Table-tennis star John enjoys England debut to remember

Poysden won a gold and silver medal as part of the England over 70s team for the home international table-tennis tournament held at Nottingham Trent University.

But Poysden - who was also named captain - admitted to feeling nervous before the action got underway.

“As a representative of England I wanted to do my best and not let myself, my team-mates or my country down,” said Poysden.

“Coming away from my first England appearance with a gold medal and a silver medal was fantastic and I am naturally very pleased.

“My England teammates in the Over 70’s all did well and we made a clean sweep of the 10 medals available.”

England were able to field two teams, England A and B, with Poysden representing the B team with David Tiplady, and Phil Bowen and Gary Baldwin representing England A.

England A beat England B 4-1 in the opening match and, despite winning all their other games, the B team were unable to catch their rivals and had to settle for a silver medal.

The doubles competition started on day two and it gave Poysden and Tiplady the chance to get revenge against their England team mates Baldwin and Bowen.

The two teams duly met again in the final and, after an extremely close first set, Poysden and Tiplady ran out winners 17-15, 11-4, 11-7.

Attention turned to the singles competition on the final day and Poysden  enjoyed a good run, reaching the semi- final where he came up against England team-mate Baldwin.

They had met before in various competitions and Poysden had beaten him the last time they met but he couldn’t repeat that win, losing in four sets 7-11 11-7 8-11 9-11.

Baldwin went on to win gold beating Tiplady in the final.

Debbie Auvache, from Billericay, was also playing for England in the over 60s and she too went home with gold as, with her partner Carrie Cope, they won the team event with Auvache remaining unbeaten.

She came close to enjoying further success but her and Cope lost in the semi- finals of the doubles and, in the singles, she went out in the semi- finals again losing in straight sets to the eventual winner England teammate Jane Vickers.

Three days of intense competition tested physical fitness and concentration with Poysden playing 26 matches and losing just four.