Table Tennis Times 13 Winter 2018 European Championships 2018
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Table Tennis Times A quarterly, independent, magazine from the world of English Table Tennis Issue 13 Editorial Winter 2018 As 2018 draws to a close we hope you have a happy and peaceful Christmas and that the festive season leaves you with a little time to read our latest magazine. Our guest contribution is the first of a series from the pen of Ken & Karenza Mathews, this time detailing how they began their careers in Table Tennis. It makes a fascinating and enjoyable read which we are sure you will enjoy. We cannot wait for their further recollections and memories. You will recall that in the last issue Peter Charters wrote a very erudite piece on Junior Table Tennis and we have had several positive comments on this. Thanks once again Peter. There was an interesting article in The Boys’ Brigade Heritage Magazine, which we reproduce with their permission, which refers to the formation of their internal Table Tennis Competition and the fact that Diane Rowe presented the prizes. When the author, John Pritchard, was researching his article he contacted this magazine to verify his facts. Why? Because Diane is his sister – small world once again! It must be something in the genes to have brother and sister involved in producing magazines in their respective fields of interest. Once again I have to say that our In Memoriam section records the loss of too many great servants of our sport:- Derek Tremayne, Alan Shepherd, Cyril Villiers, Les Greswell, and John Heaton have all passed. Their memory lives on in all of us. Diane’s research on “What was Happening” this time recalls 1953 – England won the Swaythling Cup – nothing more to be said! Diane’s research, but this time more modern, elicited a fantastic quote from Charlotte Bardsley, who said that her proudest moment in Table Tennis came when she was awarded the Swaythling Club Fair Play Trophy at last year’s National Championships. A remarkable sentiment from a young lady with a bright future. Best wishes Harvey Webb Diane Webb ETTA Honorary Life Member ETTA Vice-President 1 Table Tennis Times 13 Winter 2018 European Championships 2018 This year the individual events in the European Championships commenced on Tuesday, 18th September 2018 in Alicante, Spain where the World Veterans Championships were held in 2016. A wonderful location. The entry criteria were changed this season with the ETTU inviting players based on rankings - plus a few wild cards thrown in the mix. Previously, countries nominated the players they wished to represent them. The change did ensure the best players in Europe participated. However, it also meant that a country could not send a younger, less experienced player, perhaps lower down the ranking list who would benefit from the experience. Whether the change is beneficial or not and whether a country should be able to make the decision as to whom represents them is a matter open for debate. In the Men’s Singles England had three players, Liam Pitchford who was seeded at number 10, plus Paul Drinkhall and Sam Walker. Tin-Tin Ho was an automatic entrant in the Women’s Singles and Maria Tsaptsinos received a wild card entry. The Men’s Doubles saw Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford team up as Number 6 seeds whilst Sam Walker was paired with Tobias Rasmussen of Denmark. In the Women’s Doubles Tin-Tin Ho partnered Charlotte Carey of Wales whilst Maria Tsaptsinos played with Turkey’s Betul Nur Kahraman and in the Mixed Doubles Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho were seeded at Number 9 whilst Paul Drinkhall paired up with Charlotte Carey. The Championships started with groups in the singles events. Sam Walker won his group and so went through to the Preliminary Rounds where he was knocked out in the Round of 64. Paul Drinkhall finished second in his group. The number of entrants meant that not all players who were group runners-up went through to the Preliminary Rounds. It was pot luck as to whether players went through or not. Names were drawn to decide who went into the preliminaries. Unfortunately, Paul Drinkhall’s name wasn’t drawn so he was out of the event. It seems a strange way to decide whether a player proceeded or not by the luck of the draw and not by winning. As Liam Pitchford was seeded he went straight through to the knock-out rounds and had a good run before he faced Timo Boll in the last 16 and Respect from Timo Boll for Liam Pitchford. Timo, the eventual winner and for the seventh time, proved a step too Photo courtesy of the ITTF. far. In the Women’s Singles both Tin-Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos got