Railsport Turns the Tables
07 Jul 2010
David Franks has been re-elected vice president of the USIC at the Krakow congress in Poland.
The Congress was the last where French and German were used as the official languages. From now on English will be the only language used in USIC events. Kazakhstan was accepted into membership of USIC as from January 2011.
It's been a busy spring for teams from Britain. Despite serious disruption to flight plans caused by the Icelandic volcano. Railsport GB's Table Tennis team took their place in the USIC Championships, held in Nijnly Novorod, in Russia, reports Cliff Robinson. The men's team finished 14th and the women's team won a creditable 10th place. Russia won the women's title with Belarus runners up, while the men's title was won by India with France runners up.
Reuben Okai (First Capital Connect) and Wayne Glossop (Great Central Railways) both won their first round singles matches before losing out in the second round. Okai beat Poland's Bogdan Paszkowsky, while Glossop defeated Zoran Todorovic of Serbia before going down to the eventual champion Arpit Bhopakar from India.
In the men's doubles Okai teamed up with Trevor Kerry (Network Rail Nottingham) and battled through to the 3rd round with wins over Switzerland and Serbia, before losing to a strong India pair of Nandi and Bhopakar.
Railsport's Ten Pin Bowling team finished 6th in the USIC Championships held in Antwerp, Belgium. Fourteen teams competed in the event for which the opening ceremony was staged in the recently refurbished Central Station. The competition was held over two days of play with two sessions each day.
After the first session GB found themselves back in 12th position, but after some determined and consistent bowling from Brian Thomas (DB Schenker) and Laurie Garratt (Virgin Trains West Coast), the rest of the Great Britain team raised their game with Julie Thomas, wife of Brian, producing the highest women's game of the event, an excellent 242. Ian Hays (Network Rail) also recorded a high score of 242.
GB's efforts on the final day duly paid off with the team coming through to take 6th place overall. If only the team had started off as they finished, who knows it might have made the podium! As it was Germany was the overall winner with Finland second and France third.
The Railsport GB Ten Pin Bowling team was supported by First Great Western to whom the team expressed its warmest thanks and appreciation.
