Essex County Table Tennis Association

18^th/19^th March 2012 Senior Premier Wednesday

Team: Martin Kubrt, Matt Spero, Kamil Hajdrych, Sarra Wang, Evie Collier.

Essex Senior 1^st team went into the second weekend of competition with and without some of the team stalwarts. We welcomed back Evie Collier who had been unavailable for the first weekend due to injury but we were without Clive Carthy who himself was laid low with a back injury. Finding three men to play proved difficult, Emran Hussain was on Club duty in France, Euan Liddle on holiday and so we turned to second team regular Matt Spero and new to the team Kamil Hajdrych.

It is worth repeating what had happened the first weekend back in October and where we stood in the table.

In October we achieved the following results:-

Berkshire             -              6-4

Derbyshire          -              4-6

Sussex                  -              2-8

Our matches for the second weekend were, with the exception of Middlesex, against teams below us in the division so our fate was really in our hands.

Match 1 – Middlesex no joy here with a 10-0 maximum against Essex.

Match 2 – Avon. A close 6-4 win to give us a valuable 2 points.

Match 3 – Nottinghamshire. Although we were at one stage 4-3 up against Notts, we finally lost 6-4.

Match 4 – Cornwall. A 5-1 lead eased the pressure on the team with the knowledge that because of other results Cornwall and Avon were to be relegated. However, Cornwall staged a mini revival to record a draw. The shared points were not enough for Cornwall whilst Essex just did enough to remain in the top flight. Final tables are shown below.

County Premier Championship Final Table 2011/12

 12^th/13^th November Essex 2^nd Team Division 2C at BATTS, Harlow.

Team: Matt Spero, Steve Joslin, Antony Greenwood (Saturday), Tony Halling (Sunday), Barbara Izyk, Vicki Stredder.

This has already been reported on but the tables were not available at that time. They are now shown below.

 Senior Division 2C Final Table 2011/12

 Finally, I shall be stepping down from the position of Senior Match Secretary this year after 10 years in the post.  I have enjoyed my time in the role. I understand that Paul Collier has indicated he is prepared to take on the role. He was responsible for organising the second team arrangements this year. I’m sure he will perform a good job and I wish him the very best for the role.

John Andrews
Essex Senior Match Secretary
19^th April 2012

REPORT ON THE JUNIOR PREMIER DIVISION MATCHES PLAYED ON SATURDAY/SUNDAY 17/18 MARCH 2012

 The second round of Junior Premier County Championship matches was held at Wednesbury, the home venue of Desmond Douglas, on the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 17/18 March with two matches on both Saturday and Sunday. After the first round of matches last November the Essex team were second bottom and in need of points to avoid relegation from the Premier Division.

 However Essex’s problems started well before the first point was played. Jared Patel was unavailable for the Saturday matches due to his need to study for exams and there was no transport to get him to Wednesbury for the Sunday matches. Ifunanya Okafor was required to attend a School Assessment on the Saturday morning and therefore could not play. Jane Li, who was playing for the Essex Cadet team at Warwick on the Saturday and stayed in the midlands with the Team to play for them on the Sunday. One final problem was the breakdown of Paul Collier’s car during the journey on Saturday morning. However a mobile call to Neil Brierley gained Greg Crouchman’s mobile number and he was able to divert from his route to pick up the stranded players. Thus the team arrived just in time for their first match.

 Their first match was against leaders Middlesex who had won all their three matches at Cippenham 6-4. With only one Essex girl Middlesex would start the match 2-0 up. First on was Alex Holland who lost his first two games to Adam Reed 7 and 8. He then won the next two 8 and 6 to set up a nail biting decider which he clinched 12-10. Next on was Jason Yung, who has had such a good season in the Colchester League, and for his initiation to the County match format he had an even closer match with Omar Khassal, scraping through 10, 9, 15. With no number two girl next match on was Brandon Crouchman against the Middlesex No. 1, Gabriel Achampong. A strange scoreline with Brandon losing 6, 1, -6, -1, 6! Ella Patel lost both her matches to Hiba Feredj and Sushmita Limbu 3-1 and Jason lost his subsequent match to Adam 3-2. Alex beat Gabriel 3-0 and Brandon finished with another match going the full distance, defeating Omar 11, -12, 7, -5, 9. So a 6-4 defeat and no points.

 The late afternoon match was against Cleveland, the only team below Essex at the start of the day but who had beaten Berkshire 10-0 in their lunchtime match. Brandon, who had gone 2-0 down to Alec Ward came back to win the last three games 10, 9, 6 but Jason just couldn’t quite do the same against Sam Hitchen losing the decider to 8 after pulling back a 2-0 deficit. Ella managed to beat Elenor Davidson in a fluctuating match 9, -7, 5, -10, 8 for Essex to go 2-1 up. Alex then lost to Billy Forster 3-1 and with the girls match conceded Essex were 3-2 down. Then came the match of the match with Brandon coming back from 2-1 down to beat Sam 10, -6, -8, 13, 16. With the second girls match conceded and Alex losing to Alec 3-0 Essex were 5-3 down. With Ella beating Kayleigh Forster 3-1 and Jason winning the last match against Billy also 3-1 a draw was achieved. Results of other matches now gave Essex a chance of avoiding relegation if they could beat Berkshire Sunday morning. Defeat for either team would mean relegation.

