Jurate Brazaityte from the Byng Hall Table Tennis Club, situated in St John’s CEP Junior School Tunbridge Wells, made us all proud at the North Herts Senior Grand Prix event over the weekend of the 14th/15th March 2009.

Jurate, seeded 3 in the event, was to have a very tough start to the weekend. In the Women’s Band 1 on the Saturday she would meet her Women’s British League teammate, also of Byng Hall Club from Poland, Gosia Muda, and the No.2 seed Rachel Greener in the group stage. Rachel Greener, on paper the favourite, should have been the group winner, but nothing ever goes to form. The results completely reversed the seeding to give Gosia the group win, having beaten both Brazaityte and Greener in close games. Jurate also beat the No.2 seed Greener in a close 5 set match to claim the group Runner Up (RU) position.

Having qualified as a RU, Jurate then had to play Klaudia Szadkowska (No.1 seed overall), former Polish No.2 Junior now very much a senior, who won her group, in the semi-final. This is where the journey on Day1 ended for Jurate who lost 0:3 (7-11, 5-11, 6-11). Gosia Muda went on to beat Catherine Chen of Hong Kong in the other semi-final and had to contend Klaudia in the final. Muda lost the all Polish final to the very strong Szadkowska.

Jurate Brazaityte ’s Sunday was a different story altogether. In the Open Singles event she exceeded her seeding by reaching the final the hard way!! As she was seeded No.3 in the main event, she was in the No.1 seed’s group. Again, she had the very strong Klaudia Szadkowska to contend with yet again! The day started off a little shaky for Jurate as no tables were available for practice, which meant a cold start, and playing the very fast up to the table Chinese style of Fei Fei Pei in the first match is a daunting enough task even when warm. Jurate rose well to the challenge and managed to fight through, winning very close in the fifth set 12-10. She then faced the No.1 seed Klaudia Szadkowska. Jurate made a much better head way than the first encounter, but eventually losing 8-11, 9-11, 6-11 – a much closer affair, which gave the Polish player some real trouble. Jurate had to win the final game in the group in order to qualify as a RU and go into the bottom half of the draw. This she did with aplomb, trouncing Charlotte Binley 11-5, 11-4, 11-7.

Jurate was now to face Ikue Humphrey from Japan – a very difficult style of player to master, very close to the table, fast attaching play, using a combination bat with short pimples on one side. Jurate made a magnificent start, taking the first two games with ease 11-6, 11-4. Ikue then changed her tactics by serving shorter and using her pimples to greater effect. This gained an initial advantage as she claimed the next game 11-7, but not deterred Jurate raised her game by further attacking with heavy top spin to clinch the third and final set.

Jurate now had to face Klaudia again for the third time over the weekend, but this time in the Final of the Open Singles event. Jurate wasn’t going to give in easily and put in a magnificent performance taking all three games to the wire. Unfortunately, Klaudia proved to be too strong on the day, with the final score being 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 in Klaudia’s favour. Nonetheless, a very good performance from the Byng Hall player and coach, netting her considerable Grand Prix points and the Runner’s Up cut glass crystal trophy for her efforts.