Essex Press Office

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

Essex Junior Secretary Arthur Clark reports from Cippenham TTC.

Five rounds of Junior County Championship Division 2D matches were played at Cippenham on 20 February to complete the Division’s fixtures with each match played on three tables. After the first round of matches back in November Sussex 2 led the Table by four points over the five chasing teams which included Essex 3 and Essex 4 but they had to play both Surrey 2 and Berkshire who both had a match in hand. Also the whole of that team were needed for the Premier Cadet weekend so not only did the second team show a complete change of personnel their third team did as well. With Philip Barthee and Adam Dukes unavailable Michael Barthee was promoted to fill the vacancy in the third team. On paper Essex 3 had the easier fixtures to play than Essex 4.

In the opening round of matches Kent’s boys, Sam and Aaron Smith and Dan Lawrence, won all their six matches 3-0 against Essex 4’s Sukrit Sood, Tim Hunt and Sam Langton whilst the Essex’s girls took their four, Kent’s Megan Sullivan putting up most resistance losing 3-2 and 3-1 respectively to Connie Hodges and Emily Godfrey. Sussex 3 went down 8-2 to Essex 3, Phillip Lawson losing the first match to Finney Wilson 3-1. Michael Barthee beat Vinal Patel 11-8 in the fifth set and later on beat Finney 11-7 also in the fifth. Scott Dowset beat Garrett Scammell 12, 5, 10 but lost the last match to Vinal 3-1. Essex’s girls Estelle Purkis and Lucie Collier both beat Bethany Pemberton-Hill and Emma Sheen, Lucie 3-1 in both and Estelle 3-0 in both. Essex 3 and 4 in fifth and sixth place respectively.

In the second round of matches Essex 4 had a bye whilst Essex 3 beat bottom team Cambridgeshire 9-1. Cambs win coming from Patrick Mohan’s fifth set 12-10 win over Scott Dowsett. Both Ella Patel and Lucie Collier struggled against Cambs only girl, Keighleigh Hubbard, Ella winning -13, 5, 11, 9 and Lucie 5, -12, 6, -9, 11. Berkshire took over leadership of the table, but only on sets difference from Sussex 2, Kent 2, Surrey 2 and Essex 3, all teams having 8 points.

After the lunch break Berkshire showed their aspirations for the Title with a 10-0 win over Essex 4. Essex players Emily Godfrey and Tim Hunt did their best to try and avoid the whitewash in the last two matches both losing 11-8 in the fifth set to Megan Knowles and Hanson Xu respectively. Emily, from 2-0 down won the third set 12-10 and from 5-8 down in the fourth and a timely Time Out won the next six points. At 8-8 in the fifth set there was hope of a spectacular win over the girl ranked 711 points above her but Megan held her nerve to take the next three points and avoid a surprise defeat. Earlier Sam Langton had lost his way in the fourth set to lose to Hanson Xu. Essex 3 kept in the race for honours with a 7-3 win over Surrey 2, a team with only one girl. Win of the day was Ella Patel’s 3, 6, 8 victory over Fei Fei Pei, ranked 605 points above her, 3, 6, 8 with a series of backhand smashes that Fei Fei could hardly have seen, let alone get anywhere near. Michael Barthee was also unbeaten which included a 13, 7, -6, -7, 14 win over Alex Kwaskowski and a 9, 9, -5, 11 win over Simeon Giles. Scott Dowsett had lost the opening match to Antoney Pattern 3-1but then beat Alex 3-1. Phillip had earlier beaten Simeon 6, 8, -3, -10, 10and lost to Antoney 3-0. Berks, Kent 2 and Essex 3 now topped the table with 10 points each with Sussex 2 slipping down to fifth position after sitting this round out.

In the fourth round of matches Essex 3 had a bye. Sussex 3 stormed into a 5-1 lead over Essex 4 but in the end had to be satisfied with a 6-4 win. Garrett Scammell and Finney Wilson were unbeaten for Sussex 3 whilst Emily Godfrey won her two matches for Essex 4 three straight against Emma Sheen and Bethany Pemberton-Hill. Connie Hodges lost to Bethany after being 2-0 up but beat Emma 3-1.Tim Hunt registered the boy’s only win when coming back from 2-0 down to win the last match in five. With the title in Berkshire hands, albeit on sets difference at this stage, Kent 2 had to wait to see whether they could hold on to the runners up spot or whether Sussex 2 could overtake them on sets difference and Essex 3 could not now finish runners up.

In the last round of matches Surrey 2 beat Essex 4 7-3 despite Simeon Giles having to concede his last match to Sam Langton after he had been hit in the eye by a table tennis ball, Anthony Patten, Alex Kwasowski and Fei Fei Pei all unbeaten. Essex’s three came from concessions. Essex 3 finished their day unbeaten after a 9-1 win over Bucks 2, Michael Barthee lost his only match of the day 3-1 to Conor McManus. Scott Dowsett finally registered an unbeaten match although his opening match against Anthony Gardner was a nailbiting 9, -10, 5, -9, 10.

So Berkshire take the Title with 14 points with three teams on 12 points. Sussex 2 are runners up with 55 sets to 25, Kent 2 third 51-28 and Essex 3 fourth 48-31. Berkshire’s Daniel Moses, losing only once in sixteen matches and Surrey’s Fei Fei Pei losing once in fifteen matches having the best percentages of the seven players who played in all eight matches for their team.

For Essex 3 Michael Barthee 7 wins out of 8, Phillip Lawson 6 out of 8, Scott Dowsett 5 out of 8, Ella Patel 3 out of 3, Lucie Collier 4 out of 4 and Estelle Purkis 2 out of 3. It was disappointing that in three of Essex’s four matches their opponents only had one girl player.

For Essex 4 Tim Hunt 1 win out of 8, Sukrit Sood 0 wins out of 8, Sam Langton 0 wins out of 7, Emily Godfrey 4 wins out of 6, Connie Hodges 3 wins out of five and Samantha Purkis 0 wins out of 3. Only one opponent had one girl. In his first match for the County Sam showed the will to win was there and I feel he will do much better next year.

My thanks to Paul Collier and Terry Dowsett for coaching the two teams

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary