Annual Report 12/13 - The English Table Tennis Association

Les D’Arcy
March
March began with the 54th English Senior
National Championships where 19-yearold
Liam Pitchford won his first-ever Men’s
Singles title over four-time Champion Paul
Drinkhall.
Twenty-four-year-old Kelly Sibley retained
her Women’s Singles crown following
a dramatic 4-3 win over Joanna Parker.
Meanwhile, there were maiden National
Under-21 titles for both Sam Walker and
Tin-Tin Ho.
Helshan Weerasinghe
April
Annual Snapshot
March also brought the announcement that
ETTA Chief Executive, Richard Yule, would
retire at the end of May. His retirement
brought to an end the 18-year tenure of one
of the ETTA’s hardest working and widely
respected Chief Executives.
There was almost a historic ‘royal rumble’ in
April as Pippa Middleton challenged Mayor
of London, Boris Johnson, to a game of
‘ping pong’ after claiming she once played
at a National Championships.
Instead it was 14-year-old Tin-Tin Ho who
re-wrote the history books after becoming
the first-ever English girl to reach the No. 1
spot in the European table tennis rankings.
Fellow junior England star Helshan
Weerasinghe also made the headlines with
an appearance on Channel 4’s Sunday
Brunch programme by partnering former
Olympian Matthew Syed.
May
England’s No. 1 junior
Sam Walker had a
month to remember in
May following several
high profile appearances.
While the youngster made
his screen debut on Sky
Sports’ Soccer AM show,
where he faced former
Bolton Manager Owen Coyle,
he also made his senior
England debut when he
played at the Commonwealth
Championships in India.
Walker, who beat India’s Sharath
Kamal Achanta (WR 69) on his
birthday, helped England’s men
to a team bronze, while alongside
Chris Doran he also won silver in
the Men’s Doubles.
His were two of five medals that the
English players picked up in New
Delhi before they headed off to the
World Championships in Paris.
Liam Pitchford
Sam Walker
13