Collier, Evie – was top on the tables

BRENTWOOD-born Evangeline Collier began playing table tennis when she was seven years old and it soon became apparent that she had a lot of ability and talent for the sport.

She has since been placed in the top four of the national championships three times and she has won a large amount of awards since.

In 2011 she moved to Grantham from her family home in Brentwood, Essex in order to attend the Table Tennis Academy at Grantham College – one of only a few such facilities in the UK.

She also studied for her A Levels. At the end of her first year at Grantham College she was awarded the Player of the Year Award by head coach and England International Alex Perry.

In her first year as part of the Table Tennis Academy, Evie won abroad in Sweden, defeated four world-ranked players to add to her accomplishments, as well as winning the Hassalt International Youth Cup in Belgium.

Evie also had several wins in London at the Grand Prix which included ‘Player of the Weekend’ and a win at the Tipton Grand Prix.

Along with all of those wins, Evie was part of DHS progress team that won the Women’s British League Premiership title with Evie herself winning 14 out of 20 matches and she was also runner up in final of the Cheltenham 4 Star Tournament.

Evie played for Essex County Senior team in the premier Division of the county championships and has become the Number 1 Ranked Senior Woman in Essex at the age of 17. She was called up to play for England at Schools International in Guernsey this year, winning a silver medal along the way.

She was also placed third at the Schools National Individual Championships. Her final ranking this season was ninth in the Juniors and 20th in the Seniors in the country.

Evie accomplished all of this despite  a broken foot halfway through the season, which kept her out of the sport for over three months. Even with this, with her cast on she sat on a chair at the table practicing her shots and taking part in all training sessions.

She  got straight back into full training and was able to attend The England International Youth

Squad training camp in Sheffield .

In 2012 she won the Essex Young Sports Personality of the Year Award at a glittering ceremony held at Chelmsford Football Club.

That year she was also signed up by Belgium Team Diest to play for them the following season.

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