by Ian Marshall, ITTF Publications Editor

Against Norway, Tom Jarvis had been the mainstay of success, beating both Adrian Wetzel (11-5, 11-6, 11-4) and Sondre Berner (11-4, 11-5, 7-11, 7-11, 11-5).

In the final against the top seeded German trio of Tobias Hippler, Cedric Meissner and Kay Stumper, he fulfilled the same role. He accounted for both Cedric Meissner (11-9, 11-3, 9-11, 11-9) and Tobias Hippler (9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-7) in a three-one English victory.

The one further win for the champions elect was recorded by Luke Savill.  In the opening match of the fixture he accounted for Tobias Hippler (11-5, 11-5, 10-12, 11-6). The one success for the Germans was recorded by Kay Stumper, in the third contest of the engagement, he overcame Joshua Bennett (8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5), the player who in the second stage of proceedings had replaced Matthew Leete.

An impressive English performance; at the quarter and semi-final stages it had been the same. A three-one victory margin had been posted against the Czech Republic ‘A’ Team trio of Jan Valenta, Vastimil Buben and Jan Gorecki, before a three-nil success was recorded in opposition to Hungary’s Istvan Molnar, Patrik Juhasz and Norbert Nagy to reserve the place in the final.

Meanwhile, in the opposite half of the draw, Tobias Hippler, Cedric Meissner and Kay Stumper had beaten the Croatia ‘A’ Team outfit of Jakov Tica, Luca Martinek and Mislav Martinek by three matches to nil at the quarter-final stage of proceedings before recording the same margin of victory in the penultimate round in opposition to the outfit formed by Slovenia’s Luka Norcic and Peter Hribar who teamed with Serbia’s Nikola Grujic.

Play in the Boys’ Team event over, the individual events commence on Saturday 3rd June.

Photos: Tomas Sereda