Career to date
Kelly started playing table tennis when she was 8, encouraged by her mother Lynn who also played. It was while playing for her local club in Lillington, Leamington Spa that she was spotted by one of the ETTA (English Table Tennis Association) national coaches which helped to launch her competitive career at the tender age of 10. The same year, she played at the under-ten English trials winning 7 out of 10 matches, underlining her already prodigious talent.
Since then, Kelly has gone from strength to strength: at 15 she was the youngest person ever to play in the senior side for the European Championships in 2003. She represented England in the senior side in two World Championships, Qatar in 2003 and Shanghai in 2004; and the 2004 Junior World Championships in Kobe, Japan. In 2004, Kelly was ranked No. 1 Junior Girl and No. 4 Senior Women in the ETTA ranking table.
2006 was a big year for Kelly: she was the first girl to win all three titles (mixed, doubles and singles) at 2006 Junior Nationals in Doncaster; at the UK School Games in Glasgow, Kelly won 2 gold medals in the Girls Team event and won the Girls Singles Title beating Naomi Owen in the final, without losing one game in the whole competition (Kelly was interviewed afterwards with Cheri Blair, and one of her other icons, Dame Kelly Holmes); and at the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne, Kelly was the youngest member of the squad, yet she went on to win the most games of the tournament reaching the quarter finals of the ladies doubles. Gaining valuable experience from this, Kelly is now focused on the 2010 Commonwealth Games being held in Delhi.
Kelly won Young Sportswoman of the Year 2006, at the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Sports Awards and the BBC Local Radio Breakthrough Award 2006 at the BBC Midlands Sports Award. Kelly was unable to claim the award in person as she was just landing at Heathrow, but the BBC caught up with her there and interviewed her as she got off the plane!
In 2007 Kelly maintained her phenomenal success by becoming the GB No. 1 Senior Lady, a position that she retains to date.
Also, she signed a two year contract for a club in France which competes in the professional French league. In her first year the club won the League for the first time ever and Kelly only lost one game throughout the whole season. This year they have repeated their success and have been promoted into the French Pro A League. The French enjoy table tennis immensely and the crowds are quite substantial compared to in the UK.
Kelly's success has continued this year. In March she took part in the Team World Championships, held in China, and produced her best performance yet, only losing one game out of 13. At this level her Performance Director said Kelly's performance was “outstanding”.
In April Kelly won four National medals: 3 gold and 1 silver. These were the U21 Women’s Singles, Ladies’ Doubles and Ladies’ Singles Titles for her gold medals and the Mixed Doubles for her silver medal.
