A superb win over the Czech Republic for the Women's Team
29th May 2010by Malcolm Macfarlane
The listing was posted by English Table Tennis Association
The England Women's team finished off in style at the Liebherr 2010 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow. They defeated the Czech Republic after a real battle.
Kelly Sibley started against Martina Smistikova and after a couple of games shared 1-1 the Czech girl took the final two very close games. 1-0 for the Czech Republic. Joanna Parker was next against the Czech no 1, Dana Hadacova, a girl with a huge hit if a ball was up a bit. The match swung this way and that, every game was tight and inevitably there was need for a fifth game, Joanna started well, got to 6-4 up but them tried a little too hard to dominate with two backhand hits that both missed taking it to 6-6. The Czech girl moved ahead but Joanna recovered to 10-10 and then took the match 13-11.
Katerina Penkavova ranked over a hundred places above Hanna Hicks was just too good and Penkavova took the match score to 2-1 to the Czechs with a 3-0 win. Joanna to play Smistokova in the fourth individual match and the Czech girl was far less comfortable against Joanna's defence than she was against Kelly's loop game. The second game slipped away but Joanna triumphed in 4 games tying the match at 2-2.
Kelly Sibley to finish against the player closest to her in the world rankings (only one point separates them at the moment), Dana Hadacova. The first game was the key, Hadacova just had the edge for the whole game till it reached 10-9. Kelly then won the next three points (one with a killer net) to steal game 1. This really affected the Czech player and as Kelly played even better her performance dropped, result Kelly won 3-0 and with it the match 3-2 to leave the England team in position 21.
To finish 21st having been seeded 31st, to have beaten Austria, France and the Czech Republic, one can only say the Women's team have performed superbly.
The promotion/demotion between the Second Division and the Championships Division has now been clarified, there are two teams promoted to the Championship Division but there is no demotion, at least not automatically. The Top 18 in the Championships Division are added to the two promoted sides making 20 teams. The final four places are to be given to the four highest placed teams on the world team rankings. A situation which is not at all well received by the Women's team who themselves think they have performed creditably enough to remain in the Championships Division.
The Men's team finished with what we have been used to seeing, a performance below their best, The Vietnam team is a team of no stars, three solid players ranked in the 200s, any win for Danny Reed or Liam Pitchford would therefore be an unexpected one and Danny Reed duly delivered with a battling five game win over world no 200 and Vietnamese No 1, Doan Kien Quoc. Liam Pitchford found Tran Tuan Quynh too hot to handle losing in 3 straight games. Andrew Baggaley had a disastrous match that first saw the world no 197 lose to Dinh Quang Linh, the world no 291, in four games and in a most strange fourth individual match lost to the world no 252 Tran Tuan Quynh, the match went to five games and then to deuce in the fifth game.
Andrew then displayed one of his better bits of gamesmanship/time wasting with a bit of gymnastics 6 metres behind the table, call it what you want, but in my opinion he got what he deserved, a red/yellow card and suddenly he was 10-11 down. Even more strangely the Vietnamese did not wish the point and was himself red/yellow carded so the score moved level again. At the end of the kerfuffle the score was still even but at 11-11 and the Vietnamese proceeded to take the final two points against a very unhappy Andrew Baggaley.
What can you say about the Men's Team performance at these championships? As a team disappointing at the least, to finish 38th when it was hoped they would be challenging for promotion to the Championship Division is not exactly great but what is more disappointing is that the two lower ranked players Danny Reed and Liam Pitchford have turned in a series of unexpected wins while the two stars, Paul Drinkhall and English Champion Andrew Baggaley have performed poorly time after time. Both of their international rankings will drop seriously after this event.
What is worse is the difference in attitude: if the Women lost a match they were angry and inconsolable, the more highly ranked Men just seemed to shrug their shoulders, there was no passion in the team at all. At least to the spectators that is what it really looked like.
Results
Women's Team
CZECH REPUBLIC 2 ENGLAND 3
SMISTIKOVA Martina beat SIBLEY Kelly 11-6 5-11 11-8 11-9
HADACOVA Dana lost to PARKER Joanna 13-11 10-12 11-9 7-11 11-13
PENKAVOVA Katerina beat HICKS Hannah 11-8 11-4 11-2
SMISTIKOVA Martina lost to PARKER Joanna 9-11 11-8 6-11 8-11
HADACOVA Dana lost to SIBLEY Kelly 10-12 5-11 8-11
Men's Team
Vietnam 3 England 1
BAGGALEY Andrew lost to DINH Quang Linh 11-8, 10-12, 4-11, 10-12
PITCHFORD Liam lost to TRAN Tuan Quynh 10-12, 6-11, 9-11
REED Daniel beat DOAN Kien Quoc 12-14, 13-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5
BAGGALEY Andrew lost to TRAN Tuan Quynh 10-12, 9-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-13
Photo: Joanna Parker, a good double against the Czech Republic