CADET COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
DIVISION 1A – 31 MARCH 2019
BATTS

The final rounds of County Cadet Division 1A matches were played on Sunday 31 March 2019 at the BATTS Norman Booth Centre at Old Harlow. The first rounds of matches were played at Graham Spicer New Malden, Surrey and NETTS Earls Colne respectively,  with Surrey 1 and Middlesex 1 the leaders of the matches played at each venue after those first rounds of matches. Essex were fourth in the Table and equal on points with Suffolk. The Essex Team was Daniel Young (570), Ollie Rampton (571), Ralph Pattison (761), Maliha Baig (758) and Olivia Jones (96). The figures in brackets are the current Cadet TTE ranking points for the players.

In the first round of matches the Essex team played Sussex 2 who were bottom of the Table. The Essex players won the first four matches all 3-0 and for the fifth match it took Ollie four games against Max Wilson (461) to win his match. The remaining five matches were all won by Essex and only Olivia needed a fourth game to win her match with the higher ranked Georgina Hunter (185). A good warm up with the match against Surrey 1, who had just beaten Middlesex 1 6-4 to now lead the Division, their next opponents.

Essex lost the first two matches, Ollie to Ojasvii Borah (628) 3-0 and Ralph to Henry Maric-Murray (976) 3-1. Maliha quickly defeated Naziyah Hasan (238) 3-0 while Olivia was taken to a deciding game by Evelyn Pace after winning the first two. Time outs at the end of the game deciding the match, Olivia 10-7 up but losing 14-12. Daniel then played the top seed of all the boys playing on the day, Ollie Maric-Murray (1190), and he must have been thrilled with the result, a great 13-11, 11-5, 13-11 win. For Ralph a 3-0 loss to Ojasvii. Maliha then beat the unranked Evelyn 9, 8, 5 while on the other table Olivia was in another five game match, this time with Naziyah. Winning the first and fourth games she lost the second game 7-11 and third game 13-15 despite a couple of chances to win it. In the final game a two point advantage at the change round could not be maintained and she lost 11-7. In the final two boys matches Daniel lost 3-1 to Henry and the match between the two Ollie’s went to Surrey 11-3 in the decider. A 7-3 defeat which with a bit of luck could have been a draw.

In the final round for the Essex Team, for all the other teams they had another round to play after this one, they had Surrey 2 to play. Daniel beat Adam Palmer (566) 3-0 while on the other table Ralph was in a tough match with Jacob Archer (553), eventually winning 7-11, 12-10, 9-11, 12-10 11-8. Olivia was involved in get another five game match, this time against Emily Cheung who was ranked 220 points above her. This time she won her marathon match 11-8, 6-11, 5-11, 13-11, 11-8 winning the last three points in that final game. Another win for Maliha, 3-0 against Caron Charles and she followed that up with a demolition job against Emily 3, 5, 8. Not the best of days for Ollie as he struggled against both Francesco Bonato (710) and Jacob, losing both matches 3-1. For Daniel another good win, this time over Francesco 4, 9, 10 to give the Team an 8-2 win.

It was only after the final round of matches had been played did the Essex Team know that they had finished in third place by count back on games won and lost over Suffolk after the Suffolk team lost 7-3 to the Division winners Surrey 1 with Middlesex 1 the Runners Up. A good performance by the Essex team. For Maliha she only lost one match over the two days of play and that to the unbeaten Middlesex 1 player Scarlett Anders (1010) in the first round of matches at Earls Colne.

FINAL TABLE

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary and Cadet Division 1A Organiser.