De Ferrers young stars make it to regional finals

 

 

After providing over half of the County Schools Team Table Tennis Championships winning sides, Burton schools sent 4 of those on to the Zonal finals held at Bradford, competing against Derbyshire & South, West & North Yorkshire. De Ferrers Technical College had 3 of those with entries in the girls & boys under 13’s and the boys under 19’s. William Shrewsbury Primary School was also in action in the boys under 11’s.

 

The De Ferrers under 13 boys had a tough draw in the group having to play favourites Crossley Heath from Halifax. Despite some close games they went down 6-2. Undeterred, they bounced back against Kingstone School, Barnsley, with Joe Byrne, Andrew Heathcote & Liam Burt all unbeaten and Liam Calendar-Welch adding the final game for a 7-1 win. Confidence now began to show and their next opponents,  Highfields School, Matlock, were brushed aside 6-2, again with Joe, Andrew & Liam B taking the points. This meant a semi final game against the winner from the other group, St.Mary’s College, Hull. Joe got things off to a good start winning the first game but losses for Andrew & Liam C-W put De Ferrers on the back foot. But that was the last game St. Mary’s got close in, as Liam B made it 2-2 then Joe, Andrew & Liam B reeled off the next 3 games to go into the final. With both finalists qualifying for the Regional finals it was just pride at stake now in a rematch with Crossley Heath and a scoreline of 3-5 was so nearly 4-4 as Joe was just edged out 12-10 in the 5^th by  Crossley’s number one.

 

 

Still an improvement on the first game and now thoughts turn to the Regional finals at Blackburn at the end of February, the first time the under 13 boys have made it this far.

 

 

Not to be outdone, the under 13 girls also made it through to Blackburn in dramatic fashion. Their deciding game came against Bradford Grammar where an early 3-1 lead, after wins by Bekki Lycett, Milly Bowering & Holly Webster, was reduced to a 4-3 deficit with Holly’s final game to play. Although never more than 2 points in each game, Holly scored the points that mattered to win all 3 games 11-9 and bring the tie level. A nervous wait then ensued as countback was used to determine their fate. With Bekki & Milly both winning 3-0 and losing 3-1 this put the girls 2 games ahead. Holly’s 3-0 & 3-2 wins meant that Sophie Richardson needed just a single game in her results to edge the team home and as she had taken a game in both her matches the girls edged home by 2 games and joined the boys in the Regional finals.

 

William Shrewsbury were looking to emulate last year’s efforts of qualifying for the next stage but were immediately up against it after a 5-3 loss to South Yorkshire qualifiers Dore Primary School. This left them having to beat Lees Primary, Keighley for a semi final spot. Will Pearson lead the team from the front, taking his 2 games but everyone mucked in as Lewis Acton, Dan Styne & Nick Purslow all won 1 each for a 5-3 victory. This put them up against the very strong Dronfield Primary from Derbyshire and despite a good win for Will against Dronfield’s top player this was where their journey ended as they went down 5-1. James Ward led the De Ferrers under 19 boys well remaining unbeaten in his 3 games. But despite an early 5-3 win against Bradford Grammar, there were no other successes as a 3^rd place finish saw the team miss out on qualification by one place.

 

Simon Price
Club Development Officer
Burton Uxbridge Table Tennis Club
T: 07890 520692
E: simonp_54@hotmail.com