The English Table Tennis Association

Tees Sport Doncaster Grand Prix-Preview

30th June 2010

This coming weekend, Saturday 3^rd and Sunday 4^th of July is the last of ten events to be played in the current Grand Prix series for the 2009/2010 playing season and will be held at the Dome, Doncaster Lakeside, in Bawtry Road, Doncaster.

Like so many of these extremely popular events it has attracted a full entry of players and once again will be highly competitive. The Men’s Open scheduled for Sunday is a top notch affair attracting players the calibre of Gavin Rumgay (S1), Ryan Jenkins (S2), Liam Pitchford (S3) Chris Doran (S4) Daniel Reed (S5) Matt Ware (S6) Damien Nicholls (S7) and Mike Marsden (S8) filling the top eight seedings. Anyone of them on the day is capable of winning the event, plus the challenge from another 80 competitors all hoping to make their mark on this last event.

Four of these players, Rumgay, Nicholls, Ware and Doran will be rewarded for their efforts throughout the year by taking the top four places in the total Grand Prix prize fund of £3,380. Gavin Rumgay has nosed ahead of long time point’s leader Damien Nicholls by 33 points, following the last Grand Prix at Hereford and these two will be either 1^st or 2^nd depending on their placement at Donny with a handsome cheque for £1,750 to the outright winner. Chris Doran has closed the gap to be only 4 points behind 3^rd placed Matt Ware after his losing finalist performance at Hereford with these two fighting for that £400 third prize. Niall Cameron and Mark Simpson look booked for 5^th and 6^th spot respectively.

Kelly Sibley heads the seeding in the Women’s Open but will have some strong opposition in the form of Karina Le Fevre (S2), Hannah Hicks (S3) and Egle Adomelyte (S4) all looking to get their hands on the £175 winner’s cheque. Lauren Spink (who played magnificently at Hereford) together with Yolanda King and Chloe Whyte could spring a few surprises, reaching the latter stages of this event.

In the race for the Grand Prix overall point’s tally winner’s, Egle Adomelyte looks to be the firm favourite to take the top prize as her nearest rival Emma Vickers is not included in the starting line up. Several young ladies are in the running for places 3-6 that include Annabelle Morle, Charlotte Carey with twin sisters Angharad and Megan Phillips coming into the equation.

Forget Wimbledon or the World Cup- the REAL action is taking place at the Doncaster Dome this weekend with the first serve starting at 8.45am on Saturday for this two day table tennis spectacular- come along and join in the excitement- ringside, and free of charge!

Look forward to seeing you there!

By Geoff Ware.

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