Well done Michael !

[DaveR]

The Hereford Butterfly Grand Prix

Day One Report.

The final Event in the series of Butterfly Grand Prix Events sponsored by Tees-Sport took place in the picturesque City of Hereford. Held at the Leisure Centre on Saturday 7th June the banded events got under way on day one. There was a truly International flavour added to the proceedings with players flying in from Jersey, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and also from Austria, Hungary and Sweden, together with huge cheques being paid out for the 2008 series winners, to a total figure of £13,200.

The Men’s Band One title went to Austrian competitor Hannes Weiss, who, after a close 21-19 win in the first end, dominated David McBeath from Hampshire in the final. The Austrian proved a worthy winner, with a great result in the semi-final against Neil Charles surviving two match points down in the final end. In the earlier rounds Weiss enjoyed victories over Julian Gittens and Niall Cameron to set up his titanic penultimate struggle with Charles. David Macbeth was in great form during this competition recording wins against Mark Simpson, Peter Graham, followed up with a gritty win over Vytautas Rybakas in the semi final. McBeath however in the final could not cope with the forehand bombs the Austrian threw at him, losing out in straight sets.

The Women’s Band One winner was Sanja Clements from Dorset, being a straights sets winner over Hampshire’s Hannah Hicks in the final. Sanja enjoyed wins over Lindsey Armstrong and Sally Smith in the rounds to set up her final confrontation with Hicks. Hannah was also in good form recording successes over Stephanie Donnelly and the proving too strong for Sweden visitor Linda Johnsson in the semi final.

Rachel Pilgrim was three sets to one winner over Angharad Phillips the final of Women’s band two, whilst Ireland’s Ashley Givan had her work cut out to win Women’s band three with a very close five set win over Chloe Thomas from Wales.

Making it a great double success on the day, Hannes Weiss also took the Men’s Band Two title in four sets over finalist Rob Lemon from Surrey. What a shame that Weiss could not stay for the second day’s play featuring the Men’s Open as I am sure he would have ruffled a few feathers in this event.

Milan Dragojlovic from Cheltenham, after going two sets to love up in the final of Men’s Band Three, was made to work for his title with a determined three sets challenge from his final opponent Chris Hewitt, with Milan finding the extra required to get over the winning line.
The Men’s Band Four crown went to Billy Pegg coming through a fantastic battle with Milan Dragojlovic in the tightest of five sets. Good to see young Milan enjoying a rich vein of form throughout the day to make the two finals. Martin Gunn enjoyed a super day’s table tennis taking Men’s Band Six title from Paul Worrallo, and just missing out in the Band Five event from winner Myles Collins.

The Hereford Player Focus highlights 15 year old Charlotte Binley from Finedon Northants.

Already in her short career, she has reached the dizzy heights of Ladies County Champion, Northampton number One Junior Girl, and holds both titles of Kettering and Northampton League Ladies Champion. Charlotte started playing table tennis at Junior School and has only been playing the tournament circuit these last two years. Charlotte has worked very hard on her personal fitness training and one-to-one sessions with her coach Simon Rockall, and says of the Grand Prix Events " I really enjoy these type of competitions, as they allow me to play a good mixture of players of all ages and styles which has really improved my game".
Watch out for Charlotte next year as she will be very busy enjoying competition in the Kettering, Wellingborough, Northampton and Milton Keynes Premier Leagues, and not satisfied with that, for good measure will be competing in the Junior British League for Ellenborough.

Full Results from Day One.
Women’s Band 1.
Sanja Clements (Do) beat Hannah Hicks (Ha)
11-8, 11-8, 11-9.

Women’s Band 2.
Rachel Pilgrim (Wa) beat Angharad Phillips (WAL)
11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10.

Women’s Band 3.
Ashley Givan (IRL) beat Chloe Thomas (WAL)
9-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-9.

Men’s Band One.
Hannes Weiss (AUT) beat David Mcbeath (Ha)
21-19, 11-4, 11-0.

Men’s Band 2.
Hannes Weiss (AUT) beat Rob Lemmon (Sy)
11-3, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5.

Men’s Band 3.
Milan Dragojlovic (Gs) beat Chris Hewitt (Wo)
11-8,11-9,7-11,7-11,11-6.

Men’s Band 4.
Billy Pegg (Sp) beat Milan Dragojlovic (Gs)
5-11, 11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 11-9.

