Essex County Table Tennis Association

A Good Weekend for Middlesex’s Curtis Welsh

The third BATTS One Star Junior Open Tournament of season 2012/13 was held at the home of BATTS Table Tennis Club, the Norman Booth Centre, Old Harlow on the 11/12 March. There was a massive entry, 142 all told, which meant reluctantly that Consolation events for those players who failed to finish in the top two places in their Groups could not be held for the U16, U15 and U13 Boys events. Players entered from as far away as Cheshire, Sussex, Beds and Norfolk as well as four of the Greenhouse Centres.

Saturday morning started with the Under 16 Boys event, originally eight Groups of five players and one of four. With two players not arriving the one player hoping for an on the day scratch entry could be accommodated. All the top seeds in their Groups were winners except one, Samuel Lowman (E) who lost to Cheshire’s Joe Howard. Number one seed Jamie Dignum (Mi) reached the final without dropping a game, defeating James Knudsen (E) in the quarter final and Jay Ghazi Timms (Mi) in the semi. It wasn’t as easy for No. 5 seed Curtis Welsh in the bottom half, 10, 10, -8, 5 against George Mills (Mi), 2, 8, 7 over No. 4 seed Jake Henley in the Q/F and -8, 3, 10, -8, 5 over No. 2 seed Rijul Roychoudhury (Mi) in the semi. In the final, after letting a 2-0 lead and three match points slip he finally beat Jamie 7, 9, -13, -4, 6.

For the Under 16 Girls three Groups of four but the number three seed failed to arrive. In Group one all matches were won 3-0 with top seed Charlize Uy (He) untroubled. In Group two the seeded Juliette Mousserie  (Sy) lost her opening match to Jennifer Crapnell (E) 7-11 in the decider and Jenny went on to win the Group. Emily Wood (E) was the winner of Group three. In the semi’s Juliette defeated Charlize 8, 4, -10, 6 and Jenny beat Emily 9, 4, 14. Thus Juliette and Jenny met for the second time, another fine match ensued with Juliette just gaining revenge for her earlier defeat 12, 9, 12. In the Consolation final Sarah James (E) beat Lauren James (E) 8, 10, -7, -9, 9.

For the Under 14 Boys event there should have been twelve Groups of four but one seed withdrew before the weekend and another failed to arrive together with four other entrants. The two players left in one Group were moved to fill other Group spaces, so eleven Groups started. Nine seeds won their Groups with James Knudsen (E) losing to Joe Howard (Ch) and Jay Ghazi Timms losing to Max Aldous (He). With the quirks of different ranking points for Cadets and Juniors this season Curtis (now the No. 2 seed ahead of Rijul Roychoudhury, Jake Henley (He) and Jay Ghazi Timms) and Jamie reached their second final of the day. Curtis again beat Rijul in the semi, this tome -8, -10, 8, 7, 9. Another cracking final with Curtis just nicking it 9, -5, -7, 11, 11. The Consolation event was won by Nick Radia (He) over Tharujan Sivarajah (E) 6, 4, 7. Nick beat Arman Khan (Mi) and Tharujan beat colleague Hamza Rehman (both 3-1) in the respective semi’s.

There were originally two Groups of four and one of five in the Girls U14 event but with one absentee there were three Groups of four. Charlize and Juliette won their Groups but No. 3 seed Talia Banin-Reid lost to Katherine Shaw (Sk) in her Group. For the second time in the day Juliette beat Charlize, only this time it was the final and the match much closer 9,-10, 6, -9, 5. In the Consolation event Sarah James was triumphant for the second time, this time beating Catherine Maltby (Mi) -11, -7, 12, 8, 4

Sunday’s events started with the Under 13 Boys and Girls events. Thirteen Groups of four and one of five in the Boy’s event and the non arrival of seven players enabled three scratch entries to be accepted. Only three seeds failed to win their Group, Kian Burgess (E) to James Kelly (Ca), John Dignum (Mi) to Daniel Shelley (Sk) and Naphong Boonyaprapa (Nk) to scratch entry Kidi Martin Paulo. At the KO Stage  Eren Guzco (a scratch entry inserted in the space created by the absent No. 2 seed) and No. 3 seed George Coulson (He) reached the final where Eren won 9, 7, -9, 7. In the semi’s George beat No. 1 seed Naphat Boonyaprapa (Nk) 9, 3, 9 and Eren beat Kai Ghazi Timms (Mi), No. 4 seed 8, 9, -9, 7.

