Essex Press Office

Reported by Steve Kerns
Press & Publicity Officer
Essex County Table Tennis Association

Junior Match Secretary Arthur Clark reports on recent Essex Junior matches.

Three rounds of Junior County Championships Division 1A matches were held at Grantham on 25 October. Most unusually the first round of four matches all resulted in 7-3 wins thus resulting in games wins and calculators to determine the top four and bottom four table positions. Matches are played on two tables. Essex 1 who were relegated from the Premier Division last season were looking for a quick return. Their first match was against Cheshire 1. Reece Tan beat Liam Tydesley in four but Azarel Adebanjo lost to opposition No.1 Josh Boult 8 in the fifth. Nicole Sydorenko, in her first match for Essex, quickly demolished Annie Hudson 3, 1, 6 whilst Evie Collier lost to Rachel Baker three straight. Emran Hussein and Azarel then both beat Matt Wetherby and Liam three straight for a 4-2 lead. In the reverse girls games Evie beat Annie 7, 7, -8, 2 whilst Nicole was involved in her best match of the day with England No. 16 Rachel although losing 7, -9, -10, 10, -8. Emran and Reece quickly won the last two matches for the 7-3 win. Meanwhile Essex 2 were playing Bedfordshire who were promoted from Division 2C last year. Luca Mariano and Matthew Mulley both won their matches against James Coleman and Nathan Forbes in four. Then Georgina Barnes and Bethany March both won their matches easily to put Essex 2 4-0 up. The same applied in their return singles later on with the Beds girls only achieving 5 points in one game of the four matches. In between Jared Patel had lost to Ben Gardner 6, 9, -12, 10 and Matthew had beaten James three straight to put Essex 2 7-1 up. Ben also beat Luca 5,10,5 and it was left to Jared to play the marathon last match when the three matches on the other tables had all finished but he couln’t turn a 2-0 lead into a win. Final score -7, -8, 7, 4, 18 to Nathan. In the Table Essex 1 led Essex 2 by a single game.

After the break for lunch Essex 1 took on neighbours Suffolk who only had one girl and won 9-1, the only loss being Azarel’s three straight defeat 8, 9, 9, by Jake Collins. It transpired later on that Azarel, keen to represent Essex and not let the County Team down had still not fully recovered from the injury he sustained during the Junior Assessment Trials. Not to be outdone Essex 2 beat Durham, who missed promotion to the Premier Division last season on games difference, also by a score of 9-1 which took them to the top of the Table by virtue of having lost two games less than Essex 1. Jared lost the first match -4, 11, -6, -11 after leading 10-7 in the fourth to Michael Hahn but the rest were all won three straight Jared having the easiest match with a 0, 1, 1 win over Sam Howard.

For the final match of the day the two teams had to play one another giving the coaches a rest but a few nails to bite. The 9-1 scoreline to the first team was way off being a true reflection of the match. Azarel and Reece opened up with four game wins over Luca and Matthew respectively. Nicole easily beat Georgina three straight but Evie had to fight back from 2-0 down to beat Bethany -11, -2, 7, 7, 6. Emran then beat Jared 8, 8, 10 but Azarel then lost to a fighting Matthew 3, -5, 8, -9, -4 for the second team’s only win. The girls then played their reverse fixtures, Nicole beating Bethany 5, 5, 7 but Evie had another battle on her hands before scraping through against Georgina 10, -5, 9, -9, 10.Emran lost the first to Luca but then won the next three 7, 3, 3. to leave Reece to play the last match against Jared which he eventually won 13, -4, 6, -6, 7.

After the three rounds of matches Essex 1 lead the Table with 6 points closely followed by Nottinghamshire, Essex 2 and Cheshire 1, all on 4 points. Emran and Reece were two of the three unbeaten boys (Sam Walker of Notts the other) whilst Sophie Neil of Notts was the only unbeaten girl.

The final round of matches will be at Grantham on Saturday 21 March 2009.

Steve Kerns
Press & Publicity Officer
Essex County Table Tennis Association