Two years unbeaten - and Chichester aces start new season on top too

Table tennis action at the University of Chichester / Picture by Olivia Ellis

The University of Chichester men's table tennis team got the new season under way with a narrow victory over Sussex.

Rich Pelc, Tom Beales, Cameron Harvey and Josh Spence edged past their rivals 9-8. Pelc, part of a team that won back-to-back league and cup doubles in the past two undefeated campaigns, was voted fresher of the year at the SU Sports Awards in 2017 and helped the team to the Premier South play-offs in 2018.

Pelc said: “A lot of our top players from last year have graduated but we’ll see how our freshers get on. My first season here was a dream and couldn’t have gone any better for me and my team – winning the league, winning the cup and getting fresher of the year.

“We won the league in my second year but couldn’t get promotion to the prem.

“There’s some really tough teams in that division. I’m not sure how we’ve gone two seasons unbeaten in the league! We won a couple of close ones 9-8 thanks to a really good team spirit.”

Elsewhere in racquet sports, the men’s tennis team kept up their unbeaten start with a 12-0 win at home to Reading while the men’s badminton side lost 7-1 to Brunel and Chi’s women’s badminton team suffered a 5-3 defeat at Surrey.

Chi’s men’s football first team returned to winning ways beating UCL 6-1. The twos drew for the second week running, 3-3 with Brighton. The third team lost 2-1 to Sussex ones and the fours were beaten 4-0 by Royal Holloway’s first team.

Premier South champions Hertfordshire got the better of women’s football ones but the women’s football second team shared the spoils with Surrey in a 2-2 draw.

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