New Season Starts Well

On Saturday Maria won the Sussex 4* Cadet Series beating Lois Peake 3-1 at the final. This was followed with a semi final slot for the Junior players on Sunday.

2011 Six Nations Tournaments: Results

The Cadet Team 2011

The tournament took place at Dusseldorf, Germany over three days (17-19 June). Maria participated with the England Cadet team together with Tin Tin Ho, Emily Bolton and Lois Peake for the group and individual stages.

Maria played and beat the following girls:
Melissa Bours (Netherlands)
Karoline Dam Mortensen (Denmark)
Nicoline Kofoed (Denmark)
Emma Hojlund (Denmark)
Kristina Kallberg (Sweden)
Erica Fronth (Sweden)

six wins out of 15 games. The German and French girls were too strong this time! The tournament provided Maria with her first international experience. Well done to Tin Tin for winning the individual section. Read the ETTA report.

Cadet Masters

Over the weekend Maria participated for the first time at the Cadet Masters. The top 12 girls plus 2 wild cards were invited and Maria was the 5th seed. All players had to play each other and Maria won 9 out of 13 games to finish 4th, one point behind the third player.

England Call Up

Maria is due to represent England for the forthcoming Cadet 6 Nations in Germany in June. This is the first call up for Maria and the competition will provide valuable european experience for her future development.

Nationals U14s Photos

Flickr: English Table Tennis Association's stuff tagged with mariatsaptsinos: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Nationals Under 11-14: A National Champion

On the 30th of April Maria reached the final of the Under14s girls and faced Tin Tin Ho. Maria's forehand and determination brought her a great win by 3 sets to 1 for her first title of her career.

ETTA website reports: A superb display by No 2 seed Maria Tsaptsinos inflicted the only defeat at these championships in the last several years on the Number 1 seed Tin Tin Ho in the final of the Under 14 Girls. Maria’s two winged attack was just too strong for Tin Tin and only the third game went the way of Tin Tin in a 3-1 defeat.

Under 14 Girls Singles Group 2

Player	1	2	3	4	Points	Played	Position
Maria TSAPTSINOS (Bk)	---	3-0	3-0	3-0	6	3	1
Nicole BIRD (Np)	0-3	---	3-1	3-0	5	3	2
Lara ESQUIVEL (E)	0-3	1-3	---	0-3	3	3	4
Emma SHEEN (Sx)	0-3	0-3	3-0	---	4	3	3

Individual Results
Nicole BIRD v Emma SHEEN	11-7,11-4,11-5
Maria TSAPTSINOS v Lara ESQUIVEL	11-6,11-5,11-2
Maria TSAPTSINOS v Nicole BIRD	11-5,11-6,11-8
Emma SHEEN v Lara ESQUIVEL	11-7,11-3,11-6
Maria TSAPTSINOS v Emma SHEEN	11-6,11-8,11-5
Lara ESQUIVEL v Nicole BIRD	11-6,6-11,6-11,6-11

208 Letitia McMULLAN (Ha)		208 Letitia McMULLAN (Ha)		208 Letitia McMULLAN (Ha) 4 3 -9 7
Bye
Bye		216 Bethany WILSON (Dv)				202 Maria TSAPTSINOS (Bk) 4 5 10
216 Bethany WILSON (Dv)
211 Kayleigh FORSTER (Cv)		209 Amy HUMPHREYS (Ng) W/O		202 Maria TSAPTSINOS (Bk) 7 4 10
209 Amy HUMPHREYS (Ng)
Bye		202 Maria TSAPTSINOS (Bk)

201 Tin-Tin HO (Mi)		201 Tin-Tin HO (Mi) 7 12 7		202 Maria TSAPTSINOS (Bk) 6 10 -4 6
205 Chrissie SLOT (Ha)
206 Emily BOLTON (Cu)		202 Maria TSAPTSINOS (Bk) 7 2 2

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.