The draws for the semi-final round of the Wenderlish Cup and the quarter-final round of the Plate, due to be played week commencing 5th March 2012, have been made. The following matches have been drawn:
Wenderlish Cup Semi-Finals:
Plate Quarter-Finals:
The draws for the quarter-final round of the Wenderlish Cup and the first round of the Plate, due to be played week commencing 30th January 2012, have been made. The following matches have been drawn:
Wenderlish Cup Quarter-Finals:
Plate Round 1:
Now is the time to get your forms downloaded and submitted to join this years County Championships.
It is always a great fun, well run, sequence of events, and enjoyed by all those that join in. The organisers are pretty canny at ensuring that plenty of games are played by everyone who enters a good range of events, whatever your standard of play.
Highly recommended... download this years forms now, and get them into Cicely Palmer - Tournament Secretary before the 21st January.
Senior and Veterans Championships Entry Forms
Junior Championship Entry Form
Letter To Team Secretaries
The third round of the cup and the first round of the plate will take place week commencing 30th January 2012
The draw for the second round of the Wenderlish Cup, due to be played week commencing 12th December 2011, has been made. The following matches have been drawn:
With just a week to go until the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals begin in London, the World All Stars team to play against Great Britain has been named.
Already confirmed were the Egyptian pair of Omar Assar and Nadeen El-Dawlatly, who have both qualified for next years Olympic Games, whilst the players joining them for the fixture against Team GB include ITTF Pro Tour finalists Tomas Tregler from Czech Republic and Wing Nam NG from Hong Kong, who are both competing in the U21’s event as well.
The other two players to join them are Lee Sang Su (KOR) for the men’s team and Saki Tashiro (JPN) for the women’s. Su is the highest ranked player in the fixture being the world number 31, while Tashiro won both the women’s’ and U21’s singles at this years Korean Open.
The team match takes place halfway through the prestigious event at ExCeL, with the competition doubling up as a test event for the London 2012 organisers.
Taking place at 7pm on Friday 25th November, the match will provide the English players with an ideal opportunity to practice their skills before they represent the nation on the same tables next summer.
Tickets are still available for the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals. Tickets start at £10. For more information visit www.etta.co.uk/grand-finals
Confirmed teams for Team GB v World All Stars:
Mens’ World All Star Team:
Lee Sang Su (Korea)
Tomas Tregler (Czech Rep.)
Omas Assar (Egypt)
Womens’ World All Star Team:
Saki Tashiro (Japan)
NG Wing Nam (HKG)
Nadeeen El-Dawlatly (Egypt)
Mens’ Great Britain Team:
Paul Drinkhall
Andrew Baggaley
Liam Pitchford
Reserve: Gavin Rumgay
Womens’ Great Britain Team:
Joanna Parker
Kelly Sibley
Liu Na
November's (24th-27th) ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals promises to be a who's who of international table tennis, with a wealth of Olympic medallists heading to London to compete in the London 2012 venue of ExCeL before next summer's Games. The high profile international tournament which offers $365,000 in prize money also doubles as a test event for London 2012 organisers.
The list of qualifiers has just been released and shows a heavy dominance by Asian players, with the Chinese players Ma Long and Guo Yan's recent form placing them as clear favourites, but with a collection of the finest players in the world present, the competition will be fierce.
The sheer strength of this line up is shown by the number of titles held by the 16 men and women competing in the singles event, including the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Gold medallist Ryu Seung Min and Ma Lin.
2 Olympic singles gold medallists
4 Olympic team gold medallists
3 Olympic team silver medallists
1 Olympic singles bronze medallists
3 Olympic team bronze medallists
2 reigning world champions
Flying the flag for England will be number 1 ranked players Paul Drinkhall and Joanna Parker in the singles, whilst in the doubles Parker will be joined by Kelly Sibley. The men's doubles team will be Andrew Baggaley paired with the in-form Liam Pitchford, whose recent string of high profile victories includes defeating World number 9 Vladimir Samsonov.
Aside from home nation players there are very few who haven’t journeyed from the Far East. Germany is represented by Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Wu Jiadou in the men's and women's senior events, whilst Austria and Portugal both have a team in the men’s doubles, with Alexander Shibaev the only European in the U21’s.
