The English hopes at the INTERSPORT European Table Tennis Championships were again fronted by the outstanding Liam Pitchford, especially with his victory over world number 20 Alexey Smirnov.
But, not to be outdone, compatriots Kelly Sibley, Darius Knight and Gavin Rumgay will all join him tomorrow in the singles last 32 in an unbelievably good day for English table tennis.
Pitchford was again the star of the show as he beat Smirnov 4-3 in an epic encounter that went down to the final few points. But, just minutes later team-mate Knight completed his own sensational win by beating 129 World ranked Lei Kou from Ukraine in equally dramatic fashion.
When Kelly Sibley followed the boys later with her 4-3 victory over Anna Tikhomirova (78), English table tennis was in dream land.
Sibley, in fact, won all three of her matches on Thursday including a doubles win alongside partner Joanna Parker, who unfortunately lost to Krisztina Toth (42) in the singles.
The star of the show, Pitchford, made sure of his appearance tomorrow with, what is now, a routine victory over World number 115 Oleksandr Didukh from Ukraine.
He fell behind in the first game but after winning a tight second game, he raced through the next three with consummate ease to book his place against Wen He Zhi (Spain, 62) tomorrow.
Knight also stormed through his last 64 match with Robert Floras from Poland. The world number 303 was no match for Knight and he was brushed aside 4-0. Next up for Knight is another potentially winnable fixture against Ivan Juzbasic, the world number 228 from Croatia.
Gavin Rumgay advanced in more peculiar cicrumstances as Ruiwu Tan pulled out of their match which allowed the Scot to progress. He will now play Jorgen Persson (36) from Sweden. Incidentally Tan’s last match was against Welshman Ryan Jenkins – I wonder what Jenkins did to the Croatian?
Yesterday now seems like it was the quiet before the storm as, from just a handful of matches on Wednesday, we were treated with an astonishing 29 games on a long and eventful Thursday.
Doubles:
Parker/Sibley v Pietkiewicz/Luczakowska (POL) 3-1 (9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5)
Loveridge/Bates v Molnar/Todorovic (SRB) 3-2 (9-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10)
Drinkhall/Pitchford v Erlandsen/Ronneberg (NOR) 3-1 (11-5, 5-11, 11-8, 11-8)
Knight/Reed v Sirucek/Tregler (CZE) 3-1 (11-8, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9)
Rumgay/Howieson v Pistej/Illas (SVK) 1-3 (11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 7-11)
Owen/Carey v Wu/Ivancan (GER) 0-3 (6-11, 4-11, 9-11)
Jenkins/Jenkins v Tokic/Karakasevic (SVN) 0-3 (10-12, 8-11, 16-18)
Parker/Sibley v Nilsen/Grutle Aasebo (NOR) 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-5)
Loveridge/Bates v Wu/Ivancan (GER) 0-3 (3-11, 3-11, 5-11)
Drinkhall/Pitchford v Gardos/Habesohn (AUT) 1-3 (11-6, 6-11, 7-11, 2-11)
Knight/Reed v Samsonov/Platonov (BLR) 0-3 (8-11, 10-12, 1-11)
Singles: (World ranking)
Bates v Tsistjakova (EST) (368) 4-1 (11-5, 7-11, 11-9, 13-11, 12-10)
Drinkhall v Howieson (SCO) (579) 4-2 (11-8, 12-14, 11-8, 11-7, 5-11, 11-4)
Pitchford (269) v Smirnov (RUS) (20) 4-3 (12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 11-4, 10-12, 12-10)
Knight v Kou (UKR) (129) 4-3 (11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 8-11, 5-11, 11-6, 12-10)
Sibley v Phillips (WAL) (872) 4-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-5, 11-2)
Owen v Xian (FRA) (93) 4-1 (11-6, 10-12, 3-11, 7-11, 4-11)
Carey v Karahodzina (BLR) (429) 0-4 (6-11, 6-11, 6-11, 11-13)
Parker v Toth (HUN) (42) 1-4 (6-11, 5-11, 11-7, 8-11, 6-11)
Rumgay v Libene (EST) (1214) 4-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8)
Jenkins v Tan (HRV) (74) 0-4 (4-11, 5-11, 4-11, 7-11)
Loveridge v Dodean (ROM) (50) 0-4 (8-11, 7-11, 4-11, 4-11)
Reed v Fejer-Konnerth (GER) (64) 0-4 (11-6, 11-5, 14-12, 12-10)
Sibley v Tikhomirova (RUS) (78) 4-3 (8-11, 3-11, 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 11-4, 13-11)
Bates v Timina (NED) (98) 0-4 (11-6, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9)
Pitchford v Didukh (UKR) (115) 4-1 (5-11, 13-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-6)
Drinkhall v Monteiro (POR) (65) 2-4 (7-11, 13-11, 5-11, 11-13, 11-9, 9-11)
Knight v Floras (POL) (303) 4-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6)
Rumgay v Tan (HRV) (74) (w/o win for Rumgay)
Friday’s Fixtures:
Doubles:
Parker/Sibley v Pavlovich/Gianna (BLR/RUS)
Singles:
Pitchford v He Zhi (ESP) (62)
Sibley v Li (NED) (15)
Knight v Juzbasic (HRV) (228)
Rumgay v Persson (SWE) (36)
Consolation event:
Howieson v Berner (NOR) (494)