Men’s Band 5.
Myles Collins (Av) beat Martin Gunn (Av)
11-8, 12-14, 11-6, 7-11, 12-10.

Men’s Band 6.
Martin Gunn (Av) beat Paul Worrallo (St)
11-5, 9-11, 14-12, 5-11, 12-10.

Prize fund Winners of the Butterfly Grand Prix Series were as follows;

Men’s Band 1.
Niall Cameron (Sco) £440.

Women’s Band 1,
Stephanie Donnelly (Cv) £155.

Men’s Band 2.
Emran Hussein (E) £440

Women’s Band 2.
Gosia Muda (Mi) £155

Men’s Band 3.
Ben Larcombe (Sy) £440

Women’s Band 3.
Emily Standing (E) £155.

Men’s Band 4.
Milan Dragojlovic (Gs) £440.

Men’s Band 5.
John McBeath (Ha) £440.

Men’s Band 6.
Michael Hahn (Du) £400.

ETTA Report

[Eszti Ess]

yeah congrats Michael!! :) :static:
didn't know you could win money for these things...

[DaveR]

Millionaire!

Lol

Well done and up the bands now ......................

[Michael Hahn]

lol thanks dave and eszter

[DaveR]

Day 2 went as follows............

Day two at the Hereford Butterfly Grand Prix turned out to be the tournament of dreams with Poland’s Fillip Szymanski treating a packed centre court to an unforgettable final against hot favourite Hong Ming Zhang from the London Progress Club. Hereford is home to the SAS and one would not be surprised that they had recruited this young man to their ranks to fly in with a steely performance to break the Chinese stranglehold in recent Butterfly Grand Prix’s.

Szymanski, a class act at the recent Belarus Open, taking the scalp of world ranked number 21, Hou Yingchao from Beijing, and mixing it with the best in the form of Samsanov, took the Men’s Open Title with an incredible performance going the full five sets against Hong Ming Zhang. This event exceeded all expectations with the rare appearance of the Eli Barati in the Polish Superstars corner, Syzmanski, paying a short visit to the Barnet club, and then together with his coach raiding Hereford and treating the Grand Prix regulars to a display of utter professionalism. We were all treated to a table tennis extravaganza.

Hong Ming, no stranger to the winners enclosure, fought out an epic battle, going two sets to one up and it seemed the writing was on the wall for yet another Chinese takeaway, however Szymanski showed us just what a gallant competitor he is by coming through to level the match and then totally dominate the last exchanges with some ruthless and awesome winning shots to take the final leg 11-1, and the Hereford Butterfly Grand Prix Men’s Open title.

During this event there were strong performances from Tees-Sports own Michael Marsden enjoying a superb victory over 4th seed Chang Hong Jiang to reach the last four, however he met his match against Hong Ming Zhang going out in straight sets. David McBeath was also in top gear registering wins against Peter Graham and Dale Barham but his run came to an abrupt end against Wang Zheng. Wang Zheng then found Fillip Szymanski too hot to handle losing out to the Polish ranked 300 in the World, in straight sets.

Shu Ying Xu walked away with the Women’s Open title and cheques in total for £725, which included her win prize fund and top placing throughout the Butterfly Grand Prix season. In what turned out to be a one sided final against Ireland’s Lui Na, Shu Ying ran out a comfortable straight sets winner. On her route to the title, Shu Ying Xu had her work cut out more at the semi final stage eventually overcoming her Peniel Academy colleague Meihan Liu in 5 tough sets. Lui Na’s path to the final saw her gain cosy wins over Chloe Thomas and Lindsey Reynolds at the penultimate stage.

The Men’s Under 21 Event provided several shocks, with Garth Kinlocke being in supreme form to battle through five tough sets against top seed Matt Ware, and then enjoy another maximum win over Damien Nicholls at the semi final stage, to await his final opponent. Paul Mcreery was also conjuring up the Irish magic with spectacular performances over David McBeath and then a success over the in form Tom Maynard at the last four stage to meet Kinlocke in the final. The final match had some enthralling rallies that we have come to expect from these talented young men. Mcreery found the extra gears to run out a three sets to one winner, with both players taking a well deserved applause from the appreciative audience.

The Women’s under 21 title went once again to the ultra talented Sally Smith from Devon.

Sally was in no mood to be denied and continually came up with the results when needed particularly against Hannah Hicks, Caroline Hallows and then England number one Junior Emma Vickers in a pulsating and extremely close five sets final. Emma too, had played particularly well to reach the final having to overcome determined challenges from firstly Rachel Jamieson and then at the last four stage against Swedish visitor Linda Johnsson.

