February 22nd 2021
Daniel G wins Player of the Year (finally!)
During the 2019/2020 season, our resident table tennis champ, Daniel G in Year 7, played for the Drayton Giants which was set up for players under 18 years old, although Drayton’s coach and Daniel’s dad also signed on just in case players dropped out at the last minute! While the team had the younger players in mind, Daniel aged 10/11 years old was still the youngest in the team (and league) by at least 5 years.
The 2019/20 season ended in March 2020 due to lockdown, with Drayton needing to win their last match to gain promotion. Individually, Daniel performed a lot better than the previous season, winning 33 of his 42 matches giving him a 79% win percentage and putting Daniel 3rd in the individual league table. Throughout the season, the only two players Daniel had not beaten were the two players above him in the league, although he had only played them once. Just to put this into perspective, Daniel’s dad had a win percentage of only 20%. Daniel did not lose a singles league match in 2020. He also represented Oxford in the National Cadet Table Tennis League in the same season which is for U15 players.
Sadly due to COVID-19 the 2019/20 season never finished and the 2020/21 season has not taken place like many other sports. In April 2020 at the league’s AGM it was decided that Daniel should be awarded the Dave Hawkins Trophy Young Player of the Year, which he finally took delivery of last week (better late than never!). Well done Daniel!
