Oakbank Table Tennis Club member Mary Fuller picked up invaluable experience by competing in the English National Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.
The 15-year-old Oakbank School pupil entered the women's singles and reached the quarter-finals.
The teenager won her group and then defeated England No 20 Caroline Hallowes 3-1 to reach the last ngiht.
Fuller, the youngest quarter-finalist in the women's singles, then faced top seed and England No 1 Kelly Sibley from Warwickshire.
Here, hard work was not enough for Fuller and she went down 11-4, 11-8, 11-3, 11-7 to the eventual event winner.
Sibley, runner-up in 2007, was involved in a classic final against second seed Joanna Parker, taking it 11-9, 8-11, 11-4, 11-2, 11-7.
"This was another small step in the right direction," said Fuller's coach Hans Soova of her experience in this tournament.
In February, his protege had won two junior titles in a tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden.
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