks Worth, who is also the captain, moving up to join David Sillifant and Alistair Prades, the latter available to play the majority of the season. Richard Ryan has agreed to be the reserve having starred for Altarnun B in Division Two.

Salisbury is joined by David Ewen, Nathan Jukes and Jeremy Skelton in a strong looking four for Budehaven B who will hope to be fourth at worst, while Crackington A, who were comfortably bottom last season but given a reprieve, have seen Ross Paynter take charge in place of Keiron Chatterjea. Ross Wilmshurst is the other regular player.

Stratton’s trio is the same as last term in the shape of Anthony Ward, Ian Westaway and the impressive Elyot Burnett, while North Hill B are also unchanged with the quartet of captain Mike Wood, Pete Frier, Jim Rickwood and when available, Taurainashe Manonge.

The seven-team league will see teams play each other twice as well as the Division One Knockout Cup which like last season is set to be a doubles format.

The Team Handicap Knockout, which is for sides in all three divisions, is once again on the calendar.

Division Two sees eight teams who will also face off twice as well as in the Knockout Cup.

North Hill C won the division but have a new-look as Harry Roberts has moved away and Stephen Parsons and Chris Baverstock have joined the reformed Blisland side which will be captained by the latter.

Blisland’s third player is former Crackington B man, Simon Patterson.

Captain Trevor Luckhurst has Karen Horrell returning to the game while Ryan Taylor continues to get better every week.

Bridgerule B should do well with the addition of Barry Stearman and Julia Cornish to the regular trio of Alan Quilter, Shaun Collins and Jay Brewer, while Crackington B have an eight-player squad registered.

Altarnun A have the same trio of Geoff Hale, David Jones and Jamie Sims, while the B team, who have lost Richard Ryan, name newcomer Martin Ellis as his replacement to join Paul Burden and David Thorpe.

Robin Worden should win the majority of his matches in Division Two and leads Budehaven C who again have Ezra Jukes and Keith McGarry, while a young D team has been assembled which includes Ben Shute, Louis Konowalik and David Partridge.

A revamped Division Three starts in the coming weeks and will be split into two sections, ‘North’ and ‘South’, with each having five teams. The winners will face off in a final later in the year.

As usual, all fixtures, results, tables, player averages and more are available on the league website at www.tabletennis365.com/northcornwall