JUNIOR DIVISION 2C- FINAL ROUND

General Action Shot 2

A DRAMATIC FINAL MATCH OF THE DAY TO DETERMINE THE JUNIOR DIVISION 2C WINNERS BUT A DISAPPOINTING DAY FOR THE ESSEX TEAM

Report by Arthur Clark – Essex Junior Match Secretary and Junior Division 2C Organiser

The final round of County Junior Division 2C matches was played on Saturday 1 December 2018 at BATTS Harlow.
For the first round of matches on Saturday 3 November the Division had been split in to two halves, the eastern half Bedfordshire, Essex 2, Hertfordshire and Suffolk had played one another at NETTS, Earls Colne whilst the southern and western half of the Division, Berkshire, Oxfordshire Surrey 2 and Sussex 3 had played one another at the Graham Spicer venue, New Malden. Surrey 2 won all three of their matches at their venue as did Hertfordshire at Earls Colne. As well as losing to Herts Essex also lost to Suffolk and scraped a draw with Bedfordshire.

Junior Rankings (when in the TTE Junior Ratings List) are shown in brackets. The Essex Team was Daniel Young, (373), Arran Hutchinson (361), Harry Keys (305), Reece Harris-Griffiths, Maliha Baig (171), Olivia Jones , and Jodie Robertson. Reece was included in the team to cover against Harry’s injury returning and the fact that Harry had to leave early for another commitment. Jodie accepted the invitation to join the team when it became know that Olivia also had to leave early.

In the opening round of matches the two bottom teams, Essex 2 and Berkshire, played one another. A good start with Arran beating Rayaan Asghar (426) -8, 8, 8, -9, 4 and Harry winning -7, 8, 10, 8 over Ralph Phillips. Maliha and Olivia both won their matches 3-0 but Danial then lost his match to the higher ranked Joseph Barraclough (437) having won the first two games 5 and 5. Olivia and Maliha had another two easy 3-0 wins as did Daniel against Rayaan 3-0. For Harry it was a much tougher win over Joseph 10, 8, -8, 8 for a 9-1 win and a flying start.

For the second round of matches Essex played Oxfordshire and the main item for this match was the first game between Olivia and Vicky Coll which Vicky eventually won 25-23. Olivia had been 8-3 down and fought back to be 10-9 up but could not convert any of the nine game points she held. Vicky went on to win the match 3-1 and later on also beat Maliha 3-1 for Maliha’s only defeat of the day. In the opening two matches Arran triumphed over Arthur Anstis (291) 3-1 while Reece lost to Kiarash Shaddel (468) 3-1. Daniel was involved in another five game match and like in the Berks match he won the first two games and lost the last three to Todd Stanmore. Olivia beat Lilli Foreman 3-1 having lost the first game and earlier Maliha had beaten Lilli 2, 1, 1. The match score was now 3-5. Arran then lost to Todd 14, 7, 5 and in the last match Daniel was involved in yet another five setter but this time he won it 4, -9, -9, 10, 6 against Kiarash.

In the third round of matches Essex had to play the joint leaders Surrey 2. Arran (6, 14, -6,) and Harry (8, 6, -8, 9) both lost their opening matches to Ollie Maric-Murray (335) and Angus Norman respectively. Jodie, in her first match for the County had to face the unbeaten Yuvathi Kumar (212) (her surname is Vijay in the TTE Rating List) and not surprisingly she lost 3, 1, 1. She did much better against Evelyn Pace, who had won her previous four matches, losing 3, 7, 5 while on the other table Maliha was taking Yuvathi’s unbeaten record away with a 6, 8, -9, 9 win. Daniel lost to both Howard Onweng and Ollie 3-0 in both matches. Harry also lost to Howard 3-1 in the final match. An 8-2 defeat.

In their last match of the day Essex played second from bottom Sussex 3. Arran played Charlie Ollerenshaw (368), ranked seven points above him, and won -3, 8, 3, 6 while on the other table Reece was losing 3-0 to Jamar McGlashan (606). Maliha won her two girl’s matches comfortably while Jodie lost a very close match with Sasha O’Halloran (109) 6, 9, 11. Joy was to come however when she beat Claudia Hough 7, 3, 8 for her first Essex win on her debut. Daniel lost to both Harry Yip and Jamar and with Arran losing the last match 10, 9, 7 to Harry the 6-4 defeat relegated the Essex team to second bottom in the Table. The top two teams, Herts and Surrey, had to play one another . Surrey needed a win to take the title and Herts a draw, Sets and Games their advantage if the match was drawn. The dramatic match went to the very last game when Howard Onweng came back from 8-4 down to beat Samuel Flaum 11-9 and Surrey won the title with the 6-4 win.

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2018/2019

JUNIOR DIVISION 2C

TEAM P W D L SETS F SETS A Pts
SURREY 2 7 7 0 0 50 20 14
HERTFORDSHIRE 7 6 0 1 51 19 12
SUFFOLK 7 4 1 2 43 27 9
OXFORDSHIRE 7 3 1 3 36 34 7
BEDFORDSHIRE 7 2 2 3 29 41 6
SUSSEX 3 7 1 2 4 28 42 4
ESSEX 2 7 1 1 5 28 42 3
BERKSHIRE 7 0 1 6 15 55 1