through their groups. Tin-Tin Ho proceeded to the last 32 before being defeated whilst Maria went out in Preliminary Round 1. The Women’s Doubles also saw the two English ladies leave the competition at the Preliminary stage, Tin-Tin with Charlotte Carey of Wales and Maria with Betul Nur Kahraman of Turkey. The men fared much better with the seeded Englishmen of Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford reaching the Round of 16 whilst Sam Walker with his Danish partner, Tobias Rasmussen, reached the Quarter-finals. A considerable achievement when you consider the last English players to reach this stage were Desmond Douglas and Alan Cooke in 1990. It seems Sam is becoming something of a doubles specialist as this follows Tobias Rasmussen and Sam Walker. Photo courtesy of the ITTF. 2 Table Tennis Times 13 Winter 2018 on from his excellent performance when he reached the Quarter-finals of the World Championships in 2017 with David McBeath. Each country was allowed a maximum of two players in the Mixed Doubles and as could be expected the frequent partnership of Liam Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho achieved the best results before being knocked out in the Round of 16. Paul Drinkhall with Charlotte Carey got as far as the Round of 32, this was the first time they had played together so it could be considered a fair result. Similarly, Maria Tsaptsinos, also partnering a Welsh player, Callum Evans, could not have been expected to reach much above the 2nd Preliminary Round match where they were defeated. The pairings with Welsh players would appear to have the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in mind where a combined Great Britain Team rather than an England Callum Evans and Maria Tsaptsinos. Team will participate. Photo courtesy of the ITTF. Overall, a mixed set of results and fortunes for the English squad. It will be interesting to see what feedback there is on the new system of allocating places at this tournament. The final results were: Men’s Singles: Timo Boll (Ger) beat Ovidiu Ionescu (Rou) Women’s Singles: Li Qian (Pol) beat Margaryta Pesotska (Ukr) Singles Champions: Timo Boll and Li Qian. Photo courtesy of the ITTF. Men’s Doubles: Daniel Habesohn and Robert Gardos (Aut) beat Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson (Swe) Women’s Doubles: Nina Mittleham and Kristin Lang (Ger) beat Sofia Polcanova (Aut) and Yana Noskova (Rus) Mixed Doubles: Ruwen Filus and Ying Han (Ger) beat Stefan Fegerl and Sofia Polcanova (Aut) Daniel Habesohn and Robert Gardos Ruwen Filus and Ying Han Kristin Lang and Nina Mittleham All photo courtesy of the ITTF It was certainly an interesting tournament with many surprises and one where experience won over youth. Only one winner was younger than 30 years of age with Robert Gardos the oldest at 39 followed closely by Timo Boll at 37. 3 Table Tennis Times 13 Winter 2018 Events Update Grand Prix Crawley Grand Prix The first of the TTE Grand Prix tournaments took place at K2 in Crawley over the weekend of 22nd/23rd September 2018.There was a good entry with 156 men and 39 women competing for the various events over the two days. Top of the seedings in the Men’s Open Singles event was the Chinese player, Jiawang Song, and he justified his position by winning the title with England’s David McBeath in Runners-up spot. The Women’s Open Singles title also went according to seeding when former England international, Hannah Hicks, defeated the young Welsh international, Anna Hursey, in the final. Hannah Hicks. The new format for the Grand Prix this season meant both winners took Jiawang Song. By Diane Webb. home £500.00 whilst the Runners-up received £250.00 and the Semi- By Diane Webb. finalists £100.00. The larger prize fund for each tournament does mean, however, there is no end of season winnings. It will be interesting to see how this change will affect the number and type of entries. The number of Grand Prix has also been reduced this season from eight to five and the Satellite Grand Prix are down to two from three. Preston Grand Prix The Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre was the venue for the second Grand Prix of the season in Preston on 3rd and 4th November 2018 and there was certainly a different mix of players compared to previous seasons. The Men’s Number 1 seed was again Jiawang Song and he took the honours in both the Men’s Open and U21 Men’s Singles with a win over Tian Yuan Liu in the main event and against Sing Wong in the U21s. In the Women’s Open, Anna Hursey, was victorious defeating Haoyu Liu in the Semi-final before her win against Dirqui Yang of China in the final. Dirqui Yang reached the final courtesy of her Semi-final win against Hui Tay.