Berkshire Juniors

A young Berkshire Junior team have won the County Championships Division 1B in some style, winning all seven of their matches in the process.

Starting out in Okehampton, Berkshire played well in beating Cornwall (8-2), Glamorgan (9-1) and finally hosts and eventual League runners-up Devon (7-3) in an exciting encounter. Liam McTiernan and Daniel Moses remained undefeated, whilst Jarred Knowles only lost once - to the Dorset number 1, Dominic Sussex.

The girls, Megan Knowles and Maria Tsaptsinos, found it more difficult as they were up against several highly ranked English and Welsh juniors. Nevertheless, both played with a lot of determination in winning four and three out of six matches respectively. Megan’s important 3-2 victory over Devon’s Vicky Smith was the most impressive win of the day by any Berkshire player.  

The championship continued in Bristol where 11 year old Daniel McTiernan got his first start, winning both his matches against Dorset, the second over Patrick Hurley 3-2 having saved four match points. After several other close matches, including a 3-2 win for Liam over Dorset’s No 1 Hugo Pang, Berkshire eventually secured a comprehensive 10-0 win.

This was followed up by two more highly impressive maximum 10-0 victories against Avon and Essex 2, which left a match with a strong looking Surrey team for the title.

Berkshire started brightly with Liam and Jarred winning by three sets to nil against Marcus Giles and Anthony Patten receptively. This was followed up by an excellent brace of wins for Megan and from that point on the side never looked back, winning the match 9-1 and with it the Championship.

This is the second year running that that Berkshire have gained promotion and with just one player (Daniel Moses) dropping out due to his age, they will go into next season with confidence.

Royal County of Berkshire Junior Secretary, Adam McTiernan, has congratulated the players and sent his thanks to the parents for their support of the team.

Regional Squad championships Doncaster April 17th, 2011

On april 17th the Southern regional squad consisting of 8 boys and 7 girls travelled to Doncaster to defend their title. The squad consisting of some experienced capaigners and some fresh youngsters.
Danial Mctiernan, Megan Knowles, Maria Tsaptsinos, Jonathan Abbott and Christopher Johnson from Reading were joined by Letitia and Jonathan Mcmullen, Vincent Cheung, and Sam Masson from Generation 2 club Fareham and Southampton Star’s Richard White and Chrissie Slot, and Milton Keynes own little star Oliver Thomas. Portsmouth’s Brooke Perrin and the u11 girl dynamos Amy Blagborough and Immigen Scarles.
Unfortunatly we got off to a very poor start narrowly losing our opening match to Eastern 7-5 and then 8-4 to a very strong East Midlands team who were eventually the runners-up.
We bounced back with two good wins agaisnt Yorkshire and the South West and narrowly lost the playoff to the South East to finish in 6th place. Even though our position finsihed quite low there were some fantastic individual performancesnotably Letitia Mcmullen who recorded 5 out of 5 wins and also a magnificent 5 wins on her debut for Immogen Scarles. Amy Blagbrough assisted with 4 wins out of 5 (the u11 girls won an impressive 9 out of 10 matches in their event) The u15 girls also did well with Megan Knowles contributing an impressive 3 wins nso losses and she was backed up by Maria and Chrissie recording 2 out of 3. The “little nugget” Danial Mctiernan impressed all by winning 4 out of 5 in the u15 event when he should have been playing in the u13 event, he showed that when the mood takes him he can really turn it on agaisnt older opposition. Jonathan Mcmullen showed he is also a star in the making for the Mcmullen family with two wins out of 5 in th u11 boys.
Overall everyone contributed to the squad and even though many had not played at such a high level before got stuck in and learnt alot from the days play.
A special thanks to all my helpers Rod, Sara, Steve, Jarred, and Charlie. Congratulations to London for an impressive win.

Derby 4* tournament

Reached the final of the Cadets, runner up to Isobel Ashley after a close game (2-3). On the way to the final Maria had 5 wins dropping only one set.

GLL Foundation Award

To mark '500 days' until the beginning of the 'London 2012 Olympics', the GLL Sport Foundation announced that for 2011 it will support over 850 young sportsmen and women from across London and the South of England. The GLL Sport Foundation was founded in 2008 with Sally Gunnell OBE as Patron.  It plans to give in excess of £1.5m to young athletes in selected areas of London and the South of England in the run up to 2012 and beyond.

The 2011 Awards combine training grants and financial assistance to athletes worth in excess of £400,000. This makes the GLL Sport Foundation one of the largest independent athlete talent support structures in the UK.

The successful applicants were announced on 15th March 2011 at a VIP event held at the landmark building 'One Canada Square; Canary Wharf in London.  The venue gave fantastic panoramic views of the emerging 'Olympic Park', where many of the Foundation athletes aspire to compete.

The athletes sponsored by the Foundation represent over 60 sports across a broad range of Olympic, Paralympic, Deaflympic and Special Olympic sporting disciplines ranging from athletics and swimming through to gymnastics, judo, fencing, and wheelchair basketball. 

Awards were presented to a selection of individual young athletes representing various sports. Maria Tsaptsinos,  was invited to attend and represent Table Tennis. Maria was presented with her award by Zac Purchase MBE, Olympic and World lightweight men's double sculls rowing champion and Peter Bundey, Chair of the GLL Sport Foundation.

GLL report

Tin-Tin Ho v Maria Tsaptsinos - Cadet Girls Singles Final

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_lNP30IydE&feature=player_embedded#!

New Rankings

The new rankings came out today. Maria stayed 5th (Cadets) but narrowed the difference with the 3 girls above her. For the Juniors moved up three places to 25th.

England International Youth Squads

Congratulations for being invited to the ETTA International Youth Squad for the coming season at Cadet level by the England Junior Selection panel. The hard work and good performances of the past two months have paid off.