TTT30 Spring 2023

Drinkhall was again the first on the table and faced Can Akkuzu, world ranked 68 compared to Drinkhall’s 79.
It was a highly entertaining and closely fought match but the 25-year-old Frenchman eventually put France in
the lead winning 12, -11, 9, -5, 8.
Tom Jarvis was next on the table against Felix Lebrun, the 16-year-old pen holder, who is hitting the headlines.
Lebrun already world ranked at 69 had the ranking edge over Jarvis but there was little to tell between the
two of them as both played some superb table tennis. Jarvis came out of the starting blocks on fire and won
the first game 11-5 but then Lebrun stepped up a gear and won the next three ends 7, 8, 7 to put France 2-0
up.
The third match saw David McBeath, world ranked 404, which in no way reflects his ability, pitted against
another French youngster, 22-year-old Jules Roland, world ranked 128. Again, the England player came out
roaring and was 6-2 in the first game only to let it slip away as he lost that 11-7. The next two games both went
to deuce but it was the younger player who was the victor winning 7, 11, 13.
A 3-0 loss for England and the end of the evening. Although the score was disappointing the crowd would have
gone home after a good evening watching some excellent international table tennis on home soil for the first
time in a long while.
Can Akkuzu, Felix Lebrun, Jules Roland
The same England trio, Drinkhall, Jarvis and McBeath, travelled to Montpellier for the return match against
France, two days later on 29 th January 2023. The French this time had their number two player, Simon Gauzy,
world ranked 31, playing for them and Jarvis was his opponent in the first match of the evening. Gauzy’s
experience showed and it was a 6, 5, 7, win for the Frenchman. Drinkhall was next against young Felix Lebrun,
hoping to get revenge for Jarvis’s loss against him on Friday night. Although Drinkhall started well, he began
to fade and eventually lost 6, -12, -8, -5. The third and final match of the evening was McBeath against Can
Akkuzu and Akkuzu got another victory over an England player 9, 4, 5.
Final score 3-0 to France which put France at the top of the group with England in second place and Serbia
third. As the top two teams in the group qualified for the European Championships to be held from 10 th -17 th
September 2023 in Malmo, Sweden it meant England men were through along with France.
The Women’s team have one more hurdle to get over to qualify for the finals. They are one of 14 teams for
ten places and will need to play in a further matches to get to Malmo. The other teams are Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Turkiye and Wales. Good luck
ladies.
We await details of the format and fixtures for the remaining qualifiers and wish our players the best of luck
in qualifying and hope to see them in Malmo.
TTT: Issue 30: Spring 2023
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