In the U13 Girls event there were three Groups of four players. The three seeds, Amelia Chan (Mi), Ruth Marsden (K) and Georgina Lister (Ca) all won their Group. In the semi’s Amelia beat Zoe Davies (E) -4, 5, 6, -5, 7 and Ruth beat Emily Smith (E) 11, 4, -6, 7. In the previous round Emily had defeated Georgina -5, 6, 9, 5. In the final Amelia won 8, 6, 9. In the Consolation event Sarah James won her third Consolation event of the weekend by defeating Nabilan Rifat  (Mi) 4, 3, 3 in the final.

There were three events in the afternoon. The Under 11 Open, two Girls and 14 boys forming four Groups of four, the U15 Boys, seven Groups of five and the U15 Girls, originally a round robin of six players but with three of the U13 Girls wanting scratch entries hurriedly reorganised into a Group of four players and a Group of five with subsequent KO Main and Consolation events.

It was good to see so many U11 entrants but with some players playing in their first Tournament event ETTA ranking points not necessarily a good guide which showed when the number 2 and 3 seeds failed to win their Groups but at least they went through to the main event by being runners up. Top seed Kai Ghazi Timms (Mi) had to come back from 2-1 down in his last Group match against Samuel Hague (Ca) to win his Group and in the Q/F he then had to face Naphong Boonyaprapa (Nk), the No. 3 seed, who had lost to Liam Smith (K) in his Group. Kai won 9, 17, 7 and went on to reach the final by beating Oliver Salmon (Ca) 5, -11, 5, 5. Meanwhile in the other half Liam went on to reach the final after a mammoth semi battle with Samuel Chesterman (Ca) 7, 8, -12, -4, 9. Earlier Samuel had defeated No. 2 seed Thomas O’Sullivan (He) in his Group and County compatriot Samuel Hague -7, -8, 10, 3, 9 in the Q/F. In the final Kai won 10, 5, 3. In the Consolation final the third and fourth placed players in Group two met again and again it was Casey Mansfield (E) who emerged the winner -10, 9, 6, 7.

In the U15 Boys event three of the seven seeds failed to win their Group, Jay Ghazi Timms, GBolohan Hassan (Mi) and George Coulson but all three went on to reach the quarter finals. Jay lost to Curtis Welsh 8, 4, 3, GBolohan to Claudiu Andrei (Mi) 10, 11, -8, -7, 7 but George beat Joe Howard (Ch) -9, 7, 6, 5 for a semi final match with top seed Kleber Silva (E). Kleber won this 9, 5, 3 and Curtis the other semi -9, 4, 2, 9. The destination of the trophy was always in doubt in an exciting final with Kleber pulling away in the later stages of the decider to win 8, -5, 10, -4, 8.

In the reconstituted Girls U15 event there were three way ties in both Groups. Jess Jarvis (E) won Group 1 but Georgina Lister (Ca), Ruth Marsden (K) and Emily Smith (E) each beat one another. On games countback Emily was declared the winner so finished second in the Group. For Group 2 the tie was for first place. Games countback made Zoe Davies (E) the winner, Jenny Crapnell the runner up and relegated top seed Viona Fejzullahu to the Consolation event.  In the KO semi finals Jenny beat Jess -7, 5, 6, 8 and Zoe beat Emily, her League compatriot, 8, -4, -1, 10, 5. In a very close final Zoe beat Jenny 10, -9, 9, 10. In the Consolation final Viola had an easy win over Sarah Menghistab 3, 4, 2.

Another enjoyable weekend for all the players and a hectic two days for me. It was unfortunate that with the BATTS policy of running Consolation events wherever the Schedule permits for those players who do not finish in the top two places in their Group and gives the lesser players a chance of winning some honours Consolation events for the Boys could only be held in the U11 and U14 events. To have staged Consolations for the other three Boys events would have meant a very late evening finish.

