Smash bang wallop – what a show! Or rather Smash! Slice! Spin! But what a show!
On Saturday, the inaugural Windlesham House table tennis squads made their way to Edge Grove School near Watford for the IAPS national table tennis championships where 136 pupils from 22 schools were competing.
In the boys matches, two groups of four pupils (group A & group B) were assigned to a table and had to play their three opponents with the top two scorers from group A playing the top scorers from group B, with the top two progressing to the knockout rounds.
Félix, Andrey, Siteng and Max in the U11 squad were calm, focused – a little bit nervous at the start – but determined to do their best and enjoy themselves. The boys have been practising their serves and how to improve their spin with all of them demonstrating a variety of strokes and game play. Serves were good and they won many points, with Andrey, who won half of his games, just edging into the table playoffs, where he was placed fourth.
As well as the improvement throughout the day, the gamesmanship was evident with hands up to acknowledge a tricksy net cord and handshakes at the end of each match with the opponent and referee. Well played boys.
Nacho N, Ollie, Bertie & Nacho P played for the U13 squad where the competition was very stiff. Determined as ever, they demonstrated skills with their shots, smashes and spins. At times, it was frustrating when the ball just sailed off the table or went long. While we didn’t make it through to the next round, we showed great potential as the squad continued to improve the more they played.
With fewer girls in the competition, they all played each other vying to reach the top four places. Emilia, Chloe, Molly and Florence played four other competitors (two of them playing at county level). Our girls played exceptionally well winning several games each. Chloe and Emilia were placed in the last four. Emilia was pipped at the post for the finals which meant a battle between her and Chloe for third and fourth position. After the happiest of matches, Emilia prevailed and was awarded with a third place medal with Chloe collecting a handshake!
Great play and fantastic sportsmanship from all our squads who made Windlesham House proud.
