All members of the Essex Junior Development Squad should have received their invitation to attend the training session to be held at BATTS on Sunday, 7th July. Please confirm your attendance by replying to the email that you received as soon as possible. It would be helpful if squad members unable to attend could also reply to the email as this will give us an opportunity to invite another player on the day in question. Please note that the training session planned for Sunday, 3rd November 2013 has been cancelled. BATTS has been invited to host ETTA Junior Premier Division matches on that day. This is a prestigious event and we wish to offer the club our full support in enabling them to host the event. It will also provide members of the Essex Junior Development Squad to see the top young players in action! We hope you will support BATTS by attending on the day.
Browsing Posts in Cadets
The following invitation has gone out to all Leagues and Junior Development clubs in Essex.
Essex Junior Assessment Trials 2013 Entry Form
The Essex County Junior Assessment Trials will be held on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September 2013 at the BATTS Club, Norman Booth Centre, Elderfield, Mulberry Green, Old Harlow, CM17 0EY commencing at 9.00am each day. The purpose of the event is to provide information upon which the Essex Junior Ranking Lists for the season will be based. These Trials will also enable the County Junior Committee to select the teams to represent the County in County Championship and other matches during the coming season and assess the future potential of other players with a view to invites to County Training sessions. Thus players wishing to be considered for selection should attend these trials. If there are Players who wish to be considered but are unable to play on the appropriate age day please append their name(s) at the bottom of your form list with a brief explanation.
The Boys Under 18 category will be played on Saturday 7th and all other categories on Sunday 8th.
As a rough guide it is anticipated that the Boys Under 13 event will start at 0900 and the Under 15 event at 1300. For the Girls it would be hoped that the Under 13 and Under 18 events could start at 0900 with the Under 15 event starting about 1300. This year there will be no separate Boys and Girls Under 11 events. However players in this Age Group are expected to enter the U13 events (they will get more matches to play) and every effort will be made for those players to play one another in these events.
Players (girls and boys in separate age lists) should be nominated for the following age categories:
UNDER 18 – those born on or after 1 January 1996
UNDER 15 – those born on or after 1 January 1999
UNDER 13 – those born on or after 1 January 2001
UNDER 11 – those born on or after 1 January 2003 (for information only)
Players may be nominated in more than one age category. Fees payable are £5.00 per player per age category entered. Please send your nominations to Arthur Clark no later than 30 July 2013 together with a cheque(s) in respect of the total fee nominations made out to ECTTA.
Nominated players should note that normal table tennis clothing must be worn at the Trials, ie no white shirts or shorts, no tracksuit trousers, no headwear (other than on religious grounds), and all footwear to have rubber soles. Players are reminded that as this is a Closed event the time out provisions DO NOT APPLY.
Refreshments, both hot and cold, may be purchased in the BATTS Canteen.
For each nominee please provide me with their Christian and surname, address and postcode, date of birth, telephone number and affiliated main league or ETTA affiliation in the format of the attached form. In this computer age also parents E-mail address in the E-mail column should I need to contact them during the season or forward to them an Entry Form for the Essex Junior Closed (Saturday 11 January 2014). (Junior Inter League will be on Saturday 30 November) or any of the BATTS 1 Star Junior Tournaments. Also Player or Player Member Licence number. Note that, assuming that there are no ETTA changes from those of last season, a Player Member licence is required to play in local Leagues, BATTS 1 Star Tournaments and National Cadet and Junior Tournaments and a Player licence is required to play in Junior British League and 2 Star and above Tournaments. Payment for these Licences must be made to ETTA before players are permitted to play in any of these competitions.
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.
| COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012/2013 | |||||||||
| CADET DIVISION 1B – FINAL TABLES | |||||||||
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | GAMES F | GAMES A | SETS F | SETS A | Pts |
| WARWICKSHIRE | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 152 | 67 | 45 | 15 | 12 |
| NORFOLK | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 149 | 70 | 44 | 16 | 10 |
| ESSEX | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 133 | 98 | 38 | 22 | 7 |
| OXFORDSHIRE | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 112 | 103 | 32 | 28 | 6 |
| WORCESTERSHIRE | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 76 | 137 | 20 | 40 | 3 |
| SUFFOLK | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 75 | 145 | 16 | 44 | 3 |
| CAMBRIDGESHIRE | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 70 | 147 | 15 | 45 | 1 |
The second round of Cadet County Championships matches for Division 1B was held at BATTS Harlow on 16 March 2013 with five rounds of matches, each match played on two tables. After the first rounds of matches, played in their respective area halves of the Division, Essex, Norfolk and Warwickshire were equal with 4 points each from their two matches,
The first round of matches saw the playing of the remaining matches between the four south east Counties. Suffolk and Cambridgeshire fought out a draw. Harvey Dinkele was unbeaten for Suffolk, two four game wins with half of them deuces, and Charlotte Boston unbeaten for Cambs, the full distance over Natalie Wills and 20-18 in the fourth over Katherine Shaw. Norfolk’s boys strength showed in their 7-3 win over Essex, two of their boys ranked higher than the Essex boys and with Essex’s James Knudsen overcoming Louis Moyes 13-11 in the decider, both players on the same number of points. All the girls had one win each.
