Keighley Sport

Fuller wins national bronze

By Bill Marshall

11:50am Thursday 11th March 2010

Keighley’s Mary Fuller has picked up another English Senior National Table Tennis Championship medal.

Having struck gold as a shock winner of the women’s doubles last year, aged 16, with 13-year-old Emily Bates – they were the youngest pair ever to win it – the duo were beaten in the semi-finals this time around at Ponds Forge International Centre in Sheffield.

After beating Haylee Potts and Evan-geline Collier 11-8, 11-4, 11-7, Fuller and Bates were unlucky in having to face top seeds and eventual winners Joanna Parker and Kelly Sibley in the last four.

They equipped themselves well against two players with singles ranking in the world’s top 150 before going down 11-5, 2-11, 11-6, 11-7.

Fuller was also unfortunate in that she also either met the winner or runner-up in every event.

Beaten finalist Bates defeated the Oakbank Table Tennis Club member in the under-21 women’s singles 11-9, 11-4, 6-11, 11-6 and, having defeated Desiree Joseph 11-8, 11-7, 11-8 and Sophie Neil 11-5, 11-9, 11-2 in the women’s singles, Fuller faced national junior champion Yolanda King.

Fuller defeated her Sussex opponent 11-2, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8 before going out to eventual champion Parker in the last 16 11-2, 11-2, 11-8, 11-6.

In the mixed doubles, Fuller, showed faith in Cheshire’s Daniel Lowe – disqualified last year for hitting a wall with his bat – and they defeated Lewis Gray and King 11-5, 11-7, 11-8.

However, second seeds and beaten finalists Darius Knight and Sibley were too good in the last 32, triumphing 11-5, 2-11, 11-6, 11-7.

Overall, the experience will have done Fuller good as she prepares for the English Junior Masters at Grantham Meres Leisure Centre on the weekend of April 17-18.

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