Success for Davies Brothers at Lancashire Table Tennis Association Trials

Lancashire Table Tennis Association Junior (U/18) & Cadet (U/15) Trials

September 10^th – 11^th 2016 – Garstang

Brothers Max & Rhys Davies were nominated by the Southport Table Tennis League to compete in the Lancashire County Trials held recently in Garstang. They played in both the U/18 and U/15 categories against the best players in Lancashire and Cumbria with the objective of being selected to represent Lancashire in the County Championships.

With a couple of players pre-selected due their high national rankings and 2 Junior Teams competing for Lancashire there would up to 6 places for boys and 5 for the girls to fight for – the players play in a series of round robin matches which results in a county ranking from 1 to 30!

Unseeded Rhys got off to a good start winning his original group and beating the 6th seed in the process before coming up against the top seed in the next phase where he lost his 1^st match. This meant that he was in a battle to make the 2^nd team. Another win against a seeded player ensured that Rhys finished 5^th (having won 7 of his 9 matches) and will represent Lancashire for the 2^nd year in a row at U/18 level and he is still only 11. Older brother Max found the going a bit tougher but finished the day having won 4 of his 9 matches.

Both boys returned the next day to start the process again in the U/15s, this time though Rhys was the top seed and duly won his 1^st group without dropping a set. Max performed very well and upset the seeding to win his group and make it to the 2^nd phase.  At this stage there are 4 groups (of 4 players) and unfortunately the draw didn’t favour Max as he was now in a group with 2 of his club mates, one of which was his brother! Rhys won all his matches without dropping a set and Max battled to 2^nd place in the group. The final phase saw all the group winners play for places 1-4 and all the 2^nd places battle for 5^th– 8^th and so on.

Rhys lived up to his billing dropping only 1 set in the process and secured the top spot in the trials. Max continued his fine form winning his 1^st 2 matches before a close battle saw him lose the 5^th / 6^th in 3 very close sets. Rhys will therefore represent Lancashire at both U/15 and U/18 level with Max on standby as a reserve.