The teams from Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire had by now arrived to play their remaining four rounds of matches. Warwicks had a comfortable 9-1 win over Suffolk, only Natalie Wills offering any serious resistance, beating Olivia Fletcher 8 in the deciding game after being 2-0 up and losing 7 in the decider with Millie Bradshaw. Oxen, who sadly only had one girl, the other being away on a weekend school activity trip, lost 3-7 to Norfolk. They would have been delighted with Josh Selby’s 3-1 win over the much higher ranked Naphat Boonyaprapa. The highest ranked girl in the room, Kristelle Brook, won her two matches for Oxen but she was made to work hard for the second win by Mollie Patterson who only lost 11-9 in the fifth game. Worcestershire, bottom of the Table, would have been pleased with their draw with Essex when Alex Tomlinson beat Sam Hume 12-10 in the decider in the last match. For Worcs George Carroll remained unbeaten whilst Gracie Edwards won her two matches for Essex
After the short lunch break Norfolk beat Worcs 10-0, only three matches requiring more than three games. Significantly Rosanna Brocklesby came back from 2-0 down to win the last two games 14-12, 18 -16 to defeat the much higher ranked Holly Bilsborrow whilst Naphat similarly came back from 2-0 down to defeat Alex. Essex narrowly defeated Oxen 6-4, five of the matches needing a decider. Jenny Crapnell inflicted Kristelle’s only defeat by any of the other County’s girls coming back from 1-5 down at the turn round in the decider only to see Kristelle save two match points and then have a match point against her before winning 13-11. Essex’s Sam Hume was the only boy to win both his matches. Warwicks kept the pressure on Norfolk with an 8-2 win over Cambs, Cambs only wins coming against Milly Bradshaw.
The fourth round of matches would go a long way towards determining the winners and runners up of the Division when the two unbeaten teams, Norfolk and Warwicks clashed. Six matches went the full distance and the last round of matches was well under way by the other four teams before this match finished. The opening two matches were shared, Oscar Moyes coming back from 2-0 down to beat Lee Dorning while Ross Brown lost 3-0 to Sam Coombes. Norfolk won both the girls matches and with Louis Moyes beating George Alison in the decider of a hugely fluctuating match (2, -2, 3, -7, 5) Norfolk were 4-1 up. However Warwicks hit back with Lee beating Ross 3-1 and winning both girls matches late in the respective deciders to bring the match score 4-4. Sam beat Louis 3-0 and George had to come back from 2-0 down in his match with Oscar and save a match point in the fourth game to get Warwicks the 6-4 win. On the other tables Worcs beat Cambs 7-3 to move off the bottom of the Table and Oxen beat Suffolk by a similar score. For Worcs George Carroll, Chris Message and Alex Tomlinson won all their matches whilst Georgie Lister was unbeaten for Cambs and Suffolks only win on the table was achieved by Harvey Dinkele over Kavan Warrender.
With Norfolk having completed their fixtures they would have to wait to find out if Essex could defeat Warwicks in the day’s last round of matches to enable them to take the title on Sets difference. Essex did there best with Jennifer Crapnell and Gracie Edwards winning the four girls matches but George Alison, Lee Dorning and Sam Coombes won their six matches (five would have been enough) to get Warwicks promoted to the Premier Division next season. Meanwhile Oxen beat Cambs 8-2, they won all the matches played, whilst Suffolk enjoyed their only win to move off the bottom of the Table by beating Worcs 6-4, Katherine Shaw instrumental by winning her two matches although George Carroll also won his two for Worcs.
Arthur C. Clark
Essex County TTA – Junior Match Secretary
It is not often that players have an individual coach at training sessions although Essex County Coaching Officer Stuart Gibbs managed to enlist the services of ten coaches to support the twelve Essex juniors who attended the Essex Assessment Training Group session in February. Players from the Clacton, Colchester, Southend and Burnham leagues were represented. The juniors were fully committed to the training tasks assigned by Stuart and worked hard throughout the five hour session. Three new players were welcomed to the group and they demonstrated the progress that they are making at their local clubs. The standard of play was enhanced by James Denyer, Sam Lowman and Sidney Dorn, all of whom have represented Essex in ETTA Inter County Championship matches at either Cadet or U18 level. The volunteer coaches did a great job, always on hand to encourage the young players to give of their best and to provide advice and support. Thanks go to Felipe Rodriguez and Gill Locke for organising the venue.
The next training session for the group is being held at BATTS Harlow on Sunday, 21st April.
County Junior Secretary Arthur Clark reports:-
The first round of Cadet County Championships matches for the south eastern part of Division 1B was held at BATTS Harlow on 1 December 2012 with two rounds of matches, each match played on two tables before Senior Premier County matches took over for the rest of the weekend.
