Will it snow? will it snow? will it snow? that was the question on the lips of players, teachers and USTTA officials and friends on the run up to the 2023 Uster Primary School Table Tennis Singles set for Banbridge Leisure Centre on Thursday 9th March 2023.
Most of the 107 players entered ventured out to the event and were rewarded with four hours of friendly competition and fun. The weather gods staved off the worst of the weather predicted by the Amber weather warnings until 4pm giving the young players time to be driven back to the relative safety of there homes.
The group and knock out results are listed below and a huge congratulations to all those who took part. Special mention must be made of the top performers in each age group contested:
U12 Boys gold medal Karstan Close
U12 Boys silver medal Angus Bell
U12 boys bronze medals Teddy McCandless and Curtis Rutten
U12 Girls gold medal Polly Smith
U12 Girls silver medal Leah Gal
U12 bronze medals Amber McCullagh and Jenny McQuiston
U10 Boys
U10 Boys gold medal Tobias Gal
U10 Boys silver medal Oliver Zagrapan
U10 Boys bronze medals Jacob Steele and Jack Maguire
U10 Girls
U10 Girls gold medal Lauren Hill
U10 Girls silver medal Darcy Drennan
U10 Gurls bronze medals Evelyn Stocks and Faith McAdam
The one casualty of the event was the Consolation singles which could not be finished as the Leisure Centre manager decided, in the interest of safety, to close the building at 3pm. This meant that all table tennis had to finish at 2.30pm to give time to clear the hall of the table tennis tables, umpire tables, surrounds etc brought to the location especially for the event.
The USTTA would like to thank all the hard workers who made the event possible namely, Arnold Morgan, Jimmy Sterling and Joe Colvin who brought all the equipment to the Hall and returned it immediately after the event. Ryan from TTU headquarters who helped with the presentation, Alex for his excellent photography , Robert and Sandra for supervising the play and tournament Referee Norman McBride ably assisted by Stephen Clarke and Trevor Gillespie, who ensured the events were completed in time.
Finally a big thank you to the staff at the leisure centre who were extremely helpful with setting up tables and the parents and teachers who helped keep order on the day. Roll on 2024!