 Come Sunday Essex had two girls and were surprised to find that the Berkshire team had only one girl. Brandon lost the opening match to Daniel McTiernan 3-1 but with Jason beating Leo Long 5, 7, 10, the girls concession and Alex beating Hanson Xu 3-0 Essex had a 3-1 lead. When Jane Li was 8-2 up in her second game after winning the first to 8 against Bijun Tang things looked good. After playing so well things went wrong and she lost the second game 14-12 and almost the third after being 9-5 up. However a now more confident Bijum going for her shots won the next two easily. Brandon beat Leo with ease 3-1 and the second girls concession put Essex 5-2 up. Alex then lost to Daniel 8, 7, 11 after being 7-5 up in the first game and Ella, after being 6-3 up in the second game against Bijun having lost the first only won one more point to be 2-0 down. She then won the next two games with ease but struggled in the decider to lose it 11-9. All now relied on Jason winning his match with Hanson as it was doubtful if Essex could get any points from the strong Sussex side who were challenging Middlesex for the title. In a fluctuating match Jason had us all biting our nails eventually winning -9, 3, 9, -4, 7 for a 6-4 team win. This win relegated Berkshire and the other relegated team would come from the match between Warwicks and Cleveland. As only one of these two Counties could overtake Essex on either points or games difference, Essex were safe for another season.

 As feared the Sussex team were much too strong, romping in to a 7-0 lead before Alex managed to get the better of Bryan Kwan 6, -6, 8, -8, 9 although the 8-3 lead in the decider seemed to be slipping away. For Ella and Jane, Yuki Wat and Lois Peake won their matches with some ease. Essex were unlucky not to pick up a second win when Alex Forshaw took the last two points from 10-10 in the decider with unplayable nets.

 Middlesex managed to take the title after being 4-2 and 5-4 down to Kent with a deciding game win to gain a draw.

 Looking back at the weekend’s matches the two girls matches conceded by Berkshire, Jane Li’s presence being vital and Jason’s final match win in that match were essential in preserving Essex’s Premier Division status

 Alex 4 from 8, Brandon 4 from 8 Jason 4 from 8, Ella 2 from 7 and Jane 0 from 3.

 Thanks must go to Paul Collier for coaching the team and to the team players themselves when Paul was not available or watching daughter Evangeline playing for the Senior Team in the other room. Also Greg Crouchman for transport and the “rescue” of the team on Saturday morning.

 Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary.

Arthur Clark reports on day 2 of the Cadet County Championships  -  Division 1b, 17 March 2012

 After the first round of Cadet matches played at the two separate venues Essex led the Cadet Division 1B by one set from Leicestershire. The second round of matches was played at the St Nicholas Park Leisure Centre, Warwick on Saturday 17 March. There were five rounds to play and all matches were played on two tables. The northern half of the Division still had one round to play so the Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire teams did not have to arrive until 11.00am. Thus on arrival it was found that the Leicestershire team had defeated Northants 6-4 and thus led the table.

 Essex’s first match was against bottom of the Division Shropshire. Not a good start for Essex as Sam Lowman lost to Jonny Higgins 3-0 and Livingstone Nadarajah, after winning the first 12-10, lost the next three games to Joey Chen. As Shropshire only had one girl Ryan William’s 3-1 win over George Bradley made the score 2-2. Everything then went Essex’s way. Jane Li and Stephanie Cross both beat Ellis Pope, Sam had to pull back a 2-0 deficit to beat Joey, and Ryan and Livingstone beat Jonny and George respectively for an 8-2 win

Essex then had to play Warwickshire and there was never more than one set difference in the score line as set out on the score sheet until the antepenultimate match. As matches are played on two tables this isn’t quite how the match progressed. Ryan started with a 3-0 win over Timmy Cooper but Livingstone lost 3-1 to Niall Herbert. Jane and Stephanie both won their matches against Milly Bradshaw and Emma Kilpatrick 3-0 and 3-1 respectively but Sam then lost his match to Anshul Satsangi 7,8,9 and Livingstone his to Timmy by the agonising scores of 10, 10, -9, 9. The girls then won their matches and Ryan won the match for Essex by defeating the opponent’s number one Anshul 3-1. On the other table Sam lost to Niall by the odd looking scoreline of 10, -0, 9, -8  5

 Essex’s next two matches were against the teams in third and first place and the destination of the top three places in the table would be decided by these two matches. Against third placed Northants Sam lost to their number 1 player Alex Ramsden 3-0 whilst on the other table Livingstone was involved in a marathon five gamer with Milan Modha. After being 2-0 up and with match points in the fourth game he eventually won 8, 4, -4, -12, 9. Stephanie lost 3-0 to Bhavika Mistry and after being 2-1 up Jane lost to old adversary Nicole Bird 6 in the fifth game for Essex to go 3-1 down. The scores were brought level when Ryan beat Ben Tombs 3-0 and Sam did the same to Milan. Jane then beat Bhavika on three 4’s and Stephanie lost 3-0 for the score to stand at 4-4. Ryan was 2-0 down to Alex but fought back to take the next two close games only to lose a fluctuating decider to 8. On the other table Livingstone lost a closely fought match with Ben 3-1 for the Team’s first ever defeat. Thus Essex were now a point behind Northants and needed a win over the unbeaten Leicestershire team to overtake Northants and finish level on points with their opponents.

