This is a very busy period for the English Schools’ Table Tennis Association with the memories still lingering from the Butterfly Schools’ Team Finals played at Hinckley – all eyes now turn to Doncaster on Saturday for the Butterfly Schools’ Individual Championships.

This year sees the 40th ESTTA Individual Championships with a record 313 players making their way to The Dome, Doncaster on 20th April 2013 hoping to be crowned Butterfly Schools’ Individual Champions.

With only one space available per county in each age group, it is an accomplishment to just reach the finals. There will be some tough competition in the 810 matches scheduled for the day with the Under 11 and Under 13 events starting at 9.00am followed by the Under 16s and Under 19s in the afternoon, continuing into early evening.

Top seeds in the Under 11 events are Ethan Walsh (Hertfordshire), Tom McIntosh (Nottinghamshire), Alice Dillon (Lancashire) and Mollie Hancock (Staffordshire). Ethan, Tom and Alice have recently returned from the British Primary Schools’ International staged in Ireland where they successfully represented ESTTA.

Denise Payet (London North), Kate Cheer (West Sussex), Tom Jarvis (Lincolnshire) and Hugo Pang (Dorset) have all been medalists in previous events and as numbers 1 and 2 seeds in the Under 13 events will be looking for more success.

Top seed in the Under 16 Girls’ event Tin-Tin Ho (London East) will be hoping to win her fifth ESTTA title but second seed Maria Tsaptsinos (Berkshire) will be pushing her hard! Similarly, Helshan Weerasinghe (Kent) is looking for his fourth title but second seed Marcus Giles (London South) will be seeking to build on his 2011 and 2012 Under 13 titles.

Regular players in ESTTA events, Danny Lawrence (Kent) and Liam McTiernan (Berkshire) will be playing for their first title as will Nicole Finn (West Yorkshire) and Naomi Jackson (Devon) – all seeded in the Under 19s. Nicole, who with her school team from Horsforth in Leeds was unable to travel to the Butterfly School Team National Finals because of the snow will be looking to show she deserves her number one spot.

Of course, 280 other players hope things will go their way! A great day’s play can be expected.

Results will be published on estta.org.uk

John Arnold
ESTTA President
E: [email protected]