A full list of qualifiers is below.
| Men's Singles | Women's Singles |
| 1 – Ma Long, CHN | 1 – Guo Yan, CHN |
| 2 – Zhang Jike, CHN | 2 – Ding Ning, CHN |
| 3 – Xu Xin, CHN | 3 – Feng Tianwei, SIN |
| 4 – Ma Lin, CHN | 4 – Liu Shiwen, CHN |
| 5 – Wang Hao, CHN | 5 – Li Xiaoxia, CHN |
| 6 – Jun Mizutani, JPN | 6 – Guo Yue, CHN |
| 7 – Dmitrij Ovtcharov, GER | 7 – Wang Yuegu, SIN |
| 8 – Lee Sang Su, KOR | 8 – Kasumi Ishikawa, JPN |
| 9 – Seiya Kishikawa, JPN | 9 – Ai Fukuhara, JPN |
| 10 – Chuang Chih-Yuan, TPE | 10 – Sayaka Hirano, JPN |
| 11 – Wang Liqin, CHN | 11 – Li Jiawei, SIN |
| 12 – Oh Sang Eun, KOR | 12 – Sun Beibei, SIN |
| 13 – Ryu Seung Min, KOR | 13 – Yang Ha Eun, KOR |
| 14 – Joo Se Hyuk, KOR | 14 – Wu Jiaduo, GER |
| 15 – Gao Ning, SIN | 15 – Park Mi Young, KOR |
| 16 – Paul Drinkhall, ENG | 16 – Joanna Parker, ENG |
| Reserve Players | Reserve Players |
| Vladimir Samsonov, BLR | Lee Eun Hee, KOR |
| Alexander Shibaev, RUS | Tie Yana, HKG |
| Koki Niwa, JPN | Yu Mengyu, SIN |
| Yang Zi, SIN | Yoon Sun Ae, KOR |
| Men’s Doubles | Women’s Doubles |
| 1 – Ma Lin / Zhang Jike, CHN | 1 – Guo Yue / Li Xiaoxia, CHN |
| 2 – Ma Long / Wang Hao, CHN | 2 – Hiroki Fujii / Misako Wakamiya, JPN |
| 3 – Kenta Matsudaira / Koki Niwa, JPN | 3 – Ai Fukuhara / Kasumi Ishikawa, JPN |
| 4 – Yang Zi / Zhan Jian, SIN | 4 – Li Jiawei / Wang Yeugu, SIN |
| 5 – Robert Gardos / Daniel Habesohn, AUT | 5 – Cheng I-Ching / Huang Yi-Hua, TPE |
| 6 – Tianyi Jiang / Peng Tang, HKG | 6 – Seok Ha Jung / Yang Ha Eun, KOR |
| 7 – Tiago Apolonia / Joao Monteiro, POR | 7 – Jiang Huajun / Tie Yana, HKG |
| 8 – Andrew Baggaley / Liam Pitchford, ENG | 8 – Joanna Parker / Kelly Sibley, ENG |
| Reserve Doubles | Reserve Doubles |
| Chuang Chih-Yuan / Wu Chih-Chi, TPE | Yuka Ishigaki / Yuri Yamanashi, JPN |
| Emmanuel Lebesson / Adrien Mattenet, FRA | Sun Beibei / Yu Mengyu, SIN |
| Chiang Hung-Chieh / Huang Sheng-Sheng, TPE | Kang Mi Soon / Song Ma Eum, KOR |
| U21 Men's Singles | U21 Women's Singles |
| 1 – Kim Min Seok, KOR | 1 – Yang Ha Eun, KOR |
| 2 – Seo Hyun Deok, KOR | 2 – Kang Mi Soon, KOR |
| 3 – Koki Niwa, JPN | 3 – Kasumi Ishikawa, JPN |
| 4 – Chen Chien-An, TPE | 4 – Lee Ho Ching, HKG |
| 5 – Alexander Shibaev, RUS | 5 – Misaki Morizono, JPN |
| 6 – Lee Sang Su, KOR | 6 – Song Ma Eum, KOR |
| 7 – Jung Young Sik, KOR | 7 – Cheng I-Ching, TPE |
| 8 – Jin Ueda, JPN | 8 – Jeon Ji Hee, KOR |
| Reserve Players | Reserve Players |
| Jeong Sang Eun, KOR | Margaryta Pesotska, UKR |
| Chen Feng, SIN | NG Wing Nam, HKG |
| Patrick Franziska, GER | Saki Tashiro, JPN |
For more information on the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, or to buy tickets from just £10 visit www.etta.co.uk/grand-finals
Liam Pitchford led England’s charge at the INTERSPORT European Championships as the squad pulled off one shock after another in Gdansk-Sopot, Poland.
Pitchford, ranked 269th in the world, was the star of the show as the 18-year-old pulled off stunning wins over Vadlimir Samsonov (wr.9), Alexey Smirnov (20), Dmitrij Prokopcov (51) and Tomas Konecny (96) before finally being edged out 4-3 by world number 62 Wen He Zhi in the last 32 of the singles.