Senior National Table Tennis Championships 2019
For the fourth consecutive year, I was fortunate to qualify for the Senior National Table Tennis Championships which took place at the David Ross Sports Village at the University of Nottingham. The event took place from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd March.
In the Women’s singles, I played in a group of three. My first match was against Gracie Edwards and I played really positively winning 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 11-7). A few hours later, I played my second match against England under 18 ranked number 3 Darcie Proud from Lincolnshire. Unfortunately I lost the match 1-3 (7-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-13), with games 3 and 4 being very close, to finish the group in second place. Despite losing my second group match, I was pleased with my performance and how close I was to such a top England junior player.
In the mixed doubles, I was playing with Graeme Barella from Northumberland. It was the first time we had played together; and we faced top England Juniors Joe Cope and Darcie Proud in the first round, who on this occasion were a stronger combination.
In the women’s doubles, I was playing alongside Evie Collier from Nottingham, the same partner from last year. In the first round (last 16) we beat Lisa Rinnhofer (who also plays at the same local club in Shirley) and Georgia Harris (from Staffordshire) 3-0 in a straight forward match, progressing to the quarter finals. In the quarter finals we faced number 1 seeds Tin-Tin Ho and Maria Tsaptsinos who beat Evie and I, 11-9, 11-2, 11-7. We did not disgrace ourselves especially in games 1 and 3; and Ho and Tsaptsinos went onto win the overall doubles title.
The overall experience of playing in the Senior National Championships was enjoyable and memorable. Despite being the oldest female competitor by nearly a decade, I was very proud to have participated in the most prestigious National event in the table tennis year. I was mixing amongst Commonwealth Champions and Medallists, Paralympian Champions; and many competitors who train and play full time.
(Photo alongside Lisa Rinnhofer who also plays at the same local club in Shirley).