ISF WORLD SCHOOLS’ TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
CAGLIARI, SARDINIA ITALY
Day 2 Monday April 2nd
Day 2 opened with session four and Morpeth school registered their first win in the competition with an encouraging 5-2 win against the girls’ school team from Estonia. Harriet Taylor and Sayeeda Miah both recorded two wins in the singles and combined together with a 3-0 victory in the doubles.
In the boys’ school team section, Harefield Academy just failed to maintain their 100% record when narrowly losing out 4-3 to a very strong Polish team. Tyrone Wells, Mitchell Jones and Daniel Lewis all recorded one win each, whilst Tyrone and Mitchell lost in the doubles 3-0.
Whilst the boys’ National team had a free session, the girls’ National team had an outstanding victory against Turkey, Vicky Smith lost in three to Umran Ertis and Emily Bates lost in four to Hilal Kapusuzoglu. Tin-Tin Ho then restored a little pride for England with a three straight win against Aysegul Demirtas, only to see Turkey take the doubles when Tin-Tin and Emma Torkington lost in four.
Things looked bleak for England before Emily pulled a game back against Umran and Vicky levelled the score at 3-3 with a 3-0 win over Aysegul. In the final game Tin-Tin held her nerve and after losing the first 11-7 went on to beat Hilal in four, turning what looked like sure defeat into a sparkling victory.
Session five saw Harefield Academy against one of the favourites from Germany, who had recorded 7-0 wins in all their previous matches. Despite valiant efforts from Daniel, Mitchell and Evan Clancy, who was making his debut, Harefield were rapidly dispatched 7-0 with only Daniel taking a leg in the match.
In the girls’ school section, Morpeth came up against a very talented Greek team and after a spirited display, losing two matches in the fifth, went down 6-1 with Harriet and Sayeeda combining in the doubles to record the only success for the losers.
In the boys’ National competition, England’s disastrous start continued when they went down 7-0 against Chinese Taipei. The only glimmer of light for England was in the performance of yesterdays star Liam McTiernan, who was the only player to take a game, when going down in four to Chen-yang Hsu.
In the girls’ National competition, England next came up against the odds on favourites China and as expected were comfortably beaten 7-0. However, the girls fought all the way and Emma Torkington took a set against Jialing Yu, whilst Tin-Tin Ho lost in five to Shiting Chen.
In session six the crossover matches in some sections began and the good news for Harefield was that their third place in their group was good enough to secure them a place in the top half of the draw. The bad news, however, was that they now came up against Chinese Taipei who ran out comfortable 4-0 winners. This now means that they enter the 5-8 play-offs.
Whilst all this was going on, the boys’ National team had to return to the table to try to salvage some pride in a match against Turkey. At last they got their act together with Liam McTiernan and Igor Morais winning two singles each, Helshan picking up one and the doubles yet again escaping them, to leave the final score 5-2 in England’s favour.
In session 7 the only team to play was the boys’ National team who had the unenviable task of facing China and although putting up one of their best displays, were easily defeated 7-0. However, Liam and Igor each lost a game in four, whilst Igor lost his second singles 11-6 in the fifth against Yanfeng Wang.
John M. Blackband