 Again another match where the Scoresheet shows there was never more than one set difference throughout the whole of the match. Essex started well with Ryan, having lost a close first game to Eddie Lyons winning the next three comfortably but Livingstone was unable to convert his game point against Tobit Dehnen in the fourth game to a it to a deciding game. Jane and Stephanie both had comfortable 3-0 wins against Shreya Mehta and Aimee Gardner to put Essex 3-1 up. Sam then lost 3-0 to number one Adam Cross and Livingstone lost another marathon for him, -4, 12, 9, 3, 8, to Eddie for the match to be squared. Jane and Stephanie then won their girls matches, Jane by 4, 0, 1 and Stephanie by 7, 6, -11, 8 to leave it to the boys for the one win required. Both gave there all but it was not to be. After being 2-0 up Ryan lost -7, -6, 8, 7, 7 to Adam and Sam 5, -12. 9, 8 to Tobit. A win in either of those two matches would have made points and sets level for both teams and a games count back for the Title. As it was Leicestershire took the Title and Northants and Essex finished with equal points and sets in second place.

 Organiser Malcolm Macfarlane thought games difference was so close he was not prepared to give an opinion (rightly so) until he had checked back through all the results sheets (those on the day and the December ones) to come up with the answer. When I got home on the Sunday evening from the Junior Premier matches at nearby Wednesbury the Internet was down so I had to wait until Monday to find out how close the result was. And close it was. Not only were points won and sets won and lost the same so were the games won (132 to each team) and the deciding factor was the least games lost, Northants 89 and Essex 87. So Essex took the runners up spot by losing just 2 less games than Northants.

So congratulations to the team on securing the runners up position in the Division in their first season in the County Cadet Championships and commiserations for what might have been had they secured a win in either of the last two matches against Leicestershire.

Ryan Williams 6 out of 8, Sam Lowman 2 out of 8, Livingstone Nadarajah 2 out of 8, Stephanie Cross 5 out of 7, Jane Li 6 out of 8.

Thanks to Keith Williams for coaching the Team and the parents for transporting the players to the venues..

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary

Arthur Clark Reports on the Junior Division 1A matches played on Saturday 7 April 2012

For the Junior Second Team there was the journey to Wellingborough on Easter Saturday to complete the final three rounds of Junior County Championship Division 1A matches. All matches would be played on two tables. After the first four rounds of matches at Burton Uxbridge where they only secured one point from their four matches they were facing the barrel of a shotgun to stay in the Division. With the Team’s number one girl, Emily Godfrey, away on holiday Shannon Rolfe was offered the space on the basis of reports of substantial improvement during the course of the season which she accepted. Charlie Bates was also invited to make his debut for the Essex Team.

Their initiation was to face a Hertfordshire Team relegated from the Premier Division last season, currently in second place in the table and seeking to go straight back up. Robert Shrimpton and Charlie both lost their opening matches to Luke Walsh and Leon Thomson, 3-1and 3-0 respectively. Shannon lost to Annabelle Gibson, still listed in the ETTA Ranking List as an Essex player, 5, 13, 5 whilst on the other table Jane Li lost a marathon match against Pooja Sharma 12-10 in the deciding game after leading 10-6. She later on made up for this defeat by beating Annabelle, ranked 274 points above her, 8, 3, -3, 9. James put his team on the score sheet by winning -9, 6, 8, 6 against Zac Mandel. The other four matches were lost. Robert could make no impression on Leon, James too many mistakes against Luke, ranked 500 points above him, Shannon 3-1 to Pooja after taking the first game and Charlie 3-1 to Zac. With Yorkshire, Cheshire and Worcestershire all gaining a point each there was now a gap between Essex and the rest in the table. Nothing but two wins were likely to save Essex from relegation but there was hope as they were now left with playing the two teams immediately above them

The first of these was Yorkshire 2. Essex made a good start with Charlie beating Adam McKay 3-1 and James overcoming Sam Clayton, ranked 67 points above him, 15, 9, -1, (nothing went right for James in this game),    -10, 7. Jane beat Ffion Myers 9, 9, 8 but Shannon lost to the much higher ranked Jenny Wood 5, -9, -4, 9, 2 after being 2-1 up. Essex 3-1 up. Robert lost to Marcus Reynolds 3-0 but Charlie picked up some ranking points by beating Sam, 150 points above him, 5, 10, -4, 10 to put Essex 4-2 ahead. Shannon lost 3-0 to Ffion but Jane maintained the pressure on Yorkshire by coming back from 2-1 down to win 4, -9, -6, 7, 6 against Jenny. James had another good win, and with it an Essex Team win, over Marcus 8, 9, 9 who is ranked 180 points above him. A disappointment for Robert as he went down 10, 12, 3 to the lower ranked Adam. Although they won the Essex Team were still bottom in the Table, but now only on Sets difference

