Excitement as WASA Table Tennis serves off

D`Abadie Youths will be taking on Baggoo Himalaya Tough Guys in the opener followed by Carenage Blasters vs WASA Table Tennis Club at 7:30pm, and closing off the evening will be a clash between Gladiators and D`Abadie Youths who will be playing their second match at 9pm.

Heading into the tournament, all the teams are satisfied with their preparation and boasted about their chances to win. It is impossible to select a favourite for the tournament as all the teams are well-balanced due to the new rule allowing clubs to recruit foreign players and even those from different local clubs.

Player/coach of WASA Table Tennis Club, Curtis Humphreys, declared: “Preparation has been good, players have been training assiduously to ensure they can perform at an optimal level.

We are better prepared especially on the second table with some new additions to the squad.” The Baggoo Himalaya Tough Guys can be considered a champion team of veterans and speaking on behalf of the team, Merle Baggoo, explained: “Putting the team together was firstly to support the idea of the tournament which could develop into something like the CPL (Caribbean Premier League) of table tennis.

Our chances are as good as any other team with top players like Barbadian Mark Dowell, Canadian- based David Mahabir, two-time Caribbean champion Lionel Darceuil, Terry Corbin and myself.” Team Captain of Gladiators, Aaron Edwards, bragged to Newsday, “We have two of the top Guyanese players in Shemar Britton and Joel Alleyne on our table and the top two female senior players Aleena Edwards and Linda Boodhan on our second table, so the chances are pretty good.” The youthful Carenage Blasters players will be making their debut in the WASA-hosted event and speaking on behalf of the team was star player Aaron Wilson who was full of confidence. “Expectations are really to win the tournament, we have added Reeza Burke and Alaric Humphreys to strengthen the top table team,” he noted.

Captain of the D`Abadie Youths Team Everton Sorzano gave his assessment on their chances in 2016.

“We assessed our performances from last year and tried to improve for a better showing this year. We have added Barbadians Trevor Farley and Tyrese Knight to improve our performances on the top table,” he said.

Organisers have asked all teams to be there at least 30 minutes before their match.

Teams: WASA - Curtis Humphreys, Kenneth Parmanand, Franklyn Seechan, Kirk Mohammed, Isa Mohammed, Ancil Russell, Riad Abasali, Brittany Joseph, Neville Cabie, Chelsea Fong.

Baggoo Himalaya Tough Guys - David Mahabir, Mark Dowell (Barbados), Lionel Darceuil, Terry Corbin, Andrew Alexander, Anil Ramlakhan, Wesley, Dookhoo, Imtiaz Mohammed, Vinoo Maraj, Michael, McComie, Merle Bagoo.

Carenage Blasters - Aaron Wilson, Alaric Humphreys, Reeza Burke, Kenwin Small, Joshua Maxwell, Luc O’Young, Nkosi Rouse, Finn Bos, Matthew Mootra, Nikoli Barbour- Alexis, Zeke Huggins.

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D’Abadie Youths - Trevor farley (Barbados), Tyrese Knight (Barbados), Everton Sorzano, Haaidy Brooker, Michael Nanton, Sherdon Pierre, Edwin Humphreys. Carlisle Cleveland, Ronald Williams, Daryl Rampersad.

Gladiators - Shemar Britton (Guyana), Joel Alleyne (Guyana), Aaron Edwards, Andrew Edwards, Kyle Bennett, Rod Singh, Aleena Edwards, Astra Edwards-Bennett, Kadeem Moore, Linda Partap-Boodhan.