England’s young players were pegged back by their close rivals at the Cadet and Junior 6 Nations in Guernsey after an impressive weekend of international table tennis.
England dominated the team events at the start of the tournament – winning all four disciplines without losing a single encounter across the Cadet Boys, Cadet Girls, Junior Boys and Junior Girls competitions.
The girls led the way for the English charges as both Maria Tsaptsinos and Emma Torkington (for the juniors) and Denise Payet and Kate Cheer (for the cadets) won every match 5-0 en route to convincing gold medals.
The boys had a tougher route to secure their crowns but managed to overcome a couple of difficult fixtures apiece to complete a team clean-sweep. The cadets dropped just two ends in their campaign – when Scotland’s Chris Wheeler beat Hugo Pang 3-1 (11-7, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6) and Ireland’s Alex Gillen beat Pang 3-2 (7-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8) although both team results ended in 4-1 victories regardless.
The junior boys had a much closer pair of results against both Ireland (3-2) and Wales (3-2) to earn their gold medal. On both occasions Daniel Lawrence was England’s lynch-pin; beating Tom Davis and Ryan Farrell in the Ireland win and Callum Evans and Ryan Oyler in the Wales victory.
However, the individual events proved less profitable for the English players as the home nations battled back to take their own revenge and secure three of the four singles titles.
Only Maria Tsaptsinos, England’s no. 2 Junior girl, was able to pick up back-to-back golds as she saw off compatriot Emma Torkington in an all-English junior girls final 3-1 (9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 16-14).
The other groups saw England struggle to make their mark as Scotland, Ireland and Wales all picked up titles of their own. In the junior boys Ryan Oyler (WAL) bt Ryan Farrell (IRE) 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-9) in the final after he had defeated England’s Jared Patel 3-2 (8-11, 15-13, 11-9, 10-12, 11-7) in a titanic semi-final tussle.
There were also semi-final exits for both Denise Payet and Kate Cheer in the cadet girls with Irish duo, Katie McGlone and Rebecca Finn impressing. In the final McGlone beat her team-mate 3-1 (11-3, 12-10, 5-11, 11-5).
Finally, in the cadet boys, Tom Jarvis and Chris Wheeler (SCO) continued their rivalry with the Scot getting the better of his rival 3-1 (11-3, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9) at the final hurdle. Jarvis had earlier beaten Wheeler 3-2 (9-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-8) in the team event but couldn’t complete the double.
Full results can be found at the links below:
Junior Boys Team
Junior Girls Team
Cadet Boys Team
Cadet Girls Team
Junior Boys Singles
Junior Girls Singles
Cadet Boys Singles
Cadet Girls Singles
by Russell Moore (March 24, 2014)