England teams took silver and bronze with an individual gold medal for Naphong Boonyaprapa and bronze for Sophie Chiang at the Primary Schools’ International Table Tennis Championships.
Teams from England, Jersey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales joined the host country for this annual tournament held this year at the Guernsey Table Tennis Centre.
England Boys’ were represented by Naphong Boonyaprapa (Fairfield Primary Academy, Stapleford – Nottinghamshire), Rhys Davies (Merchant Taylors’ Primary School , Crosby – Merseyside), Bertie Kelly (Enmore CE Primary School, Bridgwater – Somerset) and Felix Thomis (The Hill Primary School, Reading – Berkshire).
Following 10-0 victories over the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey, the boys’ fourth match, against Scotland, proved more of a challenge. After the first set of singles matches, the team trailed 1-3 but took both doubles to tie 3-3 before the second set of singles which were halved, giving a final result of 5-5.
A 9-1 win against Wales left them needing victory over Ireland if they were to retain their 2015 crown. However, even though many games were closely fought, Ireland won the match 8-2, leaving England in third place following a countback of games in the Scotland match.
England Girls’ squad of Sophie Chiang (Woodford Green Preparatory School – London East), Erin Green (Chetwynd Primary Academy, Beeston – Nottinghamshire), Alana Mansfield (Freshwaters Primary Academy, Harlow – Essex) and Amy Marriott (Bramley Sunnyside Junior School, Rotherham – South Yorkshire) recorded resounding victories in their first three team matches against Guernsey, Isle of Man and Scotland, all 10-0.
As in the boys’ event, it was the team from Ireland who proved too strong. In spite of three of the matches going to the fifth game, England conceded defeat 2-8.
In their final match they fought back with a 7-3 win over Wales to take second place in the championships.
The two days of team championships were followed by the individual events, watched by a large group of supporters in the table tennis centre and via live streaming on the Guernsey TTA website.
In the Girls’ Individual Championships, Erin Green and Alana Mansfield reached the quarter-finals, with Sophie Chiang reaching the semi-finals where she lost 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-7) to Natasya Barry (Ireland), who went on to win the event.
Rhys Davies and Naphong Boonyaprapa reached the quarter-finals in the boys’ event with Naphong going on to win his semi against Dillon Byrne (Ireland) and then the final against Art McLaughlin (Ireland) 3-1 (11-4, 11-4, 11-13, 11-8).
All countries have declared their intention to send full squads to the Senior Schools’ International (U14/16/18) which is to be held in Ireland from June 24-26.
