Ex-Waterside Junior player Hannah Hicks performs strongly in Russia

Hannah started playing at her local Andover club then progressed to Waterside before coach Ken invited pimples specialist Rowden Fullen to have a look at her after she showed an affinity to playing with this material. Both coaches agreed there was huge potential and shortly after Rowden took over her development. Her style has changed due to material rule changes but the talent remains. Now Hannah trains full time at the National Centre in Sheffield and Women's Head Coach Alan Cooke points to this as he describes her performance and potential to go further.

From the ITTF website
Quietly and perhaps to their surprise, the English Women’s Team finished in first place in Division Two at the Evergrande Real Estate World Team Championships in Guangzhou in 2008 and thus gained promotion to the Championship Division.

Two years ago they relied heavily on Kelly Sibley and Joanna Parker to guide them to victory.

In Moscow at the Liebherr World Team Championships on Sunday 23rd May 2010, the two young ladies were on duty again but it was the debutante, 19 year old Hannah Hicks who stole the show.

She beat Sarah Kanz in the second match of the fixture to help pave the way for a three-two England victory over Austria.

Li Qiangbing Unbeaten
Without the services of Liu Jia, much depended for Austria on Li Qiangbing; she duly delivered the goods beating both Joanna Parker and Hannah Hicks.

It was a fine effort by Li Qiangbing, she was forced to use her reserve racket, her original choice having failed the racket test.

Meanwhile, Kelly Sibley overcame Martina Petzner and with the score in the fixture level at two matches all; Joanna Parker duly used her defensive skills to full effect to beat Sarah Kanz and thus continued the Guangzhou momentum.

Tactical Change
The choice of playing Kelly Sibley in the no.3 position where she only played one match, having always played in the no.1 or no.2 positions in Guangzhou was somewhat of a surprise but Head Coach, Alan Cooke, had his reasons and he was vindicated.

“It was a tactical decision; we knew Li Qiangbing would play the quick ones”, said Alan Cooke. “Certainly the performance of Hannah Hicks was a real bonus; she’s now full-time at the Training Centre in Sheffield, I think she has the qualities to go further.”

Attributes
So what are those attributes?

“She fights, she’s determined, she hates losing”, said Alan Cooke who could have been talking about himself!

“Yes, it’s a chance for Hannah and the other girls to test herself against world class players”, continued Alan Cooke. “For sure this is a new level playing in the Championship Division and we need a third player to join Kelly and Joanna.”

It seems they’ve found one!