Joel Smith Blackpool 4*

On Saturday 11th September, Joel Smith from our performance squad competed in the Blackpool 4*, playing in the cadet boys (under 15’s) and the cadet boys band 1 events.

Joel has written a write up about the competition, here is what he had to say:

“On Saturday 11th of September, I took part in Blackpool 4*. I had some very competitive games and came away with lots of things to go back to the training hall and work on so I can come back even stronger in my next competition. In my cadet group I had three people to play. I comfortably won my first two games as I managed to get my open ups in which allowed me to control the game. My last game in the group was against Yiannis Kazantzidis (ranked 7 in u15) unfortunately I lost this game 3:1 but I was very pleased with my performance as I made him work for the win and even had opportunities to change the game completely which I didn’t take. However, I still qualified out of my group second. In the round of 16, I lost to Zach Greenhough. I Struggled to get myself into the game and by the time I got myself playing it was too late. However, in the last leg I played some of the best table tennis I ever have and the hard work in training was becoming evident.

I then played band 1 cadets in the afternoon, but I wasn’t successful in making it out of my group. I had two very close games, but I was unable to win any of them as at times I struggled to impose my game onto the match. Again, I performed well but some minor changes need to be made in the training hall so that I can get to the next level and hopefully go one better in the next competition.

Thank you to Paul for coming all the way to Blackpool to corner coach me.” Joel Smith