An inexperienced England squad headed to Holland for the Cadet 6 Nations tournament in Zwolle where they found the going tough against some of Europe’s most prestigious table tennis playing nations.
Facing opponents from Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and France was a big ask for the English side which was depleted due to the U11-14 National Championships that took place in Walsall on the same weekend.
Last year’s Cadet singles winner, Tin-Tin Ho for example, was on duty in the University of Wolverhampton Campus so it was always likely to be difficult without players of her calibre boosting the squad.
This did, however, provide some future stars with international experience as many players made their England debuts.
Jack Bennett, Gabriel Achampong, Lucy Zhu and Olivia Churchill all earned call-ups after catching the selectors eyes over the last few months and each player picked up some useful wins along the way in Holland.
While both the boy’s and girl’s teams struggled there were some good performances in the singles groups from Dan Lawrence (3 wins) and Maria Tsaptsinos (3 wins) while there were victories for every England player despite being brand new to the international format.
Churchill, Achampong, Bennett and Zhu all picked up maiden international tournament wins while Sam Mabey picked up two singles group wins to go along with his team victories and Lois Peake also won in Zwolle.