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

Since taking up his position as Coaching and Developing Officer within the county, Stuart has organised pilot training sessions for cadet and junior players. These sessions proved to be very popular with young players and parents alike. Stuart was also anxious to involve the metropolitan boroughs of the county and not to restrict his programme to those players playing in the part of the county included in the ETTA Eastern Region. ECTTA are grateful to Paul Morris, John Mansfield and Mossfield TTC in Ilford for their support in helping this vision to become a reality.

Stuart has now formed a Junior Development Squad comprising 28 young players from Essex. This squad held their inaugural training session in April and will meet on a monthly basis at the Booth Academy of Table Tennis (BATTS) in Harlow throughout the forthcoming season. The ECTTA Committee are particularly grateful to Neil Brierley and the management team at BATTS for their wholehearted and generous support for the new initiatives that are taking place in the county.

Dates for the training sessions have been arranged as follows:

Sunday 1^st September 2013
Sunday, 6^th October 2013
Sunday, 3^rd November 2013
Sunday, 1^st December 2013
Sunday, 12^th January 2014
Sunday, 9^th February 2013
Sunday, 16^th March 2014
Sunday, 6^th April 2014
Sunday, 18^th May 2014
Sunday, 1^st June 2014
Sunday, 6^th July 2014

Please note that the training dates for January, February and May 2014 have been amended in order that our young players can participate fully in the programme of training activities organised within the ETTA Eastern Region. Young players at our most recent development squad training session were reminded that training in Essex should not be ‘instead of’, but ‘as well as’. The more time you are able to commit to training, the more you will improve!

Stuart is hoping to run additional training sessions in June and July this year. We are hoping to finalise dates with BATTS within the next couple of weeks. These dates will be posted on the ECTTA website so please visit this site regularly for updates. Players will also be contacted by email to inform them of the dates for June and July.

In addition to the Development Squad, a Performance Squad will be formed at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season. This squad will support those young players who will represent Essex in inter-county representative matches during next season. Further details of this group will be published on the ECTTA website as soon as arrangements and dates have been finalised.

ECTTA is committed to working in close partnership with the ETTA Eastern Region team. The new programme in Essex has the full support of ETTA Eastern Region Coach, Stephen Gertsen. Stephen said “It is great that juniors in Essex will have a regular opportunity to train together.”

Further information regarding the training groups will be forwarded to parents/carers of the young players involved by email and will also be published on this website. Please check back regularly for new details.

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 Vets Secretary Neil Brierley reports on Essex Vets teams.

A round up of the Essex vets teams at this stage of the season:

040 1st team: Played it’s first weekend on 27/28 October. Led by Tony West, with Clive Carthy, Mark Wicker and Jenny Harrison on the Saturday only ( no lady on the Sunday) this team has 3 points from 3 games. The remaining weekend is 6/7 April at Milton Keynes when Debbie Auvache will be available so we will have a full team.

040 2nd team : John Monk captains this team with Alex Abbott , Kevin Caldon and Gill Locke.They played on 27/28 Oct and 24th Nov. The team has had a magnificent season winning 6 matches out of 7. The only loss was to South Yorkshire who unfortunately won all their games to clinch promotion.

040 3rd team:  This team has 4 points out of 4 so far with wins over Berks and Worcs. The team comprises Paul Martindill, Phil Walker , Keith Fung and Debbie Auvache. Final weekend is 6/7 April in Southampton.

040 4th team : Lin Attridge runs this team with John Poysden, Gary Baker and Richard Brown. They played on 20th Oct, 5th Jan and 9th Feb. The team finished midway with 2 wins, one draw and 3 defeats.

060 1st team:  I was privileged to watch this team on the final day at Milton Keynes on 3rd March  when only set difference allowed Yorkshire to take the national title away from Essex. The standard is incredibly high and Stuart Gibbs, Peter Radford, Dave Bowles and Marjorie Dawson all played superbly.

060 2nd team: Led by Shirley Carroll with Peter Ballard, Alan Burgess and Chris Jacob this team played all their games at BATTS on 5/6 Jan and 10th Feb and really enjoyed their table tennis. They finished a very creditable third and lost only once all season.

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

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

Neil Brierley reports on the re-arranged Essex Schools Individual Tournament.

The Essex Schools Individual Championships, wiped out by the snow at the first time of asking, finally went ahead on Friday 8th February. A field of well over 100 entries meant that all ten tables at BATTS were fully used and referee Arthur Clark performed marvellously to wrap up all the events by the 4pm deadline.

There was a clean sweep for Clacton in the U11 events with Morgan Harvey beating Daniel L. Smith and Gracie Firkin retaining the girls title with a final victory over Eleanor Ballow. At under 13 level, Stephanie Cross, a former U 11 national schools champion, showed her class beating Zoe Davies at the final stage. BATTS James Knudsen was a popular winner of the boys event lifting the title with victory over Ryan Gooday. 

In the U16 boys , Southend’s Sam Lowman had a tough semi final with Josh Poland who he beat 7, -10, 5 before overcoming Sid Dorn from BATTS in an equally close final 10 and 10. Ella Patel showed her class winning the U16 girls without dropping a game including a final victory over Emily Wood. In a round robin competition Charlie Bates beat Brandon Crouchman and Kieran Skeggs to win the U19 event and Emily Godfrey won the corresponding girls title.

All the winners now go on to the national finals in Doncaster on April 20th. A special tribute to Arthur, the Essex School Games organisers and the army of helpers who ensured that the event ran smoothly on the day.

