Six teams will battle it out at the Draycott & Long Eaton Table Tennis Centre in Derbyshire over the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 23rd and 24th May, for two places in next year’s British League Premier Division.

If the competition is as fiercely fought as it was last year, then the matches should be very exciting indeed. The three teams who were crowned Champions in their respective Divisions were: Derwent in Division One North, Urban Progress in Division One South and Sycamore in Division One South and Midlands. These will undoubtedly be amongst the teams to watch out for, but don’t write off the three other sides either.

Division One South runners-up Brighton cannot be discounted. They have real depth in their team with the fast-improving Cadets Zak Zilesnick and Reece Tan in the numbers three and four positions. Similarly, you can’t discount Elgre Nottingham either. They may have finished a massive ten points behind an outstanding Sycamore side of Kevin Dolder, Sam Perry, Adam Frost, Jason Ramage, Sean Cullen and Danny Lowe but their team has a nice blend of experience and youthful promise. The Elgre squad of Chris Rogers, Lee Neil, Stewart Mudie, Mark Green, David Arrowsmith and Emma Vickers will relish the prospect of going into this weekend as under-dogs.

Barrow’s fortunes will depend to a great extent whether Scottish number one Gavin Rumgay is available. However, this looks extremely doubtful because of the clash with the Commonwealth Championships in Glasgow. However, the hard-hitting and improving brothers Jonathan and Scott Crawford will still be a force to be reckoned with and with former English number one Denis Neale in their squad, as well as England no. 36 Bradley Evans no one will take them too lightly.

Likely squads are as follows:
Derwent: Simon Noutch, Mark Simpson, Stephen Horsfield, Richard Smith, Trevor Williams, Richard Moss.
Barrow: Gavin Rumgay, Bradley Evans, Jonathan Crawford, Scott Crawford, Denis Neale, Tristran Swan, Steve Dixon.
Urban Progress: Tibor Kadar, William Maybanks, Costas Papantoniou, Laszlo Varga, Zoltan Hosszu.
Brighton: Alexander Ioannou, Dov Katz, Jack Boult, Zak Zilesnick, Reece Tan.
Sycamore: Kevin Dolder, Sam Perry, Adam Frost, Jason Ramage, Sean Cullen, Danny Lowe.
Elgre Nottingham: Chris Rogers, Lee Neil, Stewart Mudie, Mark Green, David Arrowsmith, Emma Vickers.

Click here to see the British League Play-Off results.