The draw has been released for the 2013/14 English Senior National Table Tennis Championships, Ponds Forge, Sheffield (February 28 – Mar 2, 2014).
Over 150 of England’s finest table tennis players will converge on the Steel City for the 55th edition of the country’s premier table tennis competition to decide who will be crowned National Champion.
As ever it is a strong entry in the Men’s and Women’s Singles with both 2012/13 victors; Liam Pitchford and Kelly Sibley, taking the top seeding position in their pursuit of a successful title defence.
Twenty-year-old Pitchford will be the hot favourite to retain his crown after another excellent 12 months in which he burst into the world’s top 100. Sibley, meanwhile, will hope to equal Jill Hammersley and Nicola Deaton’s national record of four consecutive Women’s Singles titles.
However, there will be a swathe of budding challengers ready to knock them off their perch, especially with the competition arriving in the midst of selection for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Spaces are at a premium in Scotland so the likes of Paul Drinkhall, Andrew Baggaley, Daniel Reed, Darius Knight, Sam Walker, Chris Doran, David McBeath and Gavin Evans – all recent internationals, will all have their eyes on a spot in the summer squad.
There will also be fierce competition from 2012/13’s beaten finalist, Joanna Drinkhall, as well as Hannah Hicks, Tin-Tin Ho, Karina Le Fevre and Emma Vickers among many others to stop Women’s Champion Sibley in her tracks and book a seat on the plane to Glasgow.
But it isn’t only the Men’s and Women’s Singles Champions who are decided as the Under-21s, Veterans and Doubles competitions all take place during a hectic three-day weekend in Yorkshire. Ticket details for the nationals can be found here.
To see the full draw for the 2013/14 National Championships, click on the link below:
2013/14 English Senior National Table Tennis Championships Draw
Russell Moore (February 19, 2014)