To give the lesser ranked players the experience in playing for the County the top three ranked girls were not selected having already played in the County’s Junior Teams this season and neither were the top two boys. Thus the team was James Knudsen, Sidney Dorn, Oliver Hicks, Jessica Jarvis and Jenny Crapnell and they rose to the occasion with help and advice from coach Stuart Gibbs by not losing a set in their two matches.
Their first match was against Cambridgeshire. Sidney and Oliver started with 3-1 wins over David Leek and James Kelly and Jessica then had a 3-1 win over Georgie Lister, but after two easy games lost the third 12-10 and came back to scrape the fourth 13-11. Meanwhile on the other table a nervous Jenny lost her first two games 9 and 8 which she felt perhaps she should have won but after winning the last two points of the third game confidence regained to lead all the way in the last two games to take them 7 and 8. James won his first match 3-0 and his second 3-1 and with Sidney, Jenny and Oliver allwinning there remaining matches 3-0 it was Jessica the last player to finish her match having the same trouble with Abbie that Jenny had had earlier. She eventually came through -14, 4, -8, 10, 3 for the 10-0 win
Their second match was against Suffolk who had just lost 9-1 to Norfolk. James and Oliver both lost their opening game and took the next three comfortably. Jessica beat Elsie Mason 3-0 and Sidney beat Harvey Dinkele, ranked 75 places above him, 3-0 whilst Jenny was involved in another marathon, this time with Katherine Shaw. Losing the first game 12-10 she finally took the second 17-15, a game both players had equal chances to win, and the third, coming back from 8-0 down to take nine consecutive points and close it out 11-9, losing the fourth 11-8 and finding everything going her way in the decider to win it 11-3. Oliver then had an even closer match with Adam Reeve, saving four match points to win 11, 8, -12, -9, 14. The last four matches were all won although James struggled to beat Harvey, ranked 80 points below him, -9, 8, 15, 9.
Essex lead the current table with 4 points having a superior sets aggregate than the unbeaten Norfolk Team
The north west half of the Division (Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire) play their first round matches at Coventry on 8 December and all teams gather at BATTS on Saturday 16 March for the final rounds of matches. Essex’s first match will be against Norfolk whose boys are all ranked above the Essex Trio.
Arthur C. Clark
Junior Match Secretary
The Essex Junior ranking List has been published for this season and can be viewed via the following link – Essex Junior Ranking List 2012-2013.
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
Pre Season warm up - Essex - Herts Friendly @ BATTS
Junior and Cadet County friendly matches between Essex and Herts have been a regular fixture for a few years now. Organised Herts Secretary Nelson D’Lima and played at Barnet TTC. This year BATTS was the host club on Saturday 30 June. Matches were for players who have never been selected to play for their County in County Championship matches and played on County Championships format. Each match was played on two tables.
Results were:
Essex Cadet v Herts Cadet Lose 4-6
Essex Junior v Herts Junior Lose 4-6
Essex Cadet v Herts Junior Lose 3-7
Essex Junior v Herts Junior Win 9-1
Herts Teams
Junior: Jack Josephs, Chris Clifford, Luke Jones, Lucy Salter, Chris and Luke shared the absent Girl’s matches.
Cadet: Ethan Walsh, Jordan Ingles, Tom Black, Matthew Appleton, Jonathon Evans (Matthew and Jonathon played the girls matches.
Essex Teams:
Junior: Liam Williams, Keiran Skeggs. Patrick Gilbert, Sarah Austin (last minute reserve who played for Essex 2 years ago), Shannon Conway.
Cadet: James Knudsen, Ryan Gooday, Jennifer Crapnell. Emily Wood. Dylan Dixon (Mossford) was unavailable to play so Jenny and Emily shared his matches.
In the Herts v Essex Cadet match Herts Ethan and Jordan won both their matches, Tom beat Jenny 11-9 in the fifth but lost 11-9 in the fifth to Ryan and Matthew beat Emily in five. For Essex Jenny won both her ‘girls’ matches and Emily beat Jonathon in five.
In the Herts v Essex Junior match Herts Jack and Chris won both their matches and Luke and Chris won their ‘girls’ match. For Essex Shannon and Sarah both beat Lucy and Patrick and Keiran both beat Luke.
In the Herts Junior v Essex Cadet match Jack won his two and Chris his three matches. Luke won two but lost to Ryan 11-8 in the fifth. Emily and Jenny both beat Lucy.
In the Herts Cadet v Essex Junior match Ethan was the only Herts winner, defeating Liam 12-10 in the fifth. Matthew and Jordan came close losing 11-9 and 14-12 in the fifth to Shannon and Patrick respectively.
Interesting fact! – Although Herts beat Essex 3-1 on Sets won the score was 20-20.
A good afternoon enjoyed by all the players and spectators with some excellent matches and potentially future County players.
Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary
9 July 2012
