England win trophy for best organised Pro Tour of 2009/10
26th May 2010by Malcolm Macfarlane
The listing was posted by English Table Tennis Association
At the ITTF general meeting today, held in Moscow at the Liebherr 2010 World Team Table Tennis Championships, England's first Pro Tour event for many years, held in Sheffield, was scored the best Pro Tour event of the 2009/10 season.
The ITTF uses a standard scoring system to assess all of its events and the highest score ever attained is 9.0. The Pro Tour in Sheffield earlier this year scored 8.8 to take the trophy which was presented by Adham Sharara, the ITTF President to Alex Murdoch, ETTA Chairman, and MIke Holt, ETTA Vice-Chairman Marketing.
Mike said "This is a tribute to everybody who worked on the event - and it was well deserved for the effort as a team that everybody put in".
One the table, however, things did not go so well as both teams lost. The Men played Iran while the AGM was in progress and lost 3-1, Paul Drinkhall had a bad day losing both the first match against Mohammadreza Akhlaghpasand, 13-11 in the 5th and the fourth match against Noshad Alamiyan 11-9 in the 4th.
In between Liam Pitchford fought hard but lost to Noshad Alamiyan in 4 games. Andrew Baggaley returned at number 3 and had a tight match with Mehran Ahadi winning 11-8 in the fifth game. Match 3-1 to Iran and England finish placed 4th in the first round group with 2 wins and 3 defeats.
The Womens team faced Poland, who had comprehensively beaten them only a month or so ago, to make matters worse the Polish squad this time was even stronger, Kelly started and did not have the best of fortune as she lost to world no 69, Xu Jie. Kelly won the first game but lost the next three.
The others had even more difficult tasks Joanna Parker played world no 23, Li Qian next, and the defensive Polish Chinese with a good attack when she chose to was too much for Joanna who lost in three straight games. Karina Le Fevre was playing no 3 again and she faced the Polish number 2, world no 48, Natalia Partyka, there were some very good rallies but Karina was just outgunned in most of them. 3-0 to Poland
The Women have one more 1st stage group match tomorrow against World Champions China! - it's tough at the top!
Results
Mens Team
England 1 Iran 3
DRINKHALL Paul lost to AKHLAGHPASAND Mohammadreza 8-11, 11-3, 8-11, 11-6, 11-13
PITCHFORD Liam lost to ALAMIYAN Noshad 8-11, 11-3, 5-11, 7-11
BAGGALEY Andrew beat AHADI Mehran 11-9, 11-5, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8
DRINKHALL Paul lost to ALAMIYAN Noshad 13-11, 6-11, 5-11, 9-11
Womens Team
England 0 Poland 3
SIBLEY Kelly lost to XU Jie 11-5, 6-11, 9-11, 9-11
PARKER Joanna lost to LI Qian 8-11 9-11 7-11
LE FEVRE Karina lost to PARTYKA Natalia 5-11 1-11 7-11
Photo: Adham Sharara presents the best event of the year trophy to Alex Murdoch and Mike Holt