Darren Griffin was in cracking form to take the Veteran Men’s title, although he was made to pull out all the stops over finalist John Dennison in what turned out to be a worthy final match, taking victory in five entertaining sets.
The Men’s Restricted Event went to top seeded Stephen Denny taking the title from Daniel Kolesnik by three sets to one, in the final match.

Day Two Full Results.

Men’s Open.
Fillip Szymanski (POL) beat Hong Ming Zhang (CHN)
9-11, 11-6, 11-13, 11-8, 11-1.

Women’s Open
Shu Ying XU (E) beat Lui Na (IRL)
11-4, 11-5, 11-4.

Veteran Men.
Darren Griffin (Gs) beat John Dennison (E)
11-5, 11-7, 13-15, 8-11, 11-8.

Restricted Men.
Stephen Denny (Y) beat Daniel Kolesnik (Gs)
12-10, 13-11, 5-11, 11-9.

Under 21 Men’s
Paul Mcreery (IRL) beat Garth Kinlocke (Av)
11-8, 11-9, 11-13, 11-7.

Under 21 Women’s
Sally Smith (Dv) beat Emma Vickers (Dy)
8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9.

Following excellent performances throughout the two days play, Avon’s Martin Gunn was presented with the Tees- Sport Player of the Weekend award together with a £50 voucher.

That wraps up the 2007-2008 Tees-Sport sponsored Butterfly Series of Grand Prix Events that have taken us all around England. It just remains for me to sign off with a huge thank you to Tees-Sport, plus all the Competitors that have supported the series, the hard working Officials who have put it all together, and not forgetting the Etta umpires who have made this series the enormous success it continues to be. Enjoy your summer break.

ETTA Report

[Roger]

The prize money seems to be very low for women? In a lot of rackets tournaments there is equal prize money these days....

[Mr Wilko]

Yeah But Roger As Stated In Previous Threads They Play Less Games Than In Mens Events!!!

[Annie]

Yeah But Roger As Stated In Previous Threads They Play Less Games Than In Mens Events!!!

Well perhaps if they threw more money at us then there would be more competition! :money:

[Michael Hahn]

Well this is like the chicken and the egg if people want more women to play more they should offer more prize money but if they want more prize money they need more women playing.

[Jose]

Well this is like the chicken and the egg if people want more women to play more they should offer more prize money but if they want more prize money they need more women playing.

Quite correct, Michael. Something needs to be done about it. I believe the question of equal prize money was taken up by the ITTF a while ago. Will see if I can find out what the latest situation is. There are all sorts of queries about this including if the entry fees and membership fees are equal for male and female, why not the prize funds?

[Annie]

Quite correct, Michael. Something needs to be done about it. I believe the question of equal prize money was taken up by the ITTF a while ago. Will see if I can find out what the latest situation is. There are all sorts of queries about this including if the entry fees and membership fees are equal for male and female, why not the prize funds?

That is a very good point Jose.

[HarryBelafonte]

yeah. the women play the same as the men in tt but get less prizemoney.where as in tennis they play less but get the same..
go figure.........

[TS]

Im not complaining. I got nearly 900 quid at the last GP.

[Jose]

Yes, the ITTF started in 2006 to provide equal prize money for Women's events, including the World Cup and Pro Tour finals, and now in 2008 all events of the ITTF provide equal prize money and this includes junior events. National associations are encouraged wherever possible to follow ITTF procedures... so I suggest we look into this and see what's happening locally and nationally to see if promoting equal prize money would encourage more women and girls to take up the sport in the UK. I

[Belisar]

Is it not true that typically less women enter these events than men ?

If the event is to run at a profit or break even does this not mean that the men will have to subsidise the women ?

Does equal prize money mean more women would enter ?

In the case of getting more females to take up the sport or enter these events I am not sure that more prize money is the answer. But then again I am not sure what the answer is.

[Jose]

The prize money seems to be very low for women? In a lot of rackets tournaments there is equal prize money these days....

Could we start a new thread entitled equal prize money and include these comments so far, as there may be more interesting comments to come! Thanks.

[SteveJ]

Could we start a new thread entitled equal prize money and include these comments so far, as there may be more interesting comments to come! Thanks.


I agree with Jose but yes the Women in sport do play generally less games but get awarded less money i think or is that wrong?