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News Archive:
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12th Oct 2008
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Abbie makes waves in Liverpool
Draycott’s rising star Abbie Milwain enjoyed a successful weekend at the
City of Liverpool Junior 4* event as she reached the quarter-final of the
Cadet Girls competition and was runner up of the Cadet Girls Band 1
competition.
In
the Band 1 Cadet event on the Saturday, Abbie won her group by defeating,
England
no.15,
Bethany
March (3-0), Emily Bolton (3-0) and
Ireland’s
Ashley Givan (3-2). In the last 8, Abbie disposed of Georgina Barnes 3-1
to set up an intriguing semi-final contest with the Welsh no.1 cadet and
no.8 senior, Megan Phillips.
Abbie lost the opening game 10-12 and had to work hard to avoid falling 2
ends behind as she edged a second deuce game, 12-10. This close 2nd end
proved to be the turning point as Abbie ran away with the 3rd and 4th ends
with comparative ease. She completed the confidence-boosting victory 11-7,
11-7.
Chloe Whyte, ranked 2 places ahead of Abbie in the U15 standings at no.6,
awaited in the final. Although the Draycott youngster was able to take the
early initiative to claim the opening end 11-5, she was unable to keep her
momentum and lost the next 3 games 10-12, 6-11 and 9-11.
Following her encouraging runner-up performance in the banded event, Abbie
was eager to achieve a similar result in the un-graded Cadet Girls
tournament. Despite losing to Megan Phillips’ sister, Angharad, the group
stage proved no obstacle as Abbie completed impressive straight-game wins
over Emily Ross, Estelle Purkis and
England
no.9, Evangeline Collier.
In
the last 16, Abbie faced a tougher task against
England
no.2 and the competition’s top seed, Lucy Davidson. It looked bleak for
Miss Milwain when Davidson took a 2-1 lead, but Abbie raised her game to
seal an outstanding 3-2 fight back. Unfortunately, in the quarter-final
stage, Abbie ran into the in-form Chloe Whyte again. The 3-1 score from
their earlier meeting was repeated and Chloe advanced all the way to the
final before losing out to Yolanda King.
Abbie returned the following day to compete in the Junior Girls events,
but didn’t fare as well in the U18 category. After a couple of narrow
defeats, she fell at the group stage of the banded competition.
In
spite of a heavy defeat to no.3 Junior (and top seed), Karina Leferve,
Abbie overcame
England
no.17, Kirsty Wilson, in a gripping 3-2 encounter to advance from her
group in the un-banded event. Abbie then faced
England
no.14, Haylee Potts, in the second round and put in a heartening display
before going down narrowly, 2-3.
Despite falling short of winning the Cadet titles, Abbie will be hopeful
that her solid showings will be reflected in the national rankings,
enabling her to improve upon her current positions of 8th in the Cadets
and 25th in the Juniors.
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30th Sept 2008
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Senior British League at Draycott was
“Best ever”
As I’m a member of the
Draycott & Long Eaton Table Tennis Club, you might think I’m being
somewhat biased, conceited and delusional with a headline like that. But
in fact, those words came from Tony Meredith who has been refereeing and
coordinating British League events around the
UK
for the last 6 years. When he praises your organisation and facilities,
you have to start taking it seriously.
How times have
changed. It wasn’t so many years ago that founder members, Roy & Jon
Bayliss, desperate for somewhere to play, stumbled upon a dilapidated,
drafty, poorly-lit old boxing hall. The astonishing transformation into a
state of the art dual-hall centre that is now one of the most prestigious
table tennis venues in the country would not have been possible without
the support of the Draycott Parish Council, Sport England and the hard
work of the club’s dedicated volunteers.
It’s a sign of how far
the Draycott club and centre have come that on the 20/21 September they
were proud hosts of a Senior British League weekend event for the first
time in the club’s history. Teams from Division 1 (North) and Division 2
(North) were in action on both days, meaning that 16 teams and upwards of
64 players were in attendance.
