Young Welsh athletes show promise at British Primary Schools tournament

Table Tennis Wales took a team of eight Dragon Squad players to the British Primary Schools tournament in Jersey recently, where they demonstrated their strong potential amid solid competition.  

The event comprises of players at primary school and year seven ages, from Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, Guernsey and Jersey. 

The events included are both team and individual, with the team event comprising of both singles and doubles matches. 

Wales took four boys and four girls to the competition. The boys’ team was made up of Oliver Harvey, Dylan Williams, Jenson-Denton Smith, and Will Parsonage, coming fourth in the tam event as they beat Guernsey 7-3 and Jersey 8-2 but fell to 10-0, 7-3 and 8-2 defeats to England, Ireland and Scotland respectively.  

Table Tennis Wales would like to congratulate the boys on their significant improvement from last year, when they finished in last position.  

A special mention must go to Oliver Harvey who went on to win the Plate competition in the individual event, earning a 3-0 victory over semi-final opponent Evan Ness before beating Adam Hedderly 3-1 in the final. 

 

 

The four girls who travelled to Jersey were Penny Muil, Ffion Evans, Jessie Daniel and Eloise Burnell, all of whom put up a huge fight to come away with some great results.  

The girls only just missed out on a podium place, recording a whitewash 10-0 victory over Guernsey as well as a comprehensive 9-1 win over Ireland. However, they also lost 10-0 to England and came out with excruciatingly narrow 6-4 defeats to both Scotland and Jersey.  

Despite missing out on a podium place, there was great encouragement from the girls’ performances, with all winning more matches than last year. 

In the singles event, three of the four girls made it into the main draw, which was again an improvement from last year. Ffion Evans and Penny Muil both topped their groups and Jessie Daniel had some strong wins to go through as runner-up.  

Penny Muil unfortunately succumbed to a very strong Scotland number one in the last sixteen, with Jessie Daniel also exiting at the same stage. Ffion Evans progressed to the quarter-final, but was eliminated by Scotland’s number two. 

Eloise Burnell managed a quarter-final finish in the Plate competition but couldn’t overturn the home advantage as she was beaten by a Jersey player. Having previously lost in straight sets to the player, Eloise can hold her head high having pushed her opponent to five sets.  

Our coaching team deserves a big thank you, with Callum Evans and Sam Slater taking the boys and Cerys Evans taking the girls. 

Table Tennis Wales would also like to thank the volunteers and umpires who supported and made this event possible.