DESPITE a recurring knee injury, Mike Johns lifted the veterans singles table tennis title at Great Yarmouth in the East Anglish GP at Potters Leisure Resort on Sunday.

The 51-year-old from Hastings won five matches before overpowering Yorkshire player Bill Grant 21-17, 21-15.

After his sixth victory on the veteran GP circuit, Johns said: "I shall be having specialist treatment on my knee at a sports injury specialist clinic in Eastbourne this week, hoping to be fit for this weekend's big event, the British Veterans League finals, also at Potters."

Sussex will be fielding two premier veteran teams in Norfolk this weekend.

Larkhall, bidding for their third title, will have Richard Yule (Hastings) the former Scottish International at No. 1, Johns at No. 2 and Mike Short (Devon) at No. 3.

Sheila King (Hastings) will be leading the Dagenham Ladies team that will include the English No. 2 Lesley Radford and the No. 3 Helen Shields. Dagenham are in second spot chasing their first premier crown.

Sally Weston lifted the Crawley women's title for the 11th time with a final victory 21-11, 21-12 over Nina Williams.

Ritchie Venner landed his seventh crown, defeating Jeremy Williams (Worthing) in the final 21-4, 21-11.

After a clash of dates on April 11 for both the Brighton and Worthing championships, Worthing have now moved to April 18 to avoid a situation where around 20 players appear in both leagues, allowing all to participate in both tournaments.

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