The Draycott club
coped admirably, led from the front by Brian Savage, Terrie Savage, Graham
Gobey and Malcolm Allsop. Everything went like clockwork and there were no
problems with any aspects of timing, organisation or catering, which
prompted Tony Meredith and his assistant Shane Bradley to express their
satisfaction with the venue and the handling of the meeting.
They weren’t the only
ones to find the Draycott centre to their liking, as players, officials
and visitors alike were pleasantly surprised by the levels of care and
professionalism afforded them. From the cleanliness of the facilities to
the addition of wall-mounted scoreboards and from the ad hoc electronic
admin support to the hot food that was served all day, the efforts of
Draycott’s volunteers were met with approval. Indeed, the only complaint
was about the length of the queue for Terrie Savage’s bacon sandwiches!
The only thing that
could have made the weekend better from a localised point of view would
have been a few more Draycott-based players taking part in the event.
Top-10 junior girl, Caroline Hallows, representing Halton in Division 1,
was the only player competing who also plays for a Long Eaton & Draycott
team. Unfortunately for Caroline, Halton lost their Saturday fixtures
against Drumchapel Glasgow and Derwent before bouncing back to beat
Fastbats 6-2 on Sunday morning. Finally, Halton were edge out 3-5 by
Rotherham
in an intriguing and sometimes prickly affair, leaving them in 6th
place.
Derwent look to be
strong candidates for promotion to the Premier Division after winning all
of their matches with consummate ease, although Grantham are only a point
behind after four matches.
An interested
spectator of Division 2 was England No.1, Paul Drinkhall. He kept a keen
eye on the progress of his brother, Bryn, who played a starring role for
Northfield.
Bryn Drinkhall won all 8 of his singles matches without losing an end.
Northfield are sitting pretty at the top of the table on 8 points while
Murrayfield and Shffield occupy 2nd & 3rd
respectively.
After such a
successful British League debut, the Draycott & Long Eaton Table Tennis
Club is looking forward to the challenge of hosting similar events in the
near future.
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28th Sept 2008
Women’s British League
The Draycott & Long Eaton women’s team has competed
in the first weekend of the Women’s British League held at Hinckley. Draycott were without the services of the England No.1
Junior Emma Vickers who has signed to play for Ljungsbro in the Swedish Women’s
Elite Division which makes her exempt from playing in the Women’s British
League.
However, Draycott
still fielded a strong team including 2007 National Junior Champion Melanie
Farquhar, former England No.3 Junior Caroline
Hallows and the team was captained by 7 times Derbyshire Ladies Champion
– Jane Vickers.
The team played extremely well in all five of
their matches winning two matches - against Peniel
A and Poole ladies, losing one against
the league leaders Astor ladies and gaining two draws against DHS
Progress and Irish Ladies. This sees the team lying in a comfortable 3rd
place in the league table. Caroline Hallows was the top performer winning
7/10 matches with Jane Vickers winning 5 /10 and Melanie Farquhar winning 4/10
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Team
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Won
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Drawn
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Lost
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Games For
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Games Against
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Ends For
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Ends Against
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Points
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Astor Ladies
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4
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1
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0
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23
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7
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74
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35
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9
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Team Peniel A
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3
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1
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1
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19
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11
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67
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43
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7
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Draycott & Long Eaton
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2
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2
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1
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16
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14
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58
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55
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6
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Irish Ladies
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2
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1
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2
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12
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18
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48
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64
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5
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Poole Ladies
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1
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0
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4
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11
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19
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44
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65
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2
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DHS Greenhouse Progress
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0
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1
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4
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9
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21
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40
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69
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1
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Two
other Draycott ladies were in action over the
weekend for teams in Division 3 of the Women’s British League. Helen Rainford represented East Midlands Ladies team while Abbie Milwain, England No.7
cadet, made her British League debut for Uxbridge.
Helen
had a disappointing couple of days, as her team won only 1 of its
fixtures to stand in 5th place after 5 matches. But Abbie played brilliantly to record 7 wins from her 10
matches, including a superb 3-2 victory over Helen (11-9 in the 5th
end). Uxbridge sit 2nd in the table behind the formidable Drumchapel Glasgow team.
