It took less just less than one hour for the trio of Liu Shiwen, Li Xiaoxia and Ding Ning to beat the English outfit of Joanna Parker, Kelly Sibley and Hannah Hicks in their final group fixture at the Liebherr World Team Championships in Moscow on the morning of Thursday 27th May 2010.

Simply England went the way of those that had gone before on the first four days of competition; the gulf in class evident.

Liu Shiwen beat Joanna Parker, Li Xiaoxia overcame Kelly Sibley with Ding Ning bringing matters to an end by defeating Hannah Hicks.

“The difference is so great between China and the other teams; they don’t understand table tennis”, said Shi Zhihao in forthright manner. “They must work hard, they need a greater understanding of the game, higher technical skills and my advice is: come to China!”

I suggest the invitation be accepted, my only concern is that players and coaches must understand that the situation in their own country must be well organised and their coaches must increase their knowledge.

Thinking that sending a player to China for three or four months and magically they will return as world beaters, is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Heed the words of Zhi Shihao, he said “work hard”; there is no substitute for hard work and that’s exactly what made Alan Cooke, the English Women’s Team Head Coach, a world class player.

Furthermore, he has a deep understanding of table tennis and was very realistic about team’s efforts at the end of the group stage.

“Where do you start when you are talking about Chinese table tennis players?” said the England coach. “They are superb in everything they do, technically outstanding, no weaknesses, good against any style of play.”

He is absolutely, totally correct.

“I’m pleased with how the girls have played so far, we started in sixth place in the group and we finished in fifth; for sure we would have liked to have done better but now we must try to finish as high as possible in the next stage”, continued Alan Cooke who I praise for sending out what is his best team against the mighty Chinese and not surrendering before the fixture had begun.

“Kelly did well today, she had a game point against Li Xiaoxia”, Alan Cooke continued. “Certainly in Hannah Hicks we may have a player who support Kelly and Joanna, she now lives in Sheffield an practises at the National Centre, so we are hopeful.”

Well thought out words from Alan Cooke who in his day did cause Chinese players some problems but surely his comments endorse the gap between Chinese table tennis players and the rest of humanity.

A game point, although lost, is seen as a success; it is a salutary thought.

However, Ding Ning was positive about the English players who persuaded by Shi Zhihao to test her English skills; her faced bathed in smiles she uttered the motivating words.

“England, good, very good”, she said.

England take heart!