Essex Press Office

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

The first round of Junior Premier County Championship matches was held at the Cippenham Table Tennis Centre on the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 17/18 October with one match Saturday afternoon and two on Sunday. Having gained promotion last season after relegation the previous season Essex had high hopes of doing well this time.

Problems arose on the Friday with David Tan reporting that our number one, Reece, was still not match fit following his recent wrist accident so number four of the squad, Matthew Mulley, already on standby, was drafted in to the team. Worse was to follow when I returned home just before 11.00pm from Chelmsford coaching to find a message stating that number three, Jared Patel, had injured his knee and therefore unable to play. Frantic phone calls over the next hour failed to find a replacement for Saturday but Alex Holland was available for the Sunday matches. By 10.00am Saturday morning (the match started at 3.00pm) I was informed that Brandon Crouchman could arrive just before the match start time to play after he finished his morning golf match which he had managed to arrange to start earlier than scheduled..

The opening match on the Saturday afternoon was against Middlesex, one of the fancied favourites since they had lost the title last season on sets difference. After the first four matches it looked as though they were going to go one better this season. Oscar Selfridge never really got his power shots on target consistently enough in the first match against Ping Ho and lost 5, 9, 6. In the second match Brandon found William Morais, who had played really well in British League at Harlow the previous weekend, to hot to handle but just becoming to terms when losing 9 in the third. Evangeline Collier then played Charliegh Kirkby, one place below her in the Ranking List, won the first to 7, lost the second to 7, couldn’t get the necessary point required at advantages in the third to lose to 13 and found nothing would go right in the fourth. Matthew Mulley then had to play Daniel Basterfield, ranked number 12 in the Junior Boys List, losing 3 in the first, but just couldn’t get the points necessary at the crucial time to extend the match to a fourth set, losing 9 and 9. However the team spirit showing on both days indicated that the Essex players would fight to the last. The fight back began. Nicole Sydorenko completed a comfortable 8, 7, 4 win over Dipa Tamang and Brandon then showed his fighting qualities against Ping Ho, a player 82 places and 776 points above him. Snatching the first at 9 by slowing down the play the faster second was lost to 3. The next two sets were shared, Brandon winning the third to 11 and just losing the fourth to 9. In the fifth Brandon had to play catch up after the change round so much so that he took the lead at 9-9 for a match point. No luck on what could have been a winning shot, the net causing the ball to drop an agonising quarter of an inch (6mm in metric?) beyond the end of the table and the loss of the next two points were greeted with relief by Ping Ho. Brandon’s heroic effort set the tone for the next four matches. Evangeline, although not playing at her best, held her nerve (and our fingernails) to beat Dipa Tamang 6, 10, 11. Oscar then had to play Daniel. The shots went on and he set up a two set lead 5 and 10. Then all went wrong, losing 1 in the third and 8-3 down in the fourth. Then all changed. The shots were back on and eight consecutive winners won the match. 3-5 and the matches on the other three tables all completed. Nicole won the first two sets against Charleigh 7 and 8, lost the third to 4 and all were relieved, including Nicole, when she won the fourth to 10. Could Matthew keep the momentum going against William, ranked 10 places and 164 points above him. Attacking from the start Matthew took a fluctuating first set 13 and the second 8. 8-3 down in the third four points in a row to Matthew saw William crack under the pressure and the final four points gave Matthew a win and the Essex team a well merited draw.

Could Saturday’s heroics be continued on Sunday. First match was against Derbyshire, last season’s title winners, but they were without their top two boys and top girl players, all ranked in the top five in England. Their Boys were therefore all ranked below our Essex Boys and we should be looking forward to an Essex win. Matthew could not get his rhythm going in the first match against Ronan Kelly, ranked 111 places below him and scraped through 7, 10, -9, 10. At least it started the momentum against the weakened team. Alexander Holland playing as reserve for the day (he and Brandon would still be able to play for the second team) beat Daniel Burton 9, 8, -11, 7, losing the third after being 10-8 up and winning the fourth after being 9-6 down. Nicole, after winning the first two sets 8 and 5 found Isobel Ashley more and more difficult to play losing the next two 9 and 8 and being 7-4 down in the fifth. The Time Out proved decisive and Nicole won the next seven points for the win. Oscar beat Peter Baker 3-1 after dropping the first and Evangeline had set up a 10-8 lead in the first before subsiding to a 3-0 defeat to Abbie Milwain, ranked almost 300 points above her. The match score then progressed to 7-1 with easy wins for Matthew, Evangeline and Oscar over Daniel, Isobel and Ronan respectively. Nicole then had a marathon match against Abbie. Pulling back a 10-7 deficit to take the first and winning the second 9 Abbie hit back taking the next three 4, 9, 7. With Alexander winning 3-0 over Peter an 8-2 win was achieved.

The last Sunday match was against an unbeaten Kent team boasting two players ranked above those of Essex and a third just below Oscar. That third was Ross Wilson who had improved considerably during the summer and who Oscar faced in the opening match. Oscar was never really in the match despite being 6-2 up in the second and taking the third losing 3, 7, -4, 5. Alexander won the second against Andrew Lockwood, nowhere near his best, 8, -8, -7, 5, 6. Kirsty Wilson was playing really well giving nothing away against Evangeline in a 3-0 win and Lewis Grey, the England No. 4 equally dominant against Matthew. Against Jasmin Ould Nicole was 6-1 down in the first before coming back to 9-9 and losing the next two points. 6-2 up in the second only one more point was won to go 2-0 down and 9-4 up in the third required the saving of a match point before the set was taken 13-11. The coach’s change of tactics worked with the last two sets won 7 and 3 to make the match score 3-2. The next four matches were all lost, Alexander to Ross, 4,7,5; Evangeline to Jasmin, -7, 6, 9, 6; Oscar to Lewis 5, 4, 5 and Nicole to Kirsty 10, -14, 5, 8 despite being 10-9 up in the first. Matthew had an easy win over Andrew for a final 3-7 scoreline.

With the players electing to coach one another there was a great feeling of team spirit.

Sussex lead the way unbeaten over the weekend and only dropped two individual matches with unbeaten Kent second, Middlesex third and Essex fourth.

A commendable performance now that the team is back in the Premier Division bearing in mind the loss of two of our top three players. The final round of matches is on 27/28 March

The other interesting item was the use of testing equipment to measure the thickness of rubbers on the bats of every player. Those players who had one or both rubbers fail this time were permitted to continue playing with their bat but warned that should the rubber be found to still be over the thickness limit in March they would not be permitted to play with it for the remainder of the weekend and any matches won at that weekend before the bat was tested would be awarded to their opponent. This applies to Matthew Mulley and the black rubber on Nicole Sydorenko’s bat, in both cases the use of too many layers of glue beneath the rubber being the cause. It should be noted that the glue layer(s) are considered to be part of the rubber thickness and the maximum combined thickness of glue, sponge and rubber is 4mm. A glue layer is equivalent to 0.1mm. One rubber that constantly fails is whale.

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary.