July 25, 2014, by Dan Tilley

Day One at the Commonwealths

Current student Paul McCreery (pictured right) kicked off the action in the Table Tennis for Northern Ireland with a solid 3-0 victory (11-8, 12-10, 11-3) against Paul David from Guyana. The next team match against India was a tougher affair with Paul facing former Commonwealth Gold medallist Kamal Achanka from India who is currently ranked 50^th in the world. In a nip and tuck match Paul ended up losing 3-0 (11-9, 12-10 & 11-8), but each game could have gone either way. Ireland’s next fixture is against Vanuatu today.

In the Hockey Nottingham has 2 alumni (Nick Catlin & George Pinner) and 1 current student (Harry Martin : Economics) representing England, and they got off to a flying start with a 6-1 demolition of Trinidad and Tobago. George Pinner was largely untroubled in goal throughout the game and Nick Catlin was one of the six goalscorers in this one sided affair. England’s next fixture will a tougher affair against Malaysia on Sunday. Highlights of the game are available on the BBC website.

Alumna Emma Beddoes (Squash) will be competing in the women’s doubles which starts on Tuesday.

Current student Isobel Pooley (High Jump) will be in medal contention if she can match her best jump of the season so far. Her preliminary qualifier is on Wednesday.

Also of interest to University sports fans is the progress of the badminton teams. The University of Nottingham is one of 6 sides in the new National Badminton League being launched in October this year, and four of its players are competing at the Commonwealths: England’s world number 5 Chris Adcock, Welsh number 1 Carissa Turner and Kieran Merrilees and World number 13 Robert Blair from Scotland.

• Chris Adcock comfortably won his mixed doubles match for England against Northern Ireland
• Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees and Robert Blair both had straightforward victories in their team matches versus the Seychelles
• Unfortunately Carissa Turner lost both of her team matches against Australia.

Picture of Paul McCreery courtesy of Table Tennis England.

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