Cheshire wanted an early start in the last match as they had a four hour journey to get home so the match started before some of the other matches had finished. Only by losing 10-0 to Essex could Cheshire be relegated whilst on paper the other two relegation candidates should lose to Lincolnshire and Hertfordshire respectively. Thus an Essex win would be enough for them to stay up if Yorkshire and Staffordshire both lost. Things did not start well. Robert lost to the England No. 31, Tom Hill 3-0, and Charlie, agonisingly to Joe Killoran, ranked 185 points above him -2, 9, 6, -6, 9. It then became clear that Essex should pick up the four girls matches when Jane beat Nicole Scott, who was playing with two broken fingers on her left hand, 4, 2, 3 and Shannon overcame sister Nicole 10, 5, 9, thus two boys wins were needed from their last four matches. James provided the first with a 10, 5, -7, 10 win over Matthew McCormack but Joe was too good for Robert, winning 3-0. Shannon and Jane duly won their remaining matches comfortably enough and with James losing 3-1 to Tom it was all up to Charlie against Matthew who was surprisingly ranked above Joe and ranked six places above Charlie although he did not know that at the time. With vociferous support from the Team and its supporters Charlie won the first game to 7, got the second at 9, took an early good lead in the third only to see Matthew gradually whittle it back to 9-9 upon which two mistakes from Matthew gave Charlie his win and Essex the match.

Because of the early start of the match the Essex contingent had to wait biting their nails until Lincolnshire, the Division winners and Hertfordshire, the runners up, had both won the necessary six sets in their matches for Essex to know they had achieved an Houdini escape and avoided the relegation that looked likely after the first round of matches.

 The final Divisional Table as far as I know it, as the Essex Team left before Herts completed their matches as follows:

                                    P          W        D         L          Sets F             Sets A             Pts

Lincolnshire                 7          6          1          0          51                    19                    13

Hertfordshire               7          4          3          0          45 or 46           24 or 25           11

Worcestershire           7          4          1          2          38                    32                    9

Northamptonshire       7          2          2          3          36                    34                    6

Cheshire                     7          2          1          4          32                    38                    5

Essex 2                       7          2          1          4          26                    44                    5

Staffordshire               7          2          0          5          26 or 27           43 or 44           4

Yorkshire 2                  7          1          1          5          24                    46                    3

 Had Charlie not won his last match against Cheshire then the Essex Team would have been relegated by I or 2 sets and Staffordshire, who started the day in fourth place and the Organiser’s home County, would have stayed up

 James Denyer 4 wins out of 6, Robert Shrimpton 0 out of 6, Charlie Bates 3 out of 6, Jane Li 5 out of 6 and Shannon Rolfe 2 out of 6

 Strangely the Boys No. 2 position was not the place to be selected for as neither Owen Warren, in the first round of matches, nor Robert Shrimpton in this round, won a match whilst holding that position

 Thanks to Gill, Matt and the other parents for coaching the players.

 Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary.

The Essex Junior Closed was held at BATTS Harlow on Bank Holiday Monday, 2 January 2012. Entries were slow to arrive but after an extension to the original closing date, 22 entries at that point, by the time a draw could held there were enough entries to enable the event to proceed and with another couple of entries being accepted over the holiday period we finally reached 43 entries, although organiser Arthur Clark had to reschedule some a further two times to accommodate these entries.

 The day started with three events, the Under 13 and 18 Boys Singles and the Under 15 Girls Singles. The U13 event saw top seed Sidney Dorn (Southend) progress to and win the final with consummate ease, only dropping a game in his Group match with Tharujan Sivarajah. In the other half James Knudsen (BATTS) needed four games to get past Alexander Terrell in the semi final.

In the U18 event Alex Hollland (BATTS) progressed similarly to the final although Benjamin Matthews (Southend) took a game off him in their semi final clash. A round earlier Benjamin had been taken the full five game distance before overcoming League colleague Samuel Lowman -6, 4, 7, -14, 4. The bottom half of the draw was notable for the titanic semi final battle between Charlie Bates (Southend) and Robert Shrimpton (Chelmsford), one of a number in various Tournaments this season, which after a number of superb rallies Charlie scraped through 7, -15, 12, 10. In the final an easy 6, 3, 5 win for Alex. All six seeds won their respective Groups.

With Chloe Andrews unable to attend up for the Under 15 Girls this event was contested by five girls. The top three positions in the Round Robin were determined by Jessie Jarvis’s last two matches with Zoe Davies and Shannon Conway respectively where she prevailed 11-6 and an even closer 11-9 in the deciding game against both players, Zoe thus finishing third and Shannon the runner up.

Next events on were the Under 15 Boys and Under 13 Girls. Nothing spectacular until the semi finals where the audience was treated to two great semi finals of contrasting styles. At the same time first game scores were 14-14 on Table 1 and 11-11 on Table 2 and a few minutes later 10-10 on both tables. Samuel Lowman beat James Knudsen 14, 10, 8 in the bottom half semi but the top half semi went the full distance between the two hard hitting clubmates, Livingstone Nadarajah overcoming top seed Kleber Silva (both Becontree) -8, 14, 8, -6, 10. The final was a repeat of the semis where Livingstone eventually overcame Samuel -8, 8, 8, 13 although Samuel had three chances to take the match to a deciding game.

