Smash Table Tennis Kettering

Last week saw us say goodbye to Neil who has moved back to India. We've loved having Neil (and Irwin Fernandez and Dimple Uttamchandani) as part of our Smash family over the last couple of years and will continue to follow his journey from afar. And look forward to meeting up again with him in 3 years time when he comes back to England to study at Cambridge University!

He of course is folllwing in the footsteps of his fellow Smasher Prithvi, who moved back to India with his parents about 18 months ago. Big shoutout to Vivek Menon and Anjali Vallabhan. We miss you guys loads and hope all is going well and that Prithvi is loving life!

Hi, our coaching session will run 12:00pm-2:00pm tomorrow I'm instead of the usual 12:30pm-2:30pm 😄

Hi all,
Due to the hot weather we won't be running our beginner session today however we will be running the adult session afterwards after it hopefully cools below 30*c. See you later😄.

Sunday saw our girls in action on Day 1 of the first ever Girls Cadet British Clubs League tournament. Peggy and Lakeendra competed in Div 2 and had another very successful day, winning the division and earning promotion to Division 1. Congratulations girls.

Smash Kettering had 2 teams in action over the weekend for the final set of matches for Senior British league.

Smash Kettering 1 has had a fantastic season finishing in first place in national c3, only loosing 2 team matches throughout the season, both of which was when we only had 3 players and narrowly lost 5-4 in both. Also Alex Cochrane recieved the trophy for most individual wins in the division over the season. Well played to Alex, Ryan Gaveglia, Rowan Murray, Adam Wilson and Craig Brown who will now have to face some stronger opponents in the B division next year!💪👏🥇🏓

Smash Kettering 2 had a trickier time in their c division. With 2 wins overall they ultimately finished 7th in their division with 3 matches finished 4-5 narrowly missing out on a few extra team wins. Overall it was a great effort on their part and can't wait for them to go again next season!
Well played Terence, Chris, Kyle, Joe, Shazia and James🏓💪😁

After yesterday's final day of 2025-26 Junior (under 19) British Clubs League which saw the Smash junior team (Andy, Neil, Ella, Peggy) finish in 5th place in Div 2, today it was the cadet (u15s) team's day to bring down the curtain on their season. The cadet team were top of the division going into the final day.of matches, but it was all very tight which meant anything could happen today with four matches to play. Could the team of Peggy, Lakeendra, and Sam bring home the gold?

First match v Draycott 4 and its a 4-2 win. Lakeendra taking the decisive victory as both her and Peggy win both their matches.

Second match is v Kidlington E and 3-3 draw. Lakeendra again providing a crucial point by winning the final match 11-8 in the fifth. Peggy picking up the other two points as her great form continued.

Third match is agsinst our local friends and rivals from the host club Highfield. We take the win 5-1. Two wins apiece from Peggy and Lakeendra provided four of the points, with Sam also chipping in with a fine win. Would
that point from Sam prove crucial in the final statistics? Mention here to Bani from Highfield who extended both Peggy and Lakeendra to a deciding game.

And so onto our final match. Both teams are level on 27 points, the Smash team having a slight advantage on games ratio meaming a 3-3 draw would be enough to take the title.

Kidlington go 1-0 up as Lakeendra loses the first match 1-3. Peggy swiftly makes it 1-1 with a 3-0 win in match 2, before Sam loses 0-3 to put our opponents 2-1 ahead.

Peggy returms to the table for match 4 and records an excellent 3-1 win to level the match at 2-2. Sam slips to a 0-3 defeat to leave it all hanging on the last match. A win for Lakeendra and we draw 3-3 and take the title. Could she do it? She had already won two critical final matches earlier in the day after all! Well cco
m**h the hour, com**h the lady, as she takes a convincing 3-0 win to level the match at 3-3 and we win the division on games ratio. Well done to all three players.

Peggy was our star player, winning all 16 of her matches across days 3 and 4. Lakeendra won 9 of her 15, including winning an incredible five out six mstches that went to a deciding game. And what of Sam? Remember that one win he had v Highfield? Well, that proved to ultinately be the most important one point as without that win, we would not have won the leage!

Well done everyone on another seaaon of learning (and success).

Well done to Sammy, Lakeendra and Peggy in the Northants County schools tournament today. Lakeendra finished as r/up in the girls under 16s and Peggy was the girls u13s champion, continuing the tradition of Smash having at least one Northants Schools champion in every one of of 10 years in existence.

Peggy now goes forward to represent her school, the County, and Smash in the schools Nationals in April in Wolverhampton

A good mix of adults and juniors at the group session today. With three of the four juniors in attendance competing in the Northants Schools Individual tournament on Tuesday (the other junior won the Leicestershire schools tournament a few weeks ago), this was one of their last opportunities to get some final practice in prior to the competition. Will any of the junior players in attendance be able to emulate Coach Alex's dominance in this event from the ages 13-19?

A few more days yet untli the big one but big thanks to Fi for providing this cake at the end of today's group session. I still don't see myself as being anywhere near 50, but the early present I received yesterday from the NHS is perhaps a gentle reminder! 😂

Almost 10 years now as part of the Smash family. What will the body be like in another 10 years! 😂😂😂🙈🚑🏥🦽

Henry