Table tennis girls at the Peake of their powers


Peake helped the England south-east squad claim the team title, and followed it up with an individual bronze.
The Bishop Luffa student won all four singles games in the group stage, plus two doubles alongside Tin-Tin Ho, as the south east cruised into the last four.
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Hide AdIn the semi-final, she gave her team a flier against Wales, beating Lydia John 11-4, 11-5, 11-6.
In the final against South West, she lost the opening match against national champion Maria Tsaptsinos 7-11, 11-9, 6-11, 5-11. She bounced back to win the doubles in partnership with Ho, beating Tsaptsinos and Letitia McMullen in 11-8, 11-7, 11-5. She then completed a 4-2 team victory by beating McMullen 13-11, 11-8, 11-3.
“I’m really happy that everyone played really well and there was a great team spirit,” said the 17-year-old.
“We were confident we could do it. They were up for it and we were up for it – it’s just how you perform on the day.”
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Hide AdIn the individual event, Peake beat the north west’s Bethany Farnworth in the last 16 then dug deep to see off Beth Roberts of Wales in five sets in the quarter-finals. However, she found defending champion Tsaptsinos too strong in the semi-finals and had to settle for a bronze medal – which both losing semi-finalists received.
The south east were overall table tennis winners once the boys’ and disability events.