It was a tale of two contrasting fortunes for our English teams at the INTERSPORT European Championships as the Men lost both their group games on Sunday, whereas the women won both of theirs!
After Saturday’s stunning victory for Liam Pitchford over Vladimir Samsonov, hopes were high against Hungary but things did not go to plan. A 3-0 defeat signalled the end to England’s main championship hopes.
Later in the day they faced the strong Russian side and unsurprisingly went down 3-0. This means the men will now compete for places 9-16 with their first game against the Czech Republic at 2pm.
On the other hand, the Women’s team of Joanna Parker, Kelly Sibley and Emily Bates added to their opening day victory against Azerbaijan by also beating Italy and then Finland.
The 3-1 win against Italy, in which Joanna Parker recorded two victories, was followed up by a 3-0 whitewash against Finland which meant England topped the group.
The women will now compete for places 17-24 and they will face Greece later today in their first fixture.
As you may have been aware we have been running a competition on our Facebook to win table tennis jewellery from sports manufacturer Vinqui.
The competition, which includes all of the England games (including today’s match versus Czech Republic so don’t forget to vote) has prizes of free Vinqui jewellery for one lucky selected winner from each game, providing they correctly predicted the result.
The winners in the group stages were:
Belarus (1-3) John Shepherd
Hungary (0-3) Jamal Jam Dennison (wasn’t correct guess but was the closest to it)
Russia (0-3) Matt Morris
Results:
Mens:
Hungary 0-3
D Kosiba bt P Drinkhall 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5)
J Jakab bt L Pitchford 3-1 (11-5, 4-11, 12-10 , 11-5)
A Pattantyus bt D Reed 3-2 (10-12, 4-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-9)
Russia 0-3
I Rubtsov bt L Pitchford 3-2 (8-11, 9-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-6)
A Shibaev bt P Drinkhall 3-1 (11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10)
V Burov bt D Knight 3-1 (8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-9)
Womens:
Italy 3-1
J Parker bt E Trotti 3-1 (11-3, 11-5, 15-17, 11-6)
K Sibley bt L Ridolfi 3-1 (11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4)
C Colantoni bt E Bates 3-1 (9-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-7)
J Parker bt L Ridolfi 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-5)
Finland 3-0
J Parker bt A Kiritchensko 3-0 (11-0, 11-5, 11-3)
K Sibley bt P Eriksson 3-0 (11-8, 11-3, 11-5)
E Bates bt S Bolenius 3-1 (11-2, 11-9, 6-11, 12-10)
Don’t forget to put your predictions for the Czech Republic match and keep an eye out for all the England games. There are prizes to be won at all! Leave your prediction on Facebook.