Essex Press Office

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

Junior Match Secretary Arthur Clark Reports on the Junior County Division 1A matches played on Saturday 27th March 2010

The first round of Junior Division 1A was held at Draycott and Long Eaton on Saturday 27 March 2010. Originally scheduled to be played at Grantham on 9 January but with players snowed in the round had to be postponed. With Grantham unavailable on 27 March we were lucky to find that Draycott was available where there is space for four tables in each of the two adjacent halls. All matches were played on two tables

The Essex second team’s first match was against South Yorkshire, one of the two teams relegated from the Premier Division last season. The opening two matches were both won by Essex, Anthony Kent beating William Boardman 3-1whilst Brandon Crouchman, after dropping the first game to James Grayson went on to win the next three. Ella Patel and Ify Okafor both lost 3-0 to England No. 19 Laura Robinson but both beat Eleanor Long 3-0. Alex Holland and Anthony both lost 3-0 to Kim Daybell, the England No. 13 and William also lost 3-1 to Brandon. After Ella’s win Essex were 5-2 up but in the last match Alex was unable to chalk up the win losing -6, 9, 12, -13, 7 to James Grayson, so the result a draw.

Against Staffordshire in the second match Essex 2 started off 2-0 down with Alex losing to James Ward, the England No. 14 and Brandon, after taking a 2-1 lead lost -9, 10, -3, 8, 9 to Ryan Fellows, ranked 40 points above him. Ify beat Laura Shand 3-0 but Ella lost to Jessica Burbeck 6, 6, 10 for Essex to be 1-3 down. Anthony then had a good win over Przemek Bednarczyk (pronounce that as an umpire!) 8, -9, 9, 7 but Alex lost to the slightly lower ranked Ryan 8, 8, 13. Ella and Ify made the match score 4-4 with wins over Laura (after advice from your scribe before game 3) 11, -5, 6, 6 and Jessica 4, 4, -9, -5, 7 respectively, Ify’s win meritorious over a player ranked 200 points above her. Anthony lost 3-0 to James and Brandon with determination and concentration defeated the Polish player after being 2-0 down -8, -8, 8, 10, 9 for the draw An excellent result when looking at the quality of the opposition.

For their last match of the day Essex 2 had to play Cheshire 1, who had finished a close second to the Essex first team last season in this Division. Anthony beat Matthew McCormick 3-0 whilst Brandon lost by the same score to the lower ranked Chris Hatton. Ella beat Corinna Bebbington 7, 6, -5, 8 as did Ify later in the match -8, 5,-6, 9 8 but both lost to the higher ranked Janay Gibson , Ify 0-3 and Ella 6, 5, -9, -11, 8. Brandon beat Matthew -11, 13, 6, 9 in a very close fought match but Alex lost to Stephen Nichols, ranked one place above him 9, 3, 10. With the score at 4-4 Alex had a comfortable win over Chris while on the other table took five games to beat Stephen for the match win.

Bearing in mind the strength of the opposition a good day for the Essex team who although finishing in fifth place on games difference are only one point behind the three equal leaders. After completing their matches here Ify and Ella journeyed to Wednesbury to play for the Essex Senior and Junior teams the following day. The next and final rounds of matches will be played at Grantham on Saturday 10 April.

Final Table

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary