BHW Solicitors made its debut in HSBC’s table tennis competition on 7th June at the HSBC building on Penman Way, Grove Park, Leicester.
The event is now in its 8th year of running, and is superbly organised featuring 4 table tennis tables and an array of spectator seating. The host Graham Brown of HSBC was welcoming and showed us to our table straight away. The competition format for each fixture involved 9 matches – 8 singles and one doubles game. The format requires each team to feature at least 4 players and our representatives were Ed Nurse, Alex Clifton, Robert Flannagan, Farhaan Pathan and Brandon Pickard.
The competition had been split into two group stages with BHW facing a variety of local law and accountancy firms. First up was Spearing Waite. Having drawn a close and competitive 4-4 in the singles matches, a victory in the doubles gave us a win from our first match in the tournament.
In the following fixture we faced Macintyre Hudson. Losing 6-3 was disappointing, although this was overcome by the great sportsmanship and fun experienced throughout the first round of the event.
The evening was not yet over and as the late fixture competitors began to arrive for their games, a feast of pizzas were delivered offering yet another opportunity to socialise and network amongst a variety of local professionals.
Our second week of fixtures on 13th June pitted us against Magma Chartered Accountants and Grant Thornton. Both teams were in superb form having lost only 4 games between them the week before.
We played well against Magma, displaying some superb rallies and shots for our lone spectator and Practice Manager Claire Bell. This was not enough however as Magma came away with a 9-0 clean sweep. Grant Thornton were again a skilful and experienced team beating us in all the singles matches. Although, in what is becoming typical BHW fashion, we gained a valuable point from the doubles game with Robert and Farhaan stepping up to grind out a hard-fought victory in a very entertaining final game of the night.
Raffle tickets are now available to guess the weight of a teddy bear, with an evening escape to Ragdale Hall Spa as the prize. All proceeds raised at the tournament will be going towards Loros, the local hospice caring for thousands of people from around Leicestershire every year.