Amy Blagbrough in full flow v. Lara Esquivel

Chrissie Slot, Amy Blagbrough and Letitia McMullen from the Gen II club of Fareham all competed in their respective age group championships at the Dome in Doncaster.

Chrissie paired up with Maria Tsapatsinos from the Kingfisher Club to take the Silver Medal in the U14 Girls doubles - well done girls! Unfortunately Chrissie had a bit of an off day in the singles and her expected clash with Tin Tin Ho in the U13 final didn't materialise.

However in the U12 event Letitia McMullen who had been playing some superb table tennis recorded a fine win against number 2 seed Emily Bolton to set up a clash with Tin Tin in the final. Tin Tin proved a bit too strong on the day (have I heard that somewhere before) but a tremendous achievement and a silver medal for Letitia. Letitia also recorded a fine win over an out of sorts No 2 seed Chrissie in the U13 event.

Amy Blagbrough started her campaign in the same group as No2 seed for the U12 girls Emily Bolton. Amy played well and competed well with Emily before succumbing to the older more experienced girl. However Amy continued to play strongly and ensured qualification from the group, of the age group two years her senior, with a win against Rio OSUMI. This set up a clash with Lara ESQUIVEL an England Schools International where Amy gave her all but couldn't quite come to terms with the awkward floated push Lara used to great effect.

In the U11 event Amy's group turned out to be a tough one with all the girls showing the seeding were a bit astray (as they can be of course in this age group). The matches were all tough as seen by the fact their group finished 45 minutes later than all the others. Amy won two and lost one - the loss was controversial as Amy served at game point and her opponent failed to return it, the umpire noticed a girl from the next court waiting for her ball which had rolled into the back of Amy's court and ruled the point as a let despite no one including him having noticed until after the point was completed. Robbed of her victory Amy didn't recover and the loss was to prove very costly, though she won her other two matches she was placed third on countback despite having beaten the girl who was placed first. Amy finished the group strongly and can take comfort from the fact that her performances bode well for her return to the U11 event next year.

Emma Marlow and Brooke Perren from Portsmouth made up the Hampshire girls contingent and Brooke performed really well under the guidance of our good friend Adam Proszko to qualify from her U11 Group and reach the next round.

So not a bad weekend for the Hampshire girls - Letitia taking silver in U12 and Amy in fine form at her first nationals. Chrissie will be disappointed with her loss of form in the singles events but in the way of true champions still took a doubles medal when she was not at her best. Things look good for a future Hampshire County team.

Hampshire boys at the event were Oliver Hack, Jake Goodchild, Jonathan McMullen  & Tellog Singh. Oliver and Jake did really well to qualify for the event and can now say they played in the National Championship finals - well done boys. Jonathan McMullen & Tellog Singh performed well and took ends in their matches, they have several years still in these age categories and we look forward to future performances from them.