HE MIGHT only be 10 years old, but Joe Smith is a county champion.

The table tennis ace has only been playing the sport for seven months but entered the Wiltshire Closed Table Tennis Championships at Dauntsey’s School, West Lavington on Sunday.

And playing in the under 13 singles category, the Sanford Link player charged into the final where he defeated Tom Burke 11-9, 11-8, 11-4.

Smith is coached by Ernie Howell at Sanford and is taught tactics by Lee Bowen, an experienced club player.

“He was over the moon and I’m chuffed for him,” said Bowen.

More than 70 players entered the tournament as a whole, the biggest turnout in a number of years, and more than 200 junior and senior matches were played.

Wiltshire county senior team player Andrew Hodges collected his first men’s singles title after beating Swindon veteran Ray Powell in the final.

Powell had come through a straight sets victory over Ben Avery (Swindon) in the semis and tight four-set match against a vocal Thomas Jeffcott (Swindon) in the quarters.

The early stages of the final were dominated by Powell, as he took the first set 11-9 and held three set points in the second, but Hodges squeezed through to square the match at 1-1.

The next two sets were shared and the final set saw Powell save one match point before hitting a forehand long to hand Hodges the title.

After losing out to Swindon’s Eddie Roofe in the veterans’ singles final, Powell partly made up for it by linking up with Glen Freeman to overcome another Swindon pair, Pete Epps and Dino Ciorra, in the veterans’ doubles final.

The mixed doubles title went to the Swindon/Devizes combination of Peter Epps and Julie Dean, who defeated top seeds Di Lu and Ian Packford (West Wilts).

Elsewhere, Sanford player Seb Wolsoncroft-Dodds made the final of the under 18 boys’ competition, where he was defeated by county teammate Alex Maclachlan in four sets.

The Sanford pairing of Thomas Penfold and Patrick Seed lost to brothers Lee and Jamie Phillips in the under 18s boys doubles.