Gloucestershire Schools Individual
Olly and Margaret to represent Gloucestershire in National Schools Finals
By Graham Slack, edited by Ann Barnes
The Gloucestershire Schools Individual table tennis championships were held at Robin Greaves Sports Centre, Waterwells, Quedgeley on Saturday 5th January 2013. The events held were Boys U11, Boys U13, Boys U16, Boys U19 and Girls U16 and a total of 46 competitors took part from all over the County.
The Boys U13 had 15 entries who played in 4 groups. Olly Tyndall (R&HTTC) beat Rasmus Haycraft (Stroud) in the first semi-final and Shrey Bhardwaj (Cheltenham) saw off the challenge of Michael Pang (R&HTTC) in the second semi-final. Olly (pictured left with Peter Cruwys) proved to be too strong for Shrey in the final winning in 3 close games.
The Girls U16 was a group of 4 and Margaret Pang (R&HTTC) won all her matches although she was pushed all the way by runner-up Emily Philp (Stroud) with Margaret (see left) winning 11-9 in the final game.
The Boys U16 saw the largest entry and the 17 players played in 4 groups. Top seed Ben Roberts (Gloucester) defeated Ben Glover (Stroud) in 4 close games in the first semi-final, whilst Billy Shilton (Stroud) scored a narrow 3-2 victory over Owen Berry (R&HTTC) in the second. Billy raised his game to defeat Ben 3-0 to take the title.
In other events:
The boys U11 had a total of 8 entries who played in two groups of 4. The semi-finals saw Ben Tyndall (Gloucester) beat Ryan Marsden (Cheltenham) and Irek Nawiesniak (Cheltenham) beat Stanley Shilton (Stroud). The final was a one sided affair with Ben running out a comfortable winner.
The Boys U19 had just two entrants but the match was a thriller with Sam Turner (Gloucester) just edging out Sam Warner (Cheltenham) in 5 very close games.
All the winners go forward to the National Schools Finals at the Doncaster Dome on Saturday 20 April. I hope they all do Gloucestershire proud.
