Girls top Suffolk TT awards
23rd July 2012
At the recent Suffolk County Table Tennis Association AGM, two up and coming young ladies had their hard work, dedication and enthusiasm over recent months rewarded when they took the top two SCTTA annual awards.
The award for Young Improver of the Year was presented to 12 year old Katherine Shaw by SCTTA Chairman, Ken Lewis who stated that “Katherine has worked very hard on her game over many months and has improved to the extent that she won the 2011/2012 SCTTA Cadet & Junior ‘Closed’ Championships under 13 girls title with apparent ease. Already a member of the County Cadet squad, hopefully Katherine will continue to improve and is certainly a player to watch out for in the future”.
In January 2012 when named the ETTA Eastern Region 2011 Player of the Year the citation concluded with “Lucy is very motivated and is keen to make 2012 a special year”.
Special is something 2012 certainly has become for 15 years old, Lucy Zhu, who continued to work hard at her game and improved such that she won not only the 2011/2012 SCTTA Cadet & Junior ‘Closed’ Championships under 15 girls and under 18 girls titles, but also the open single title. These successes were topped by Lucy being selected to represent England and last month she made her debut in Holland where she played superbly. As SCTTA Chairman, Ken Lewis, pointed out when presenting Lucy with the Doris Fox award for the County’s outstanding player of the year, Suffolk’s rising table tennis star has received the ultimate reward for recent years of work and dedication towards improving her level of play by receiving an England call up, and it is therefore apt that Lucy should also receive Suffolk’s most prestigious award.
Also at the AGM, a special presentation was made to 10 years old Kian Burgess by SCTTA Vice-chairman, Tony Mooney for the best performance at the 2011/2012 SCTTA Cadet & Junior ‘Closed’ Championships.
Until a few weeks before the event Kian had not even played in a club let alone received any coaching. His playing experience had mainly been playing with his dad Paul in the family garage. Many of the players he was up against on the day had been playing competitively for a while as well as receiving coaching. He entered three events, Boys’ Under 13, Boys’ Under 15 and the Open Singles and in all he qualified from the group stages to reach the knockout phases reaching the semi final in the Under 13’s. He has much natural ability and is now receiving coaching so is another player to look out for in the future.
