February 1st 2010
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De Ferrers Young Stars Make It To Regional Finals
After providing over half of the County Schools Team Table Tennis Championships winning side’s, Burton schools
sent 4 of those onto the Zonal final’s held at Bradford, competing against Derbyshire & South, West & North
Yorkshire. De Ferrers Technical College had 3 of those with entries in the girls & boys under 13’s and the boys
under 19’s. William Shrewsbury Primary School was also in action in the boys under 11’s.
The De Ferrers under 13 boys had a tough draw in the group having to play favourites Crossley Heath from Halifax.
Despite some close games they went down 6-2. Undeterred, they bounced back against Kingstone School, Barnsley,
with Joe Byrne, Andrew Heathcote & Liam Burt all unbeaten and Liam Calendar-Welch adding the final game for a 7-1
win. Confidence now began to show and their next opponents, Highfields School, Matlock, were brushed aside 6-2,
again with Joe, Andrew & Liam B taking the points. This meant a semi final game against the winner from the other
group, St.Mary’s College, Hull. Joe got things off to a good start winning the first game but losses for Andrew &
Liam C-W but De Ferrers on the back foot. But that was the last game St. Mary’s got close in, as Liam B made it
2-2 then Joe, Andrew & Liam B reeled off the next 3 games to go into the final. With both finalists’ qualifying
for the Regional finals it was just pride at stake now in a rematch with Crossley Heath and a scoreline of 3-5
was so nearly 4-4 as Joe was just edged out 12-10 in the 5th by Crossley’s number one. Still an improvement on
the first game and now thoughts turn to the Regional finals at Blackburn at the end of February, the first time
the under 13 boys have made it this far. Not to be outdone, the under 13 girls also made it through to Blackburn
in dramatic fashion. Their deciding game came against Bradford Grammar where an early 3-1 lead, after wins by
Bekki Lycett, Milly Bowering & Holly Webster, was reduced to a 4-3 deficit with Holly’s final game to play. Although
never more than 2 points in each game, Holly scored the points that mattered to win all 3 games 11-9 and bring
the tie level. A nervous wait then ensued as countback was used to determine their fate. With Bekki & Milly both
winning 3-0 and losing 3-1 this put the girls 2 games ahead. Holly’s 3-0 & 3-2 wins meant that Sophie Richardson
needed just a single game in her results to edge the team home and as she had taken a game in both her matches the
girls edged home by 2 games and joined the boys in the Regional finals.
William Shrewsbury were looking to emulate last year’s efforts of qualifying for the next stage but were immediately
up against it after a 5-3 loss to South Yorkshire qualifiers Dore Primary School. This left them having to beat Lees
Primary, Keighley for a semi final spot. Will Pearson lead the team from the front, taking his 2 games but everyone
mucked in as Lewis Acton, Dan Styne & Nick Purslow all won 1 each for a 5-3 victory. This put them up against the
very strong Dronfield Primary from Derbyshire and despite a good win for Will against Dronfield’s top player this
was where their journey ended as they went down 5-1. James Ward led the De Ferrers under 19 boys well remaining
unbeaten in his 3 games. But despite an early 5-3 win against Bradford Grammar, there were no other successes as
a 3rd place finish saw the team miss out on qualification by one place.
Full Press release details
here
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