Only three of the original five entrants were able to compete in the U13 Girls event where Jessie Jarvis emerged the winner to add to her U15 event triumph.

 The last events were the two Restricted competitions for players who have not played for the County and were not seeded. Boys Group winners were Kleber Silva, Joshua Dye (Mossford), Benjamin Matthews and Jack Crook (Chelmsford) and these four players had comfortable first round wins to reach the semi finals. Pulsating semis which could have gone either way, Kleber beating Benjamin 10, -11, 11, 9 and Jack coming from 2-1 down to beat Joshua (who he had lost to in an U18 Group match at the start of the day) -8, 7, -8, 10, 9. In the final Kleber’s shot power to finish the rallies proved decisive, winning 8, 3, 11, 9.

 We would like to thank our two umpires, John Jennings and Lyndon Griffiths and to County Chairman Ken Field for presenting trophies to all the winners.

 Arthur C. Clark
Junior Match Secretary and Tournament Organiser.

The Victorious Essex Cadet Team

Arthur Clark reports on the first round of matches in Division 1B of the Cadet County Championships.

Essex’s first venture into the Cadet County Championships provided a successful day for the Team. Essex hosted the Eastern Region of the Division at BATTS Harlow on 3 December 2011 with matches played on two tables whilst the other four teams in the Division held two rounds of matches at Leamington Spa.

 Against a Suffolk team Essex did not get the start they would have wanted. Samuel Lowman lost to Max Boulter 3-0 whilst on the other table Livingstone Nadarajah, having won the first game 11-8 lost the next three 6, 8, 6 to Alex Horscroft. Next on the girls showed how it should be done. After a nervous start in which she had to save a game point against Katherine Shaw, Stephanie Cross settled to win 10, 3, 2 and Jane Li, having just completed two five game singles in the adjacent Essex Junior Inter League match, beat Natalie Wills 5, 10, 6. For Ryan Williams it appeared that he thought his match against Harvey Dinkele would be a cake walk and a lacklustre effort in the first game resulted in a 11-9 loss. However after an interval talk with coach Paul Collier Ryan showed what he could do by winning the next three games 2, 1, 3. On the other table Samuel lost a first game he should have won 13-11. Winning the next two 7 and 10 he won’t want to remember the fourth and saving two match points in the fifth he finally won 13-11. The girls then won their remaining two matches easily 3-0. Ryan then beat Max 4, 8, 3 but Livingstone had to endure a five game match with Harvey before coming through -5, 15, -10, 3, 3 . Essex had started off with an 8-2 win.

 Suffolk then played Cambridgeshire, Cambs winning all the boys matches and Suffolk the girls matches, two of which were conceded because Cambs number one girl failed to arrive through illness.

 Essex then played the Cambs team knowing they started 2-0 up because Cambs still only had one girl. Samuel lost his opening match to Adam Jepson, ranked 130 places above him 3-1, but Livingstone won his opening match against Max Schwiening 3-1. Stephanie had an easy win over Ena Catlin 6,3,4 and later on Lara Esquivel had an even easier win over Ena 4, 3, 1.After scraping through his first game with Harris Ryder 14-12 the next two were far easier, 6 and 3. Samuel had to come back from 2-1 down to Max before winning -10, 3, -5, 8, 5 and although Ryan’s match with Adam was close he lost 9, 9, 7.Livingstone also lost his match to Harris 3-0 so Essex had a 7-3 win. Thanks also to Neil Warren for his help in coaching the team during this match.

 With results now known of the matches played at Leamington Spa at the same time Essex lead the Table on sets difference by one set over Leicestershire. A league table will be added once published on the ETTA website.

 The final round of matches will be played at Leamington Spa on Saturday 17 March.

 Arthur C. Clark
Junior Match Secretary

Veterans Match Secretary Neil Brierley reports on the progress of the Essex Vets teams in the County Championships so far this year.

The following link provides latest table for all the county sides: http://etta.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/county_championship_tables-2011-12.pdf

5 of our 6 vets sides have commenced their campaign and round up as follows:

ESSEX 1 – Team of captain Tony West plus Clive Carthy , Mark Wicker and Lucy Wang. Played at Keighley and lost 9-1 to Kent, drew 5 all with Leics and lost 6-4 to Sussex. Lucy unbeaten but matches very tough and still have hopes of staying up with second weekend at  Ashford in February.

ESSEX 2 – Led by John Monk with Alex Abbott, Paul Cuming and Elaine Sayer , they have made a great start with wins over Durham, Cambs and Yorks  and were unlucky to lose 6-4 Notts.

ESSEX 3- Captain Paul Martindill , Phil Walker, Ray Lam , Marjorie Dawson and Sue Hickman have made a steady start beating Herefordshire  9-1, drawing 5 -5 with Worcs and losing 6-4 to Herts.

