IC table tennis just miss out on finals

Unfortunately Nan Luan injured her back the previous week and could not play. However Christina Vajdi stepped in as a worthy substitute playing in her first match of the season. 

The opposing team were Kathryn Butler and Sarah Hubbard who is my Kent team mate in the County Championships. First I comfortably beat Kathryn 11-3, 11-4, 11-4. Then Christina took on Sarah. Christina took time to settle into her first match and Sarah quickly took the initiative by taking the first game 11-7. However Christina soon found her form and used her experience to win the next three games 11-4, 11-8, 11-3 and claim a 2-0 lead for Imperial. Christina then beat Kathryn comfortably 11-5, 11-2, 11-4 to seal a 3-0 lead. Finally I played Sarah who seemed prepared as she raced to a 4-0 lead in the first game but I held my nerve to come back and take the first game 14-12. But Sarah took an 8-5 lead in the second game but again I played better under pressure and took the second game 11-9. With greater confidence I claimed the third game 11-3 to confirm the win for our team.

It has been a strong debut season for the Imperial ladies as we recorded wins over Essex, King’s and Brighton to finish 3rd in the South East division behind Middlesex who have former Lithuanian International Egle Adomelyte and London Metropolitan - who have Chinese International players including former World no.7 Fei Ming Tong – and I’m sure will win the team event. 

Unfortunately we needed to finish in the top two to qualify for the quarter-finals. Still it is a great achievement as we are in the strongest division in the country. Yet the South West division only have 2 teams in total who automatically qualify for the quarter-finals, now where is the fairness in that! Hopefully a team will pull out so we can qualify! 

Finally I would like to thank Nan and Christina for contributing to a great season for our team. Lets hope we can improve next year. In the meantime, I look forward to participating in the BUSA championships with my fellow club members this month and hope we can bring more medals back to Imperial!