by Paul Stimpson, Table Tennis Senior Communications Officer

The character owes its name to English Cadet player Peter Smallcombe; the teenager from Jarrow in the north of England spotted a competition on the Championship’s Instagram page last year and suggested the Halmoo tag, based on the host venue of Halmstad and the fact the mascot is a moose character.

His suggestion was announced as the winner and Halmoo was born He has been entertaining spectators at the event this week. Peter was sent a mini toy version of Halmoo as a prize.

“I saw the competition on my Instagram feed and thought, the competition is in Halmstad and it’s a moose, so I came up with Halmoo. The next thing I saw was it was published online that I won it. It was good to win. The small mascot is in my room at home and I’ve been keeping up with how the competition’s going.” Peter Smallcombe

Peter was competing at the PG Mutual English Cadet and Junior National Championships last weekend, where he reached the Cadet Boys’ Doubles quarter-finals alongside Callum McRae, losing to top seeds and eventual champions Amirul Hussain and Jamie Liu.

He was beaten in seven games by Felix Thomis in the last 16 of the Cadet Boys’ Singles.