ESSEX 4- Captain Lin Attridge has picked Dave Bowles, John Poysden and Gary Baker  and they beat Bucks 7-3 and lost by the same score to Northants.

ESSEX OVER 60 FIRST TEAM – Captain Dave Bowles has picked Stuart Gibbs and Peter Radford plus Marjorie Dawson  and have made a great start in defence of their national  crown . They beat Herts 7-3,  drew 5-5 with Surrey and beat Worcs 7 -3. All to play for on 25/26 Feb at Milton Keynes.

ESSEX OVER 60 SECOND TEAM – Shirley Carroll captains this team and they play their first weekend later this month. 

Arthur Clark reports on the junior premier division matches played on Saturday/Sunday 12/13 November 2011 and junior division 1A matches played on Saturday 12 November 2011

 The first round of Junior Premier County Championship matches was held at the Cippenham Table Tennis Centre on the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 12/13 November with one match Saturday afternoon and two on Sunday. Having finished runners up the last two seasons there were hopes that this at least might be possible again this season but after a disappointing series of results this is now a distant vision. Currently second bottom in the Table the fight against relegation is a tough proposition since the teams we have to play in the next round of matches all seem likely to strengthen their teams.

 The opening match on the Saturday afternoon was against newly promoted Warwickshire. With Jared Patel deciding not to play on this day shortly before the weekend Ryan Williams replaced him playing his first mach for the County.

In the first match Brandon Crouchman, who replaced the now over age Luca Mariano, faced England No. 15 Matt Outhwaite. No fairytale premiership debut however losing 6, 6, 13 although there was a chance of extending the match to a fourth game. Although Ryan took the first game to 8 off Matt Lun he lost the next three 9, 7, 8. Iffy’s win was off the table as Warwicks had only one girl, Holly Thompson who subsequently lost 3-0 to Ella Patel and 3-1 to Iffy. Alex and Ryan both lost 3-0 to Laurence Sweeney, Ranked 21 and Alex also lost 3-0 to Matt Outhwaite. Brandon did his best to get the boys a win but after going 2-1 up he fell away to lose in five to Matt Lun

 Sunday morning’s match was against Kent who, on the basis of their 8-2 win over Cleveland yesterday, appeared to have a much stronger team than last year. Essex quickly went 3-0 up thanks to wins by Jared over Luke Savill, although he dropped the opening game 13-11 in a breakneck speed match, and 3-0 wins for Brandon over Brian Gray and Ella over Emma Tovey. However Kent hit back to take the next four, Alex losing 3-1 to Reece Placid, ranked 25, Iffy and Ella both 3-0 to No. 11 Emma Torkington and Brandon to Luke in five where all the games were won at the same end of the table, -12, 5, -5, 3 7 after Brandon led 5-2 at the change round. Jared then beat Reece 3-0 coming back from 10-7 down in the first game to win the last five points. Iffy led 10-7 in the first and 8-6 in the second but couldn’t convert to game wins and thus lost to Emma Tovey 10, 9, 4. Thus all on Alex for a win against Brian to draw the match. Another match like Brandon’s earlier where the same, and it was the same, end seemed to dictate the match only this time Alex , who led 5-3 at the final change round  managed to hold his nerve to win the last two points and win his match 4, -8, 9, -8, 9 for the Team draw.

 The afternoon match was against a Yorkshire team who had beaten neighbours Cleveland 7-3 in the morning and only just lost 6-4 to leaders Middlesex yesterday. Alex started with a match against Michael Frasier, a player he had beaten 3-2 in last season’s corresponding fixture. Sadly no repeat performance losing 7, 9, 12 although he had his chances to take the match to a fourth game. Brandon cruised through Tom Bell 5, 8, 3 and Iffy’s lack of match practice this season (she’s taking a year’s sabbatical to concentrate on exams) showed when losing to Ellen Auty 11, 9, -13, -10 8 despite having two game points in the first, leading 10-6 in the third and turning round 5-3 up in the final game. Jared lost the first game to Matthew Stephens and then went on to win the next three, albeit by 9 and 9 in games 3 and 4. Ella lost her first two game to Nicole Fiin, ranked 130 points above her, came back to win the next two but sadly unable to maintain the momentum to lose the final game to 8. Alex struggled in his first game with Tom finally winning it 15-13, found nothing going right for him in the third but won the fourth to 7 to make the match score 3-3. Ella won the first against ellen but lost the next three 6, 9, 6 despite leading 7-4 in the third  Jared had a fluctuating game with Michael with some spectacular winners and cruised through the deciding game to 3 to square the match once again.Iffy lost to Nicole 3-0 although she led 9-7 in the first. This left Brandon needing to beat Matthew for the Team draw  and he was up for it putting in a superb performance against the higher ranked player to win 9, 8, 7

 Looking back at the weekend’s matches and the current Table, leaders Middlesex only won their three matches by the narrowest of margins and only two points separates the middle six teams. Had Jared have played in the Saturday match and achieved his expected wins then Essex would have been second equal with Sussex on points (third on sets difference) and Warwickshire be in Essex’s second bottom position. Such is the closeness of the Division this season that any team having a bad second round of matches at Wednesbury on 17/18 March 2012 can be relegated.