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary
Member of the BATTS Organising Committee

The Essex Junior Closed was held at BATTS Harlow on Saturday, 13 April 2013.

The day started with three events, the Under 13 and 18 Boys Singles and the Under 15 Girls Singles. The U13 event, a round robin of five players, saw top seed Rahul Jindul (Mossford) losing the first match of the Group to the unknown Jack Stockdale (Romford) 7, 6, -7, 9. Jack went on to win all the rest of his matches 3-0 to win the event and Rahil did similarly for second place. Closest match saw Clark Pollins (Mossford) beat Casey Mansfield (Harlow) -8, -6, 6, 12, 9.

In the U18 Boys event the expected four Groups of six players turned out to be three Groups of five and one of four due to the non-arrivals. Three of the seeds won their Groups although James Denyer (Clacton) and Luke Jones (Harlow) dropped games on the way. Patrick Gilbert (Braintree) did not drop a game but Navdeep Panesar lost to Sidney Dorn (Southend) 9, 9, 9. who in turn lost to James Knudsen (Harlow). Sidney won the Group on count back by virtue of his win over Navdeep. There was a three way tie in Group One for the runners up position, secured by James Ashley (Mossford) on games count back. In the KO Stage James Denyer had to come back from 2-0 down, on deuces, to beat Patrick Gilbert in the semi final and defeat Luke 7, 7, -7, 7 in the final. Luke had beaten James Ashley (Mossford) 6, 6, -9, 6 in his semi.

The Under 15 Girls event was contested by six players. The top seed Jessica Jarvis (Harlow) was fully extended in her final match against second seed Gracie Edwards (Clacton), winning -5, 6, 10, 14 to top the Group. Gracie had needed to win this match to set up a three way tie after losing a thriller with Zoe Davies (Southend) -10, -9, 5, 6, -8 who finished runner up in the Group. Gracie had also been taken to a decider with Emma Knudsen.

Next events on were the Under 18 Girls and Under 15 Boys. Jessica and Gracie produced a similar match to that in the U15 event with the same result to finish first and second respectively. The other two players in the Group, Lauren James (Colchester) and Rebecca Lowman (Burnham) went the full distance in their match with Rebecca coming back from 2-0 down to win -3, -5, 6, 10, 9.

Top seeds James Knudsen and Sidney Dorn won their Groups in the Under 15 Boys Singles event with Ryan Gooday and Daniel Berry (both Chelmsford) the respective runners up. Only one match in the two Groups needed a fourth game. In the final James beat Sidney 6, 9, 4 after Sidney had come through his semi with Ryan by the strange scores of 4, 2, -2, -6, 4.

The last events were the Restricted Open, an event changed from Boys/Girls events to Open because there were only two girl entrants and the Under 13 Girls. In the Girls event Gracie and Zoe played one another in the last match of the Group to decide the winner and runner up positions, another five gamer like earlier in the day only this time Gracie won the decider 11-3. Chloe Andrews (Colchester) will be pleased with her third place following wins over Emma Knudsen (Harlow) and coming back from 10-5 down in the decider to beat Emily Smith (Southend) 12-10.

The Under 18 Restricted event was reconstituted from three Groups of six to two of six following the non appearance of six players. There were equal first’s in both Groups. In Group 1 Luke Jones lost to Ryan Gooday 12, -5, 4, 10 but by beating Paul Hume (Clacton) by the narrowest of margins 10, -9, 12, 14 he took top spot. By losing to Paul and Ardeshir Motavali (Mossford) Ryan finished fourth in the Group. In Group 2 Patrick Gilbert lost to Benjamin Matthews (Southend) 3-1 but by beating Adam Cuthbert (Colchester) 3-1 he took top spot in the Group.

Adam had earlier beaten Ben 3-0 and Ben had also lost 3-0 to Wiktor Delimat (Chelmsford) 3-0. Patrick and Luke then both won their semis 3-1 against Paul and Adam respectively  and as often happens with the last match of the day it went the full distance with Patrick winning -9, -10, 7, 6, 9.