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28th Sept 2008
2008 Derby City Sports Awards
Emma
Vickers has won the Derby City Sports Awards – Junior Sportswomen of the
Year.
The ceremony
took place at Pride Park Stadium – home of Derby County Football Club in
front of over 300 invited guests. The award was in recognition of Emma’s
achievements during last season which saw her win the National Junior
Girls Singles title along with the UK School Games Individual Gold and
also be crowned National Under 19 Schools champion. This is the second
time Emma has scooped the Award having been a previous winner in 2005.
Emma
was also nominated for the Senior Sportswomen of the Year having represented
England in the World Team Championships in China but this was awarded to Badminton International Donna
Kellogg who had recently returned from the Beijing Olympic Games.
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28th Sept 2008
Draycott v. Sycamore Over 50’s Challenge
The
Draycott & Long Eaton Table Tennis Club was
proud to host the inaugural friendly challenge match between its over-50
players and those of Sycamore Table Tennis Club in Nottingham.
Each
club provided 5 teams of two players. Match-ups were decided randomly,
with pairings drawn from a hat and scoring was done in a “Ryder Cup”
fashion as each rubber added a point towards the totals of each club.
Jonathan Maynard and Alan Upton got the host team off to a strong start against
Paul Bloomer and Geoff Kirk, winning all 5 matches. Alan won both his
singles contests in 3 straight games while John only conceded one. The
doubles was a tighter affair as the Sycamore pair lost narrowly in the
opening two games before claiming the 3rd. Fortunately Draycott hit back to win the 4th 11-3.
Another
5 points were added to the Draycott’s effort by
the classy pairing of Malcolm
Barlow and Betty Godfrey.
Malcolm earned a hard-fought win 3-1 win over Geoff Ellis before easing
to a straight set win over Janet Thomas. Betty made serene progress
through her singles contests…winning each 3-0 and with Malcolm and Betty
in such good form, it came as no surprise that they also prevailed in the
doubles.
Rod Winfield and Graham Gobey fought bravely against
a strong Sycamore twosome of Colin Cheetham and
Pat Silcock but were sadly unable to claim a
win from their 5 matches. Both Draycott players
took a game off Pat (Rod winning an epic 3rd game 17-15),
while Graham also gave Colin a scare by winning the 2nd game
of their match but the Nottingham players held their nerves
close out their singles matches and comfortably win the doubles.
John Morris and Joyce Lewsey slipped to a narrow
3-2 defeat against Sycamore’s Brian Crawford and Eileen Cheetham. Both Draycott
players fell to straight set defeats at the hands of Brian but were able
to claim crucial victories over Eileen. The doubles match went the way of
the visitors but the two singles victories were vital to the overall points situation.
The
final match-up of Malcolm Hearn
and Pat Pidcock
against Brian Smith and Norman Fowler was equally as competitive. Malcolm
collected a 3-1 win over Brian, which included 2 “deuce” sets, before
securing a more straight-forward 3-0 victory over Norman. Unfortunately, Pat never
really hit top form, losing both her singles. The Sycamore duo swept to
an easy win in the doubles, giving them a slender 3-2 win.
Following
the final tally of results, the Draycott
contingent was delighted to discover that it had been triumphant by an
overall score of 14 points to 11.
That’s
where any similarities with the Ryder Cup ended as both sets of players retired
to the social area to chat and enjoy the refreshments supplied by Brian
Savage. Could you imagine Nick Faldo & Paul
Azinger sharing a buffet minutes after the
conclusion of their competition? No, thought not.
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11th Sept 2008
UK School Games
Draycott’s 17-year-old star Emma Vickers began her final
junior year by competing in her 3rd UK Schools Games - a multi
sports event aimed at the country’s top sporting talent.
Emma,
the British No.1 Junior played in the table tennis event alongside competitors
in eight other sports including Athletics, Badminton, Hockey, Swimming,
Fencing, Gymnastics, Judo and Volleyball.
In
the very first UK Schools Games held in Glasgow Emma took a Bronze medal
in the Girls singles and then in last year’s event held in Coventry Emma
stormed to victory in the Girls Singles final and took the Gold medal.
