I had to go, even though my belly was full of butterflies. It was the East London finals and I was really nervous. The Barnes team were going against people that were in division; 3 – 2 steps above our normal division. So it was going to be hard, really hard.
The team of Ed, Oliver, Trishton Nathan and myself (Cameron) were representing the school. Our only goal was to win, and we had practiced so hard. But that is not quite how things turned out.
For those of you who don’t know, a table tennis tournament works like this: there are 5 teams, and everyone plays everyone. To win, you need to get first to 3 sets of 11 points. We knew that if we came first, we would go off to the Nationals. So there was some pressure – big pressure.
Then the first disaster struck. Oliver and Nathan did not turn up to the venue in East London, so Ed and Trishton had to play against Ashburnam all by themselves. Also, because the whole team was not in place, we had to forfeit some games and Ed and Trishton had no chance. Ashburnam was the best team. For us, that meant a hard loss of 7-1 and our big dreams were in shatters.
After that blow, Tom and I had to get in there and get ready. And the next game we played we won, and the one after! But then we had to face an old Nemesis: Whitgift. Last time we won, but not this time. They had improved.
Things did not turn out the way we had hoped in this tournament, and it will take some time to get the full team back on its feet. That’s sport for you: Glory and Defeat.