Jared 4 wins out of 4, Alex 2 from 6, Brandon 3 from 6,Ryan 0 from 2, Iffy 1 from 5 and Ella 2 from 5.

 Thanks must go to John Holland on the Sunday for coaching the team and to the team players on the Saturday for coaching between themselves.

For the Junior Second Team there was the long journey to the Burton Uxbridge Club in Staffordshire for four rounds of Division 1A matches. Some players decided to travel up Friday evening and stay overnight. This meant that original travel plans changed and that I had to pick Jane Li up at six at Stanway and travel back to Chelmsford so that we could travel up with Scott and Terry Dowsett. That plan changed Friday evening when a telephone call revealed that Scott had hurt his back at his casual job on the Thursday evening and would be unable to play. Thank goodness that I had selected four boys to play so that meant that the remaining three would have to play every match. It would be a daunting day against the four County First Teams that our Second team were due to play as most or their players were ranked above ours. All matches were played on two tables.

 The first match was against Northants who had Sam Mabey and Miles Chan ranked 9 and 35 respectively in their team. James quickly lost to Miles 3-0 whilst on the other table, Robert Shrimpton, playing his first match for the County against Joe Lindsay went the full distance, the first of five of his eight matches that would go to five games. This time he lost the final set to 5 being unable to take his one chance in the fourth to win the match. Jane lost to Nicole Bird, ranked one place above her 3-1 after sharing the first two deuce games and later on Emily Godfrey lost to Nicole 4 in the deciding game and also unable to convert the match point in the fourth game. Both girls beat Bethany Tyler, Emily by 9, 9, 8 and Jane after winning the first two games, having to win the decider 11-7. Owen Warren lost 3-1 to both Sam and Joe. Robert took the first two games off Miles 5 and 9 before losing the last three 5, 6, 4. An 8-2 defeat.

 The second match was against Worcestershire who had No. 24 Michael Siket but whose girls were ranked below Emily and Jane. Owen lost 4, 1, 5 to Michael and on the other table another 5 game match for Robert, against Jack Davis. Eventually a win -12, -7, 3, 12, 7.and by this time Emily had played her match on the other table and won 7, 10, -14, 5 against Shannon Johns. James then beat Jaspreet Singh, ranked seven places above him 8, -9, 9, 6 to give Essex a 3-1 lead. However Worcester fought back to win the next two matches, Jane losing 3-1 to Ella Parry-Reece and Owen 3-0 to Jack. Jane then beat Shannon 3-1 and James lost to Michael 3-0. The last two matches were shared, Emily losing 3-1 to Ella after winning the first and Robert gaining a good four game win over Jaspreet after losing the first, a Draw the result.

 The third match was against the leaders and Division favourites Lincolnshire. Only Roberts opening match with William Ross went the full distance which he won -16, 7, -4, 11, 4. Sadly all the remaining matches were lost, six of them to 3-1 scores to Adam Harrison, ranked 7, Commor Neenan, Emily Roys and Olivia Churchill.

 For the last match of a tiring day Staffordshire were the opponents. James had a good opening 3-1 win over Stephen Ward, ranked 70, whilst on the other table another marathon for Robert against George Falcus ranked 115. Robert will remember the last two games for a long time, leading 2-1 and 10-6 up he lost no less than eight match points and two further match points in the decider to lose 9, -6, -9, 15, 11. A similar agony was to befall Jane in the next match against Lauren Evans. Turning round 5-2 down in the decider she then took eight of the next ten points to lead 10-7 only to lose the next five. Owen lost his two matches to Ryan Fellows and George and Emily beat Bekki Lycett and Lauren both 3-0. Jane also beat Bekki 3-1 but Robert must have run out of energy when playing Stephen losing 11, 9, 15 and not even able to take the match to a fourth game with the game points he had. Thus a 6-4 defeat that could, perhaps should, have been a.win.

James 2 wins out of 8, Owen none from 8, Robert 3 from 8, Emily 4 from 8 and Jane 3 from 8.

 Their next round of matches is at Wellingborough on Saturday 7 April (Easter Saturday) where it loks as though two wins from the three matches are needed if Essex are to stay up in Division 1.

 Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary.

Senior Match Secretary John Andrews reports on the Senior Premier team and the 2nd team in Division 2C

15^th/16^th October 2011 Senior Premier Cippenham

Team: Martin Kubrt, Euan Liddle, Clive Carthy, Sarra Wang, Lucy Wang.

The first weekend of the Premier County competition comprises 3 matches leaving the second weekend where four matches are to be played becoming the deciding event.

Essex opened their campaign against Berkshire, one of the teams against whom a win is crucial to our target of remaining in the Premier division. Essex made a solid start with Martin Kubrt beating Dave Barr in five close ends, Euan Liddle matching that performance against Liam McTiernan and Lucy Wang disposing of Megan Knowles. As expected England no. 23 Tom Maynard got the better of Clive Carthy but Sarra Wang maintained the three point lead with straight sets win against Maria Tsaptsinos. The battle of defenders Dave Barr and Euan Liddle saw the Berkshire man edge it in 4 games, 13-15, 16-14, 11-4, 11-9. Lucy Wang followed this with a crucial 5 set win against Maria Tsaptsinos. This put the score to 5-2 in favour of Essex. Tom Maynard duly despatched Martin Kubrt in three but not without Martin putting up spirited resistance in the second and third games, only going down 13-11, 12-10. The ladies had been in good form for Essex in this match and Sarra Wang duly sealed the win with an 11-6, 11-3, 11-2 result against Megan Knowles. Liam McTiernan kept the final result tight at 6-4 to Essex with a four set win against Clive Carthy.