Emma
competed for the very strong “Midlands” team England No.2 Junior
Emily Bates (Lincolnshire), Chesterfield’s fast rising star Lucy
Davidson and Warwickshire’s Natalie Slater the current National Under 16
Schools champion.
The
team was in top form with Emma remaining unbeaten throughout the team
event. In the final they beat England South East 4-2 to take the Gold
medal in the team event.
In
the singles event Emma fought her way through to the semi-final but was
beaten in 5 close games by the 4th seed Karina
LeFevre who went on to win the final.
Emma
was disappointed with her performance especially having recently returned
from Budapest where she trained for two weeks
with the Hungarian National Senior team practicing with some of Europe’s top senior players.
Next
season will not see Emma competing for her local Draycott
& Long Eaton Table Tennis Club in the Women’s British League as she
has been invited to play in the Swedish Women’s Elite Division for Ljungsbro, a town just outside Stockholm who were promoted last
season.
This
is a great opportunity for Emma, the current National Junior Champion,
who will compete against different players in one of Europe’s toughest Women’s leagues
and also gain experience playing alongside former World No.8 Wang Friden.
Emma
is now ranked No.6 on the National Women’s ranking list and will travel
to Sweden with England No.12 Hannah
Hicks from Hampshire on four weekends throughout the year.
Emma
Vickers - UK School Games - Team Gold
Medallist
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10th Sept 2008
Draycott – Redlands Challenge TrophyMatch
After
an enjoyable day of table tennis Draycott
suffered an agonising defeat in the annual pre-season challenge match
against their Worksop-based rivals.
Redlands hosted the match and each
club provided six teams (3x Mixed teams, Veterans, Ladies & Juniors)
to compete with equivalent line-ups. In the first half of the event, each
team played against its exact opposite, with each player competing
against each player in the opposition team.
In
the Juniors V Juniors match, Alistair
Hawthorn was the star of the show, winning all 3 of his matches with
consummate ease. Team-mates Alex
Green & David Price
produced extremely promising performances on their competitive debuts to
each win 2 out of 3 against their more experienced opponents to give Draycott a stunning 7-2 win.
Draycott Veterans (Colin
Richardson, Steve Gilott & Paul
Jennings) found the going harder against their Redlands counterparts. Colin won 2
matches and Paul added another but Redlands held their nerve to hand
out a comprehensive 3-6 defeat.
Long
Eaton Ladies team of Abbie Milwain, Theresa
Richardson & Katherine Arrowsmith put up a valiant fight before
eventually succumbing to a narrow
4-5 loss to a Redlands Ladies
team that included Long Eaton’s own Sarah
Bayliss. Theresa and 13-year-old Abbie and both recorded two wins each but were unable
to topple highly ranked Sarah Perks, who went through the meeting
undefeated.
Draycott’s 1st Mixed team of Adam Frost, David Arrowsmith & Stuart McIntyre suffered a similar fate also suffering a 4-5
defeat. Adam and David each notched a pair of wins but were unfortunate
to find fellow ex-Schoolboy International Ben Barlow in fine form for Redlands.
The
Draycott 2nd Mixed team went down to
a disappointing 6-3 loss where Eileen
Cheetham, Martin Arrowsmith & Kevin Milwain
each won one of their matches to provide moments of optimism but the
inclusion of highly rated junior boy, Aiden Keyworth, in the Redlands line-up made it difficult
for Long Eaton gain momentum.
Draycott’s 3rd Mixed team came out 4-1 winners in a
match that was closer than the score line suggests. First up, Mark Rhowbotham
lost a tight 5-set thriller but recovered to win his next match. Graham Woodcock won both of his
matches. As neither team had the full compliment of three players, it was
decided that the pairs would play a doubles match, which the Long Eaton
team won.
After
a brief interval, play resumed with a change of opponents and a switch to
British League format. The Vets teams played against the 1st Mixed
teams, the Ladies teams played against the Juniors and the 2nd
Mixed teams played against the 3rd Mixed.
