What a successful morning!!
28th May 2010by Malcolm Macfarlane
The listing was posted by English Table Tennis Association
A superb morning on the second day of stage 2 competition at the Leibherr 2010 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow.
Three tables in a row: England Women playing France to stay in the championship division, England facing Latvia and Scotland facing Luxembourg, the two winners to face each other in the next round.
The Men were the first to finish, England men did a thoroughly good job to beat Latvia 3-0, Paul started and although the third game slipped away he came through comfortably against Olegs Kartuzovis. Andrew Baggaley then returned to top form to defeat world no 132 Matiss Burgis in three straight games. Danny Reed continued the fine display with a 3-0 defeat of Sandis Vasiljevs.
Next to finish, just, were Scotland, with a fine 3-1 win over Luxembourg, two wins for Gavin Rumgay added to one from Craig Howeson means that a battle with the "Auld enemy" is set up for this afternoon,1:30 UK time
The England Women while this all went on were locked in a tremendous struggle with France, no wonder as the losing team would depart the Championships Division for the next Championships.
England started superbly, Joanna Parker on top form quickly deposed of Alice Abbat in 3 straight games. Kelly Sibley dropped the first game against Audrey Mattenet but recovered to win the next three, rather tight, games. It really looked good at this stage.
The third individual match , Karina Le Fevre to face Aurore Dessaint, the French girl was a bit too good for Karina although she did take the third game to deuce.
So could Joanna win it for England against Audrey Mattenet, a tall girl with a very very hard hit? The first game was really tight but Joanna came through to take it, second to Mattenet with some awesome flat hitting from the backhand side, the third game went to Joanna but a really tight fourth game went the way of the French girl. A real edge of the seat job for the fifth game, Jo started well but slowly but surely the hard hitting got too much and the team match was tied at 2-2.
Kelly Sibley against Alice Abbat, the loser consigning her team to a trip to the Second Division. Kelly has played really superbly this week and was just not to be denied, she took the first game comfortably, Abbat improved her game in the second but Kelly still came through to take that 11-8 and another tight game went to Kelly in the third game to her and the team's delight, England 3 France 2 England Women remain in the Championships Division for the next Championships which is a superb performance in this company. The Women now play the Czech Republic for 21st/22nd place tomorrow morning.
Results
Men's Team
England 3 Latvia 0
DRINKHALL Paul beat KARTUZOVS Olegs 11-8, 12-10, 7-11, 11-7
BAGGALEY Andrew beat BURGIS Matiss 11-7 11-5 11-5
REED Daniel beat VASILJEVS Sandijs 11-6 11-5 11-7
Women's Team
Engalnd 3 France 2
PARKER Joanna beat ABBAT Alice 11-5, 11-5, 11-5
SIBLEY Kelly beat MATTENET Audrey 4-11, 13-11, 11-8, 12-10
LE FEVRE Karina lost to DESSAINT Aurore 5-11, 5-11, 13-15
PARKER Joanna lost to MATTENET Audrey 14-12, 7-11, 11-8, 10-12, 6-11
SIBLEY Kelly beat ABBAT Alice 11-5, 11-8, 11-9
Photo Andrew Baggaley, an excellent three game win over Latvian No 1 Matiss Burgis today -courtesy Mariann Domonkos