The Swedish Experience

Maria participated at the Swedish Open for the Cadets. A lesson to be learned was not to have new rubbers the night before a tournament! One win was not enough to take her through to the knockout stage.
Lost to Panarina Maria from Russia 3-0 (4 7 7)
Lost to Kiritchenko Anna from Finland 3-1 (-9 10 10 6)
Beat Holmsten Ellen from Sweden 3-0 (7 6 7)

For the Safirs tournament and for the under 16s she beat Modert Michelle from Luxemburg 3-2 (-13, 5, -2. 5, 11) but then lost to Johansson Tilda 3-1 (-9, 9, 4, 11).

For the Safirs under 18s she reached the last 16 with the help of two withdraws (Folkesson Stine from Norway and Bergstrom Linda from Sweden) and a notable win against Ashley Givan from Ireland with 3-1 (7 8 -6 5). Then she had to face Yolanda King from England and lost 3-1 (4 -9 7 8) showing problems with dealing with Yolanda's serve.

All in all a mixed weekend in terms of results.

Day 4 (and final) at the Academy

Sunday morning session and it seems that in addition to the European players Latin America is here as well. Players from Venezuela, Chile, Puerto Rico and Uruguay!







with Dirk Wagner





with Provas Mondal



Lazy afternoon at Vienna

Having the afternoon off we are visiting the Vienna city centre

Day 3 at WSA

Morning session begun with Maria practising with another Venezuelan girl and then with an Austrian girl. Intensive training and illustrates that hard work is still needed to compete at European and world level. Most impressed with the quality of the many girls training at the academy and whereas can hold on her own we are far from European domination :-)

Second day at WSA

Waking up at the Albrecht hotel, few minutes walk from the academy, arrived at the hall ready for the morning session.
Physical at 9:30! Practising with a 16 year old from Venezuela. Second session started, playing with an Austrian girl.

Visiting the WSA

Arrived at the Werner Schlager Academy at Vienna, Austria for few days of table tennis training.

Very impressive first session. Quality of girls extremely good.

Junior British League: Second and Final Weekend

The St Andrews Team (Maria, Lois and Letitia) finished top of the First Division of the Junior British League.

Final Table

POS	TEAM	PLAYED	W	D	L	F	A	POINTS

Position Team                                   Played      W D L  F A    Points
1            St Andrews                        10             6  4  0  45 15 16


2            Burton Uxbridge 2              10            4   5 1  38 22  13

3            Bankfield                            10            3   5 2  30 30  11

4            Morpeth Greenhouse TTK 10             3  4  3  29 31  10

5            BATTS A                          10             1  3 6   21 39    5

6           Grantham Tornadoes           10             2 1 7 1   7 43    5

Maria's results:

E.Patel	Away	BATTS A		7-11 7-11 5-11	Win
A.Gibson	Away	BATTS A		3-11 7-11 13-15	Win
N.Jackson	Home	Grantham Tornadoes		11-8 15-13 11-7	Win
E.Bolton	Home	Grantham Tornadoes		11-7 11-8 12-10	Win
H.Taylor	Away	Morpeth Greenhouse TTK		4-11 3-11 3-11	Win
M.Yasmin	Away	Morpeth Greenhouse TTK		3-11 6-11 9-11	Win
M.Vaitkeviciute	Away	Burton Uxbridge 2		6-11 3-11 11-5 11-8 11-6	Loss
L.Zhu	Away	Burton Uxbridge 2		4-11 3-11 5-11	Win

C.Slot                Home Bankfield                             11-5 11-6 11-8                   Win


J.Gibson             Home Bankfield                            11-8 9-11 11-4 7-11 11-8  Win

Maria's Averages

Played:        20
Won:           17
Lost:              3
%Win:         85%

JBL website

Sports Aid Award

Maria has joined some of britain's most successful sportsmen and sportswomen as she has been awarded a sportsaid award for this year. The money were raised by a donation of Airwave, a company that builts and operates the largest public safety radio communications network in the world.