Next opponents for Essex were Derbyshire who made it two wins out of two by beating Essex 6-4 whilst Middlesex were held to a draw by Avon. Shaun Marples had a much better game against Essex and he beat both Clive Carthy (3-2) and Martin Kubrt (3-1). The ladies matches were shared. England no. 26 Sarra Wang was well-beaten 3-0 by Abbie Milwain but she hit back in her second singles defeating Emma Vickers (Emma’s only defeat of the weekend) after a five game thriller (11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 13-11). Lucy Wang did well to beat Abbie Milwain but she in turn lost to Emma as the ladies games played a very prominent role in this match. Sam Perry who had beaten Martin Kubrt in five ends sealed the Derbyshire victory by getting the better of Euan Liddle 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 to secure his side’s victory, 6-4.

Essex were disappointed to have lost 8-2 to Sussex. Six successive games were decided in the fifth end and Sussex came out on top of these 4-2. England no. five Veteran Ritchie Venner was involved in two of these battles and he came out on top both times. He beat Clive Carthy 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-9 and he fought back after losing two close opening games to get the better of Martin Kubrt 13-15, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-9. Sarra Wang pulled through in the fifth end against Rose Rainton but despite leading 2-0 she couldn’t hold off Yolanda King. Yolanda came out on top 5-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8. It was a good match for Nigel Eckersley and the Sussex Over 50 Veteran beat both Euan Liddle (3-0) and Clive Carthy (3-1) whilst Euan Liddle made his mark. He scored a fine five game victory over Da Shuai Zhang.

We achieved the following results:-

Berkshire             -              6-4
Derbyshire          -              4-6
Sussex                  -              8-2

12^th/13^th November Essex 2^nd Team Division 2C at BATTS, Harlow.

Team: Matt Spero, Steve Joslin, Antony Greenwood (Saturday), Tony Halling (Sunday), Barbara Izyk, Vicki Stredder.

Six teams in this division so all matches were able to be played over one weekend. Thanks to Paul Collier for arranging the weekend, Neil Brierley who assisted with team arrangements and Sharon Head for the catering at BATTS.

Essex were looking to move back to division one at the first attempt although Norfolk looked a very different team from last year with the addition of Neil Charles transferring from Middlesex (England no. 30), Kelly Skeggs transferring from Essex linking up with Lauren Spink (England no. 5) and would no doubt be a main challenger.

Essex played Cambridgeshire in their first match with Steve Joslin and Barbara Izyk keeping a clean sheet with one win each from Matt Spero, Antony Greenwood and Vicki Stredder. Antony and Vicki coming through close five setters to secure their wins. Norfolk were next up and were without Neil Charles and Kelly Skeggs because of work commitments. However Lauren Spink was available and duly delivered two wins. Steve Joslin maintained his winning streak with two wins against Tony Zeqiri and A. Hawes respectively. Barbara and Vicki recording one win each against J. Kelly to produce a final score of 6-4 in Norfolk’s favour. Final match of Saturday was against Cambridgeshire 2 and a convincing 8-2 result obtained with Antony Greenwood, Matt Spero and Barbara Izyk remaining unbeaten.

There were just two matches to play on the Sunday with Tony Halling replacing Antony Greenwood in the team. At the start of the day Essex were in second place on sets difference but no doubt reflecting on the close match with Norfolk which would potentially be key to their final position in the division.  First up were Suffolk 2. 8-2 was the final result with Matt, Tony, Steve and Barbara all remaining unbeaten. Vicki had a titanic 5 set battle with Sonja Talbot 11-2, 8-11, 11-8. 10-12, 11-13. There was also defence against attack with Matt Spero just edging out Richard Hutchinson in a very entertaining match, 7-11, 11-3, 11-2, 10-12, 11-8.

The final match against Oxfordshire was a must win match if Essex were to stand a chance of overhauling Norfolk who now topped the table. But, it would always going to be a tall order with Norfolk 2-0 before the start of their match against Cambridgeshire 1, who were a lady short. The match against Oxfordshire was nip and tuck all the way with no side gaining a significant advantage although Essex were always fighting from behind. The second match saw Steve Joslin lose a close 5 setter to Pavel Jaskolski 7-11, 11-9, 11-4, 7-11, 9-11 which gave the edge to Oxfordshire side. Barbara once again delivered two wins but it was Jaskolski who provided the close 6-4 win for Oxfordshire with a four set win against Tony Halling, 3-11, 11-8, 10-12, 4-11. Norfolk emerged as champions and congratulations to them on their success.

A final table will be published on the ETTA web site shortly.

 John Andrews
Essex Senior Match Secretary
15^th November 2011