Table Tennis, with Bob Brown
LESTER Bertie, the former Warwickshire No.1, will spearhead a significant Hamstead challenge for the 2008/9 Birmingham Premier League title.
Bertie is amongst a plethora of top class players who are to compete in the competition, that will be at its strongest for many seasons.
Bertie will team up with his brother Steve, the Birmingham champion, who has left current champions Smiths Wood Bribar, with Pete Waite, Andrew Dixon and John Collymore also in the squad.
Smiths Wood will be looking to England ranked cadet Jack Williamson to fill the Bertie void, although Scott Prime, Michael Brown and Chris Leach form a formidable trio of players, along with the youngster.
Colebridge Aces are led by the city’s top player in Ian Ferguson, with Edward Lynn, Mohammad Khalid, Sasha Grokhotov and Chris Burgess, in support.
Hamstead B have Steve Robinson and Lindon Douglas in their line-up in Division One and with Barry Barrett, Paul Warrilow, John Patel and Chris Tarr in support, this must form arguably the strongest ever team in this section.
The association are delighted that there is an increase of nine teams to 67, enabling the competition to have seven divisions for the first time in five years.
Leamington has been considered to be the top league in the area for the past few seasons, but with the sudden influx of top class players, the Birmingham League can now rightly claim back their top spot they held for so long.
