Junior Masters Results

Presentation of the top three junior girls

The postponed Junior Masters took place at Grantham College over the weekend of 16-17 March 2013. The format of the tournament is for 14 junior girls to compete against each other over two days. Unfortunately one of the players could not make it so the results below are against the other 12 girls.

vs Letitia McMullan 3-1 ( -8 8 3 6)

with Alan Cooke

vs Kate Nixon 3-0 (5 10 1)
vs Janay Gibson 3-0 (10 4 4)
vs Lois Peake 3-0 (9 14 8)
vs Amy Humphries 3-1 (5 -10 9 9)
vs Olivia Church 3-0 (10 8 6)
vs Nicole Finn 3-0 (2 7 1)
vs Emily Bolton 3-1 (-3 8 7 8)
vs Ella Patel 3-0 (3 4 5)
vs Megan Knowles 3-0 (4 8 8)
vs Daniella Gray 3-0 (4 3 5)
vs Tin Tin Ho 0-3 (-6 -8 -9)

Therefore the results went with form and Maria who was seeded second finished the tiring weekend on the predicted position.

One of the interesting games was against Letitia, Maria had a bye for the first round due to the absence of the 14th player, and Letitia was one set up and 8-3 up on the second for Maria to turn it around by winning 8 straight points.

All photos courtesy of Michael Loveder

with Dimitris at the end

Lois, Tin Tin,  Maria 

New ranking position

The March ranking list was published today. Maria has moved to the 12th position for the Senior Women and remained fifth for the Junior Girls.
ETTA ranking list

Malta Junior & Cadet Open selections — The English Table Tennis Association

The following players have been selected by the ETTA for the Malta Junior & Cadet Open from 4-7 April 2013:


Junior Boys: Sam Walker, Helshan Weerasinghe and George Downing

Junior Girls: Tin-Tin Ho, Lois Peake and Maria Tsaptsinos

Cadet Boys: Marcus Giles and Tom Jarvis

Cadet Girls (singles only): Tin-Tin Ho

Coaches: Alan Cooke, Jia Yi Liu and Craig Bryant



Malta Junior & Cadet Open selections — The English Table Tennis Association

Junior & Cadet 6 Home Nations

Over the weekend an eight-man team  head to Preston’s Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre to take on Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Guernsey and Isle of Man. Maria was part of the Junior Team, with Lois Peake and particpated at the team event and singles. The Welsh junior girls were the only side to break the English dominance on the team events resulting in the second place for Maria and Lois. For the individual event Maria was seeded number 2 with Charlotte Carey as the number 1. Maria won her four group games (all but one by 3-1, the interesting thing is that she lost the first set every time!) and then faced co-patriot Lois Peake. Carrying on the "tradition" she lost the first set 11-9 but subsequently won 11-8, 11-3, 11-4 to reach the final whereas she lost 3-0 to Charlotte but in three very close games (11-7, 12-10, 12-10).

Nationals gallery

National championships 2013

A good three day tournament for Maria, on Friday reaching the quarter finals for the under21s, reaching the second round of the women's singles and the semifinal for the women's doubles.

For the under21 group stage Maria won all her three games against formidable opponents.

vs Emma Tovey 3-1 10-12 11-4 12-10 11-7
Vs Tiana Dennison 3-0 11-5 11-3 11-2
vs Chloe Whyte 3-0 11-4 11-8 11-7

In the next round she had to face in-form and eventual winner Tin Tin Ho losing 3-1 11-8 5-11 6-11 6-11

For the mixed doubles she partnered Liam McTiernan a replacement for Tom Maynard who got injured. In the first round they faced Jamal Dennison and Emma Tovey. A 3-0 win 11-7 11-7 15-13 showed them through to round 2 where they faced number three seeds Chris Doran and Hannah Hicks. A well fought defeat by 3-0 9-11 9-11 6-21 ended their progress to the next round.

For the women's singles Maria once again won her three group games to top her group.

vs Charlotte Spence 3-0 11-6 11-8 11-6
vs Evangeline Collier 3-1 11-5 11-6 8-11 11-9
vs Emma Torkington 3-1 11-3 12-10 7-11 11-5

For the first round she had to face Vicky Smith a higher ranked player and with the luck on her side at a couple of times she was victorious with a 4-0 score (12-10 11-7 12-10 15-13).

For the second round Latina Le Fevre a much higher ranked player was waiting. Despite maria's tremendous performance an edge and a net helped Karina to win on the seventh set (8-11 11-8 10-12 11-5 11-9 7-11 8-11)

Two wins against Sophie Neil & Amy Humpreys 3-0 (11-8 11-2 11-5) and Yolanda King & Abbie Milwain 3-2 (11-8 12-10 5-11 9-11 11-9) let Maria and Tin Tin reach the semifinal of the women's doubles against the England's two leading ladies Jo Parker & Kelly Simbley. Whoever expected an easy ride for the two professional ladies was wrong despite that they won at the end 3-1 (6-11 11-9 10-12 9-11).

Overall a great weekend which could had been slightly better if the lady luck was on our side at one particular match.