Thanks to the BATTS personnel who were on hand to present the winners medals, Club Secretary Neil Brierley, Club Treasurer Sharon Head and BATTS Head Coach Aad Kwakkelstein.

Arthur C. Clark
Junior Match Secretary and Tournament Organiser.

Many said this year’s Final Night was one of the best ever. The evening commenced with the 2 Men’s Semi Finals and immediately there was a major upset. Chelmsford Men’s Singles Champion, Alex Abbott (Thorpe Bay) was a hot favourite to reach the Final and, as last year, make a big challenge to the 2012 Champion, Kevin Caldon. Rawreth A’s Kevin Read had other ideas and simply played out of his skin, totally dominating the match to run out a 3 Sets to 1 winner to reach the Final, winning  11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7.

In the other Semi Final, former England ranked and current Southend Champion, Kevin Caldon, proved too strong on the day for Keith Adams, dominating the match and reaching the Final to play Kevin Read: on this form there seemed little doubt where the title was going to go, Kevin wining  11-1, 11-2, 11-6

On to the Final, where Kevin Caldon was a hot favourite to retain his title. Kevin Read then amazed us all, as he took complete control. Kevin Caldon’s deadly spin attack on both sides, usually proves too much for opponents at local League level, accounting for his 100% record in the Premier Division this Season. But on this occasion, Kevin Read’s powerful topspin attack  on both wings was simply too strong. As captain of Premier Champions, Rawreth A, Kevin has been a popular member of our League, always one of our top players, but never quite clinching the big prize. Quite simply this year, Kevin outplayed everyone: a very popular Champion; winning the title in 4 sets 11-9,10-12, 11-8, 11-9

The Ladies Final also produced an upset. Champion for the past 2 years , Essex  County player and Southend Premier Star, Rawreth ’s Emily Godfrey, was expected to repeat her 2011 success over Ressc – Rawreth’s Caroline Cole. In 2011 their match went to 5 sets and this was to occur again. Emily has a great loop attack, but she was pegged back on her backhand for long spells and when she was able to attack, Caroline produced some great counter hits. With a set each, a long 3rd set went 12-10 in Emily’s favour and the title looked hers; but back came Caroline to take the 4th set and it was neck and neck until 10 all in the 5th: anyone’s title, but Caroline took the final 2 points and the title, winning 5-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-8, 12-10

The under 21s, our new event of the past 2 seasons, has proved very popular. This year we had 20 entrants and had this not been limited to those who had played 3 league matches, there would have been many more. The top 2 seeds duly reached the Final: Charlie Bates (Lentern) and Keiran Skeggs (Thorpe Bay). Both have improved immensely over the past 12 months. Charlie has 75% in the Premier and Keiran 50%.  No doubt the future will see many close encounters between them, but at present, Charlie just shades it and this was to be the case in the Final. Both have powerful attacks, with Charlie’s just a little stronger. In this match, the 3^rd Set was won by Keiran 23-21, but Charlie maintained control, winning the title 11-9, 11-5, 21-23, 11-3

Alex Abbott made up slightly for his disappointment in the Men’s Singles by having a comfortable  win over Dave Bowles in the Vet’s Singles Final; winning 11-6, 9-11, 11-5, 11-4. Flamboyant Dave, never really produced the excellent level he reached in the earlier rounds. At one set all we were all looking forward to a tight game, but Alex took control and won the final 2 games with ease. At the interval Dave Bowles told the spectators that he and Stuart Gibbs had now been representing Essex for 50 years (he didn’t mention all the trophies they had won, gaining many friends on the way): everyone gave a great ovation.

In the Men’s Doubles, Dave Bowles moved up a gear and with regular Finalist, George Reeves they won a thrilling 5 setter against reigning Champions, Duncan Taylor & Kevin Read, winning 11-7, 7-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-5: in the Mixed Doubles, we saw a return, after many years, of former England Number 3 Cadet,  Maxine Abbott, who with her talented brother Alex, beat Caroline Cole & George Reeves 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-6. The final Doubles match, the Vet’s, saw  Alex Abbott take his 3rd title of the evening, this time with his Partner and club mate, John Poysden, beating the current Champions, John Monk & Gary Baker 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 11-9.

