By Rawle Toney in Birmingham (Team Guyana Press Attaché)
It was a day of mixed results for the country’s table tennis players on yesterday’s opening day of competition at the Commonwealth Games.
The women’s side once again reached the quarter-finals of the team event while the men’s team, this time around will have an early shift of attention to the singles.
Just like 2018, Guyana’s women’s TT team will feature in the quarter-finals of the Teams competition of the Commonwealth Games, after playing undefeated against Fiji and South Africa.
Against Fiji, Priscilla Greaves/Natalie Cummings defeated Touea Titana /Carolyn Li, 11-1, 11-5, 11-5 while Chelsea Edghill defeated Grace Yee, 11-3, 11-4, 11-2,
Cummings then closed out the tie with an 6-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-4 defeat of Carolyn Li.
Against South Africa in their second group match Coach Idi Lewis put his two strongest players Edghill and Cummings to play the crucial doubles encounter which they won easily 11-8, 11-7, 11-2 against Lailaa Edwards and Danisha Patel.
However, Kalam Musfiquh knocked off Greaves 13-11, 11-4, 12-10 before Olympian, Edghill made light work of Patel 11-6, 11-5, 11-9 to put Guyana up two games to one.
But Musfiquh would come back to play Cummings in an entertaining match.
Cummings, looking to seal the deal for Guyana, came out blazing to an 11-7 win in the first set. But in the second set, Musfiquh raced to a 0 – 8 lead.
Cummings would play some excellent tennis thereafter, to make-up for the errors that caused her to be down by a huge deficit. It was not enough. She would lose the set in a nail-biting 13-15 result, while also losing the following sets 8-11, 8-11.
This would bring Greaves back to the table, facing Edwards. She spun her way to a 11-7, 11-5, 11-7 win to send the Guyanese women marching forward with only the top-seeded India left to play in their group.
Speaking after the team’s triumph, Edghill, said even though things didn’t go as planned, she thanked Cummings and Greaves for giving them a good start in the day’s final game against South Africa.
According to Edghill, so far, the team has accomplished one goal, which was to at least make-it to the quarter-finals.
“It feels really good, knowing that the hard work that we’ve been doing is paying off. We will give it our all against India; it’s a strong team and all we can do is leave it all on the table. If it’s good enough to win, then, so be it,” the Olympian stated.
But while it has been smooth sailing for the women, the men’s team of Christopher Franklin, Johnathan Van Lange and Shemar Britton, are having a tough time.
The Guyanese men opened against England and were beaten 3 – 0.
Franklin/Alleyne lost to Tom Jarvis and Paul Drinkhall 11-5, 11-2, and 11-6 while Liam Pritchford defeated Shemar Britton 11-4, 11-3, 11-5. In the final match Drinkhall defeated Alleyne 11-3, 11-7, 11-4.
In the men’s team second match of the day, it went down to the wire against Bangladesh, but the Tigers had the final say when it ended, winning 3 – 2 over the Guyanese.
Franklin/Jonathan Van Lange lost to Ramhimlian Bawm/Mohutasin Ridoy 11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 11-3, 10-12.
Britton defeated Rifat Sabbir 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7, Van Lange lost to Ridoy 11-6, 8-11, 8-11, 4-1, Britton beat Bawm 11-5, 13-11, 12-10 and Franklin lost to Sabbir 11-6, 11-6, 7-11, 11-13, 7-11.
They will play Fiji today in their final team match.