Draycott Ladies whitewashed their Redland Junior opponents
to claim an easy 6-0 win. Unsurprisingly, Redlands Ladies returned the
complement by inflicting a 0-6 loss on the Draycott
Junior team.
Adam Frost, David Arrowsmith & Stuart McIntyre in the Draycott 1st Mixed team produced some
fantastic table tennis to thrash the Redlands Veterans team 5-1 but the Redlands 1st
Mixed team went one better by imposing a valuable 0-6 result on the Draycott Vets.
The
2nd Mixed team from Draycott endured
their second defeat of the challenge match, this time going down 2-4 to the Redlands 3rd
Mixed team despite wins from Eileen
Cheetham & Kevin Milwain.
Long
Eaton 3rd Mixed team ended 4-2 winners
against Redlands 2nd Mixed, due to a brace of wins by Mark Rhowbotham
and a win each by Graham Woodcock
and Alistair Hawthorn.
Alistair also performed admirably in defeat to Aiden
Keyworth, taking a set off a player hundreds of
places above him in the National Junior rankings.
A
total of 86 matches were played on the day and although the Long Eaton
sides battled hard, they were unable to prevent the Redlands club from retaining the
trophy for at least another year, eventually losing the contest 42-44.
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24th May 2008
Junior Masters
Emma Vickers was top seed for the English National Junior Master
where she was trying to retain the title won superbly last season and was
bidding to win all four of the season’s major National championships.However, Emma was just squeezed into second place despite winning 11/13
matches which is still a brilliant performance against the top 14 ranked
Juniors in England and finally finished equal on points with the eventual
winner Emily Bates. The match against the England No.3 Junior was a
classic encounter which Emma led 2-1 but Emily leveled the match and then
in the dramatic final game Emma came within two points of retaining the
‘Masters’ but she was eventually beaten 11-9 so Emma had to be satisfied
with the Silver medal.
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24th May 2008
Cadet Masters
In the English Cadet Masters held at Wellingborough
both Club players Sophie Neil and Abbie Milwain put in great performances. Abbie gained three wins against players in the top 14
Cadets in England scoring wins over Charleigh Kirby,
Chloe White and England No.7 Cadet Kirsty
Wilson. Sophie gained an outstanding win over England No.5 Cadet Martha
Travis and also Charleigh Kirby. Sophie then
faced team mate Abbie where the first two games
were shared but then Sophie found top gear to win 3 games to 1. Both
girls were placed in equal 9th place which is great
achievement in such a prestigious event.
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15th May 2008
Coaching
Exhibition
On 14th May Phil
Vickers & Jon Bayliss, assisted by Graham Gobey played an exhibition for 31 pupils from Year 5
pupils of the Draycott Primary School at the Draycott
Table Tennis Centre. The children enjoyed some exciting table tennis and
then after warming up tried the sport for themselves.
The Draycott &
Long Eaton Table Tennis Club organise Junior Coaching sessions run by ETTA Level 4 coach Phil
Vickers and assisted by ETTA Level 3 Coach Jon Bayliss
and Paul Jennings. The sessions run from 7.15pm – 9.15pm and are being currently attended by almost 20
players aged from 9 to 15.
Contact Phil Vickers on phil@tabletennisderby.com for more details
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8th May 2008
Emma claims National
Junior Title
Emma
Vickers has reached the pinnacle of her junior table tennis career having
been crowned National Junior Girls Singles Champion. The 17-year-old was
top seed for this prestigious event held recently in Reading where after
receiving a bye in the first round she then faced a very tough start
against 5th seed Emily Bates from Lincolnshire but a very
focused Emma won 3-0 to progress to the next round.
Here
she met 9th seed Mary Fuller from Yorkshire where Emma won a
tight opening game 11-9 and then the second 11-7 but then Mary fought
back to squeeze through the 3rd game 12-10 but then Emma took
the match winning the 4th game 11-7.
The
semi final saw Emma clash with her doubles partner Caroline Hallows
(Cheshire) which proved to be her toughest test as Emma surprisingly lost
the first two games 11-7, 11-9 before staging a remarkable comeback to
convincingly win the next three games 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 to reach the
final.