The other match to be played on the night was the Division Three Restricted Final between Hullbridge juniors,  Dan Payne and Zoe Davies. As they were both Hullbridge Juniors, their coach, Howard Grant, felt it would be nice if they played their Final, at the Venue where they are coached and that we agreed to. We were not disappointed in that these 2 juniors, neither seeded in this event, gave us all a glimpse of what is going on in Southend’s fabulous junior scene at Hullbridge (Howard Grant, Lee Grant & Matt Rolfe) and Rawreth Juniors (Andy Nunn & Mel Jones). Dan and Zoe displayed emerging talents, Zoe with constant forehand attack, whilst Dan countered with a very impressive defence for someone new to the game. In the end Dan’s defence won the day winning the title  11-5, 11-9, 11-7

During the preceding week and weekend other events were concluded:

On Tuesday at the Warehouse Centre Caroline Cole and Emily Godfrey beat Maxine Abbott and Ro Brett to take the Ladies Doubles title 11-9, 11-7, 11-9

In the Restricted events the Premier saw Charles Sweeney beat Adam Brewer in a very close encounter winning 9-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-7, 9-11: the Division One title went to the ever consistent and talented Roy Thomas who beat Mick Tappenden 11-5, 11-5, 11-9 and finally the Division Two title went to Craig Harris, who beat Peter Cray in a tough 5 setter 11-8, 7-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8

In the Over 60s, popular Maldon Chairman, John Cleasby,  beat the ever consistent Peter Saunders 11-5, 11-6, 11-8, Peter making up for his disappointment by taking the Over 70s title beating former Premier star Peter Pond 11-7, 11-6, 11-7

The final events were put on by us to provide extra matches for ‘Competition and Fun’; theses were

1)      The new Handicap Team event, run along the old Rose Bowl Competition lines, this was won by Stuart Gibbs, Charlie Bates and Ben Matthews who, in the Final beat Andy Seabrook, Richard Stubbington and Craig Harris.

2)      The Handicap Singles, couldn’t be finished on the day. Due to our Commitments, we would not be able to play the outstanding 2 matches for several weeks and as it was intended to be a fun event, we decided that a fair outcome, would be to call the event a three way tie and award winning trophies to James McDowall, Glen Johnson and John Tendler.

3)      The popular Drawn Doubles again didn’t disappoint, with plenty of good matches, none less so, than the Final, which saw Juniors, Charlie Bates and Zoe Davies just lose out to Barry Delf and Peter Cray in four sets.

4)      The final event was the Men’s Singles Plate. This event is for all those knocked out in the first round or earlier. A surprise defeat by Django Fung over seeded Duncan Taylor relegated Duncan to the Plate. In consequence the Men’s Plate Event produced its highest quality winner ever, with Duncan defeating his Rayleigh Mill’s team mate, Russell Mills in the Final.

Many of the 120 participants said that this was the best Southend Closed Championships they have ever been too: we hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did running it.

Thanks go to many and if we missed some out, you were still much appreciated. To Graham Back of the Warehouse Centre and his colleagues, to Howard Grant, Jayne Johnson, Danny Gatehouse of the Hullbridge Sports Association, to the staff at Rayleigh Leisure Centre, to the Rawreth Table Tennis Club, to the various Umpires during the weekend and particularly on Finals night, to the Basildon Table Tennis League for the use of their Dividers and to Anthon Ranjit-Singh for all the help he gave, to Topspin for the Tables, Nets and Dividers, to Karl Dorn for running Friday at the Warehouse Centre, to Lou Hopkins for running the over 70s, to Kevin and Carol Caldon for running the Friday at Hullbridge and to Howard Grant for setting up and taking it all down on the three days there; to Berti for our Web Photos, To Kevin Read, George Reeves and John Poysden our Seeding Committee; to all those who helped put up and take down the Tables etc. Finally to all our Members who supported these Championships and made this such a memorable Championships.

We thoroughly enjoyed running this event, seeing some great matches from Vets, Seniors and Juniors and meeting many of our friends during the week.

We feel that these Championships are a ‘Legacy for the Future’: where have we heard that before?

