It has been a pleasure to work with these young people

Talented table tennis players from St Mary’s College and Preparatory School in Crosby are to represent Merseyside in the English schools’ national championship in the spring.

Luke Govier and Isabella Hamer from the senior school – both aged 12 – became individual under 13 county champions at the recent Merseyside finals, with ten-year-old Isla Graham from the Preparatory School enjoying similar success in the under 11 event.

Now all three will head to Wolverhampton in April to compete in the 2022 Butterfly Schools’ Individual Table Tennis National Finals at the Aldersley Leisure Village.

More than 350 players representing 50 counties will take part in this event, making it the biggest one-day table tennis competition in the country.

And following these championships the English Schools’ Table Tennis Committee will select representative teams to play in an international event against the other home nations in June.

Table tennis is certainly going through a purple patch at St Mary’s. Apart from the achievements of this trio – including Isabella who is ranked number four in England – two other pupils have enjoyed similar success.

Ten-year-old Isabella Travis – also from the Preparatory School – and 15-year-old Jack Savage from the senior school were runners-up in the Merseyside under 11 and under 16 events respectively.

However, in a busy weekend for table tennis action, Jack still managed to win the Under 18 Junior Southport and District Open Singles Competition on the following day.

All these players attended St Mary’s Preparatory School where they honed their skills under visiting table tennis coach Dave Graham.

Dave said: “It has been a pleasure to work with these young people and to see them develop into such high-quality players.

“I am extremely proud of them and look forward to witnessing their future achievements over the coming years.”

St Mary’s College principal, Mike Kennedy, added: “Despite the problems caused by the pandemic over the last couple of years St Mary’s has enjoyed some exceptional sporting successes recently, in particular in football and netball.

“It’s great to see our table tennis players reaching similar heights and all our students and staff will be wishing them well when they compete in the national schools event in April.”

St Mary’s College students to represent Merseyside in national table tennis championships