The
other half of the draw saw a number of shock results as 6th Karina Le Fevre was in
fantastic form beating both the No.3 seed Rachel Jamieson and No.2 seed Sarra Wang to also reach the final. However, Emma
proved to be too strong using some awesome power to take the title
running out the winner by 3 games to 1 to lift the National Junior Title.
Emma
also won her second Gold medal by retaining her National Junior Girls
Doubles title with Caroline Hallows beating Emily Bates and Mary Fuller
13-11 in the 5th game in a fantastic final.
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29th April 2008
Cadet Masters
Nottingham’s Sophie Neil and Derby’s Abbie Milwain have both been selected to compete in the
Cadet Masters to be held at Wellingborough in May.
Both players represent the Club in Division 2 of the Derby League and
will play in this prestigious round robin tournament against the top 14
Under 15ranked players in the country.
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29th April 2008
Emma wins National
Schools Championships
Draycott’s table tennis
star and England No.1 junior Emma Vickers took the National Under 19
Schools titlein last weekends National
Individual Schools Championships held at Fenton Manor Leisure Centre in Stoke.
The England international cruised through her group beating all five players
3-0 and then beat Sally Hughes (Sussex) at the quarter-final stage. Emma then beat Cheshire’s Caroline Hallows 3-1 in the semi-final before facing Cleveland’s Karina Le Fevre
in the Final.
Emma
was in top form as she cruised home 3-0 to win her 3rd Individual Schools title having previously been Under
11 champion in 2002 and Under 13 champion in 2004.
Sophie
Neil competed in the Under 16 event and put in yet another outstanding
performance losing to eventual winner Natalie Slater (Staffordshire) at
the semi-final stage to claim joint 3rd place.
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17th April 2008
Sophie Wins National
Ranking Trials
Two
of the Draycott & Long Eaton Table Tennis
club players have competed in the National Cadet Ranking Trials.
Abbie Milwain was drawn in a
tough group and finished a disappointing 3rd place losing
close matches to both Rebecca March (Essex) and Cumbria’s Anna Donohue and failed
to qualify for the quarter-finals but Nottingham’s Sophie Neil produced a
fantastic performance.
Despite
losing her opening match Sophie battled her way to second place and then
progressed to the knockout stage. Sophie reached the final and faced Devon’s Vicky Smith and turned
out to be the match of the tournament where Sophie lost the first game
11-9 but then raced into a 2 games to 1 lead but Vicky then took the 4th
game 11-9. Sophie found top form in the final game to clinch the match
11-9 to win the National Under 15 ranking trials.
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30th March 2008
County Cadet Matches
The Draycott Table Tennis
Centre staged the final twenty matches in Cadets Division 1A of the
County Table Tennis Championships on Saturday. Fourteen-year-old Sophie
Neil, who plays for the Draycott club, was the
star of the event as she remained unbeaten over sixteen sets for
Nottinghamshire.
Sophie inspired Nottinghamshire to win all eight
matches during the competition to finish three points clear of runners-up
Cheshire.
On
Saturday, Nottinghamshire victories were 10-0 v Leicestershire,
Northamptonshire and Suffolk; and 9-1 v Norfolk
Leicestershire Cadet (Under-15) team played their
final five matches in the County Table Tennis Championships held at the Draycott Table Tennis Centre last weekend.
Leicestershire started off with a 10-0 defeat from Nottinghamshire who
were on their way to winning every match and clinched the championship.
Alistair Hawthorn came in for the next match against
Shropshire and beat Charlie Smith
convincingly 11-1, 11-6, 11-0 before going on to beat Nitesh
Patel 11-4, 11-7, 11-4 to inspire Leicestershire to a 9-1 victory. Jim
Crawford got Leicestershire off to a good start against Cheshire who were determined mood in
trying to catch Nottinghamshire, and Cheshire won by 9-1. Alistair
Hawthorne played very well in narrowly losing to Chris Hatton 11-3, 6-11,
2-11, 11-7, 10-12.
Leicestershire then beat Clywd
by 8-2 before losing the final match 2-8 to Lancashire.
Twelve-year-old Alistair Hawthorne trains at the | |