Thank you

Lou Hopkins, Jayne Johnson & Ken Field

Southend & District Table Tennis League’s 2013 Closed Championships Committee

the Essex County Table Tennis Association Presents

2012/13

ESSEX JUNIOR CLOSED TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS

At

BATTS
Norman Booth Centre
Mulberry Green
Old Harlow
Essex
CM17 0EY

Entry forms can be downloaded using the following link -
Essex_Closed-Junior April 2013

The first BATTS One Star Junior Open Tournament of season 2012/13 was held at the home of BATTS Table Tennis Club, the Norman Booth Centre, Old Harlow on the 27/28 October. Despite the weekend being the start of the half term holiday and Greenhouse holding their Closed Tournament there was a reasonable entry.

All the Girls events were Round Robins and for the Boys, Consolation events for those players who failed to finish in the top two places in their Groups. One remarkable fact, and I cannot recollect it happening in any previous BATTS Junior Tournaments, all the scheduled entrants for the Sunday Under 13 and 15 events turned up to play which is more than can be said for the Saturday events where a number of seeded player withdrawals on the day in the Boys events caused a hasty reconstitution of the first round Groups in both Under 16 and 18 events.

 Saturday morning started with the Under 16 Boys and Girls events. For the Boys only three Groups, one of six players and two of five players scheduled, three players having withdrawn during the previous week. Both seeds in Group 2 failed to turn up but with one extra player whose Entry Form is still in Royal Mails possession we started with three reconstituted Groups of five players. The two original Group top seeds, Jamie Fisher (He) and James Knudsen (E) won their respective Groups but the new top Group seed Ben Brown (Ca) only went through as runner up to Samuel Horscroft (also Ca) on a three way tie count back with Luke Rhys Jones He) There was also a three way tie for second place in Group 3 which went to Paul Munns (Bd). Samuel beat James 3-1 in the semi final of the KO event and Jamie -5, 6, 2, 9 in the final.

The Consolation event was won by Mateusz Mikosk (He) 6, -9, 10, 6 over Joshua Poland (E), similar scores to those he achieved over Joshua in the tie for third place in Group 1. Mateusz had earlier won his quarter and semi finals 3-1 whereas Joshua had to go the full distance to win his semi over Alex Waller -4, 10, 5, -5, 9.

 The afternoon event was the Under 18 Boys event, three Groups of five and one of four became four Groups of four following the withdrawal of the top two seeds. A hurried reconstitution of the Groups gave four new top seeds with barely 30 ranking points between them. All four, Charlie Bates, Jordan Gabriel(Nk), Charlie Bates (E), Jack Anthony (Sk) and Shane Clark (Mi) won their new Groups, only Charlie needing a fifth game decider against Jamie Fisher. These four players all reached the KO semis and produced two cracking matches in their different styles. Charlie beat Jordan -5, 11, 7, 7 whilst Jack defeated Shane -8, 10, -13, 5, 4. In the final Jack always had the edge winning 7, 6, -6, 5

Matusz Mikosz reached his second Consolation final of the day but in a one-sided match lost to Jamie Fisher 1, 5, 4. The losing semi finalists were Oliver Gregory (E) and Ben Brown.

 In the Under 16 Girls event only four players entered. Jessica Jarvis (E) won her three matches and Zoe Waxkirsh won a nail biting last Group match -7, 11, 8, -11, 8 against Ema Gadzhova (He) to secure the runners up position.

 There were also four entrants for the Under 18 Girls event and Ema’s request to join the Group was met and became fully justified when she finished as the runner up, losing only to Group winner Jessica 7, -5, -9, 4, 9. Jessica also had a tough match with Zoe, winning 10, 7, 10.

