Kelly’s Olympic dream gets cash boost

Events culminated with the 23-year-old taking on her coach and former Commonwealth champion Alan Cooke in a match which exemplified the tremendous speed, fitness, consistency and skills required to compete at the top level.

There was also an element of fun as both players experimented with bats of various sizes and even a frying pan.

The pair also received challenges from Chris Mulligan, Deepak Chandrababu, Solomon Hayes and Olivia Fletcher from Lillington Free Church, the club which introduced Sibley to the sport and of which she is now the president.

Another budding Church star, Tom Meldrum, assisted Cooke in demonstrating the multi-ball coaching drills that are so important in building consistency of shots and the youngster certainly impressed the large audience with his own skill level.

A ranking tournament was held during the day which attracted more than 70 entrants.

Matthew Outhwaite of Rugby took the honours in Group One, losing just one of his games in a competitive field which included Simon Griew, Mark Jackson, Matthew Man, Gary Webb and the highly ranked junior Michael Siket.

Deepak Chandrababu played exceptionally well to take the runner-up’s medal.

Another Rugby player, Jesse Kendrick-Hill, topped Group Two, with Earl Sweeney of St George’s finishing second and Ryan Lines securing a hat-trick of top prizes for the formidable Rugby club when taking Group Three.

Richard Jardim of the Phoenix club was the runner-up.

Solomon Hayes finished in pole position in Group Four, edging out the experienced Andy Baruch who plays for Phoenix in Coventry.

Church’s Lee Dorning played high quality table tennis all day to clinch Group Five from club-mate Timmy Cooper in a group packed with the most talented youngsters in the area.

Another Church player, Sam Wiggins, took Group Six despite the presence of older and more experienced opponents. Martin Pember of Leicester was second.

Sam Weaving, also of Lillington Free Church, played the best table tennis of his life to wrap up Group Seven, with Worcestershire’s number one junior girl Gemma McKay the runner-up.

Group Eight was an exciting affair, with Tom Harris, Adam Cofler and Josh Wyatt-Smith demonstrating the depth of talent at Cadet level in the Free Church club as they all won five out of their six matches.

In the end, Harris took the winner’s medal on countback from Cofler.

Warwickshire and Rugby starlet Millie Bradshaw secured Group Nine from Olivia Fletcher and Church’s Luke Watkins won Group Ten from rising Church star Lewis Singleton.