REPORT FROM ESSEX JUNIOR CLOSED 2018

Arthur Clark reports on the days events at BATTS Harlow on Saturday 6 January 2018.

At the Closing Date for Entries there was a doubt that the event would be held but with a further dozen entries received up to Christmas Eve the event went ahead with 46 entries.. As no Under 13 Boys entered the Under 18 Boys event I was able to play these two events at the same time and save two hours on the days playing time.

First to play were these two events. For the Under 13 Boys there should have been two Groups of three players and two Groups of two. With two players not arriving who should have played in the two Groups of three, I later found out they were ill, all the players went through to the KO stage. Number one seed Ollie Rampton (Colchester) had a tight semi-final with team mate Liam Harris squeezing through 11, 11, 9 whilst in the other half Toby Zeffie (Southend) had an even closer semi-final to eventually beat Ralphy Pattison (BATTS) 7, -6, -10, 9, 7. In the final Ollie won 11, -9, 4, 4.

Under 13 winner - Ollie Rampton

Under 13 winner – Ollie Rampton

Meanwhile in the Under 18 Boys event top seed Sam Hume (Clacton) progressed comfortably to the final with 3-0 wins over Vineeth Kamma (Chelmsford) and Benjamin Sivathanu (BATTS). In the other half there was an upset in the semi-final when Abdul Raqueeb (Mossford) lost to Harry Keys (Southend) -8, 8, -7, 8, 9. In the final Sam won 3, -8, 7,4.

 

Under boys winner - Sam Hume

Under 18 Boys winner – Sam Hume

Under 18 Boys runner up - Harry Keys

Under 18 Boys runner up and Under 18 Boys Restricted winner – Harry Keys

The next events were the Under 15 Boys and Girls, the Girls in a round robin of four. Maliha Baig (Mossford) was the winner with Zara Darcy-Willis (NETTS) the runner up.

Under 15 Girls winner -  Maliha Baig

Under 15 Girls winner and Under 11 open winner –
Maliha Baig

In the Boys event the seven seeds all won their Groups and the top four all made their way to the semi-finals. The semis were both close matches. In the absence of Diesel Harvey (a school injury) and Daniel Young, Daniel Zeffie defeated William Skelt (both Southend) 11, -6, 8, 9 while in the other semi Ben Sivathanu gave top seed Jaden Aulakh (Mossford) a run for his money before losing 7, -12, 8, -7, 9.  In the final Jaden won 10, 2, 7.

Under 15 Boys winner -  Jaden Aulakh

Under 15 Boys winner –
Jaden Aulakh

There were also only four players in the Under 11 open event and Maliha Baig again triumphant. In the last match of the round robin she defeated Ralphy Pattison (BATTS) 6, 8, -10, 9 who became the runner up. The final event of the day was the Under 18 Boys Restricted event for players who had never played for the County. With no seeding in the event Harry Keys reached his second final of the day with a 5, 9, 8 win over Toby Kelly (Brentwood) while in the other half Colchester team mates Arran Hutchinson and Oliver Fifield played each other for a place in the final, Arran winning -10, 2, 5, 9. In the final Harry won 7, 7, 2.

Due to lack of entries there were no events for the Under 13 and Under 18 Girls.

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary and Tournament Organiser.