 Sunday’s events started with the Under 13’s. As stated above all the entrants turned up to play. Four Groups of six boys, each Group played on two tables. The four top seeds, James Smith (K), Louis Moyes (Nk), George Coulson (He) and Anthony Close (He) all duly won their respective Groups. James and Louis did not drop a game between them, whilst George dropped just the two in beating Rhys Evans (He) -9, 5, -10, 7, 8 and Anthony lost to Oscar Terrell (E) 3-1 and just squeezed past Jamie Liu (Bk) (more later) 9, -6, 10, -10, 11 to win his Group on count back. James continued his 3-0 wins right through to the KO Final which he won 8, 8, 4 against Louis. Louis, however, had a really tough semi only beating Naphat Boonyaprapa (Nk) 9, 3, -10, -3, 9, whilst James’s semi was much easier against George Coulson.

 In the U13 Consolation event Sam Hume (E) reached the final after coming back from a 2-0 deficit against Richard Chenery-Woods (Sk) to win -7, -0, 6, 4, 8. In the other half semi Kai Ghazi Timms (Mi) overcame Oscar Terrell (E) 9, -9, 5, 7 but lost 7, -9, 8, 8 to Sam in the final.

 The afternoon Boys event, the Under 15 Singles, there were seven Groups, three of six players and four of five players. Marcus Hensher was the only top seed not to win his Group after losing in five games to Sam Liu (Bk) but by beating the Group winner Kevin Fang (He) also in five went through to the main KO event as the runner up on count back in the three way tie for first position. The other Group winners did not have it all their own way either. Jay Ghazi Timms (Mi) needed five games to beat James Knudsen (E), James Smith dropped his first game of the day when winning 3-1 over Sam Hume and Andrew Chapman (Sy) five games to beat George Coulson. Jordan Ingles, Oscar and Louis Moyes won their Groups by winning all their matches 3-0. In the KO James Smith was dominant again, but only after a titanic quarter final battle with George Coulson 6, -8, 11, -11, 6. In the other half Jay Ghazi Timms had a tougher time in reaching the final after beating Joshua Poland (E) 7, -6, 8, -9, 9 in the first round and Andrew Chapman 5, 11, -7, 9 in the semi. Jay was no match for James in the final losing 2, 6, 7.

The sensation of the day came in the Consolation event.  In the top half Anthony Close comfortably reached the final with 3-0 wins in all his matches whilst young Jamie Liu, who only finished fourth in his Group, won all his matches 3-0 over Jia Hao Gu (He), Sam Hume, James Knudsen and elder brother Sam 10, 10, 10, (but to be fair to Sam he appeared to be suffering a slight foot injury) to reach the final to play Anthony whom he had lost to -8, -6, 8, 8, 5 in their earlier Group match. This was the second time that day that two players from the same Group had reached a final. After the first game which Jamie finally won he was “on fire” winning the next two games 3, 4 for a jubilant celebration. Jamie is only eight and a half years old so when did an eight year old player, if ever, win a Cadet Ranking event, even if it was a Consolation event?

 Both the Under 13 and Under 15 Girls events attracted seven entrants and both were played as Round Robins. In the U13 event Tiana Dennison (E) won all her matches and only Zoe Davies (E) managed to take a game off her. Shristi Ghosh (Mi) had also won all her matches until the last match in the Group for both of them and had to give best to Tiana. 9, 5, 7. Gracie Edwards and Zoe Davies (both E) finished third and fourth.

Tiana was also to the forefront in the Under 15 event but lost to Ema Gadzhova 6, 9, -11, 8 so she finished runner up in the Group. To win the Group Ema ‘s toughest match was against Jessica Jarvis (E) and she came through late in the fifth -8, 9, 9, -10, 6. Jessica finished third and Shristi fourth.

With the withdrawals on Saturday a finish an hour ahead of Schedule was achieved, whilst on Sunday with everyone attending, and despite some players disappearing at the end of the day without umpiring after they had lost, thus causing a delay in starting the next match, and they and others know who they were, we still finished the last two finals spot on Schedule.

 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 entry form for the Essex Junior closed table tennis championships is available for download from the links section on the right hand side of this page.  

Players should note that an entry form must be completed by each player and is to reach the  Referee

Arthur Clark, 2 Top Road, Woodham Walter, Nr. Maldon, Essex, CM9 6RQ.

Not later than Wednesday 7th December 2011. Every entry must be accompanied by a S.A.E., failing which a £1.00 charge will be made.

Cheques payable to ECTTA.

 Full details are shown on the entry form.