The second round of Junior Premier County Championship matches was held at Wednesbury, on the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 02/03 February with two matches on both Saturday and Sunday. After the first round of matches last November the Essex team were second bottom and it was felt that they needed two wins from their four matches to avoid relegation from the Premier Division.

 However Essex’s problems started well before the first point was played. Jared Patel advised of his unavailability for the Sunday matches a week beforehand and the problem would be how to get him back home on the Saturday evening. Armagan Huseyin advised Keith Williams that he was available all weekend and thus was duly selected. Late on the Wednesday evening I was advised that Brandon Crouchman would not be able to play at the weekend so frantic phone calls were made to have a full team each day and avoid a fine for shortage of players as Essex had been last season. By the Thursday evening the team was sorted, Anil Patel would transport four players to Wednesbury on the Saturday morning and return Jared back home on the Saturday evening. Rob Bates would transport Charlie up to Wednesbury on the Saturday afternoon to enable him to play the two Sunday matches and then return with one of the other Essex players after the Sunday matches were completed. Thus the Essex Team would be Jared Patel, Ryan Williams, Armagan Huseyin, Ella Patel and Jane Li on the Saturday with Charlie Bates replacing Jared on the Sunday.

 Their first match was against Middlesex, runners up after the first round of matches at Cippenham. Although Ryan took the first game 13-11 off the opposition No. 1 Gabriel Achampong he lost the next three. Armagan lost his first two games against Danzel Wright 6 and 7 and then fought back to take the next two 9 and 5. 9-7 up in the decider and four points later the match was lost. Ella then played the lower ranked Zahna Hall. Losing the last five points of the first game after being 8-6 up she found herself 2-10 down in the second. Amazingly she won the next ten points and then won the next two games to 6 to put Essex on the scoreboard. Jared then beat Sam Cowan 3-1. Jane took the first game off Heba Feredj and although leading in the latter stages of the fourth was unable to take her match to a decider. Ryan lost to Danzel 3-1 although having won the second he had led in the latter stages in the third game. Jane lost 3-0 to the higher ranked Zahna and Jared, having taken the first game off Gabriel 11-8 lost the next three although leading in the latter stages of all three. Ella lost the first two games to Heba, won the next two, saving the fourth from 8-6 down but lost the last five points of the decider from 8-6 up. Armagan lost the last match 3-0 to Sam for an 8-2 defeat.

 The late afternoon match was against Yorkshire, now a point above Essex having drawn their earlier match with Sussex. Essex made a great start winning five of the first six matches. Jared came back from two down to beat defender James Hobson, Armagan beat Matthew Stephens 3-1 and although Jane lost to the higher ranked Nicole Finn, Ryan continued the run with an excellent 3-1 win over the much higher ranked Abhijay Misrah although he failed to convert one of five game points when losing the second game 17-15, Ella beat Kate Nixon 3-0 and Armagan beat James in five, having lost the first game 11-3 and losing 12-10 in the fourth after leading late on. The next two matches were lost, Jane to Kate 3-0, and Jared to Abhijay after leading 5-3 at the turn round in the decider. It was left to Ryan to secure an Essex win 11-7 in the decider with Matthew but Ella was unable to extend the Essex lead when losing to Nicole after she came back from playing for her Senior Team in the other hall, Ella failing to go 2-1 up in the third game after leading 10-8. Essex were now a point ahead of Yorkshire with bottom placed Warwickshire looking doomed to relegation.

Sunday morning’s opponents were Kent and Essex were soon 2-0 down, both Armagan and Charlie losing 3-0 to Luke Savill and James Smith respectively. Things got worse when Ella lost to the lower ranked Evie Foster 12-10 in the decider after being 9-7 up. Ryan gave the Essex Team some hope by defeating Jack Davies 3-1 and although Jane succumbed 3-0 to the much higher ranked Daniella Gray she had fought back from 10-6 down in the second game and let a 7-4 lead in the third slip. Armagan was 2-1 down to James before fighting back to take the decider 11-5 but Jane lost 3-1 to Evie. Ryan also lost 3-1 to Luke, letting a 10-7 lead in the second slip and nearly did the same in the third after leading 10-3. Ella should have beaten Daniella 3-1 when leading 8-6 and failing to convert three match points. She was never in contention in the decider. Charlie made the score line look better with a 3-0 win over Jack. The bad news for Essex was that Yorkshire had beaten second placed Lincs 7-3 and thus we were back in relegation position. We therefore had to beat bottom placed Warwickshire in the last match and hope that Yorkshire lost to leaders Middlesex.

 Things looked grim for Essex when they went 2-0 down, Ryan losing to Matthew Outhwaite 3-1 after taking the first game 12-10. Charlie put up a great fight against Jesse Kindrick-Hill, ranked 250 points above him. Winning the first game to 9, in the second he pulled back a 0-6 deficit to 7-7 only to lose 8 which was also the loss score in the third from 8-8. He won the fourth 11-4 and led 7-4 in the decider before Jesse’s Time Out changed the game and Charlie shots to clinch one of his two match points just missed the end of the table. Jane and Ella won all their matches against Holly Thompson and Milly Bradshaw 3-0. Armagan and Ryan both lost 3-0 to Lawrence Sweeney as did Charlie to Matthew. The draw was achieved when Armagan came back from 2-0 down to Jesse, saving two match points in the third to win it 13-11 and taking the last two games 9 and 7. However the draw was not enough to prevent relegation as the Yorkshire-Middlesex match was still in progress with Yorks leading 4-2 and already a better sets difference. Other years 5 points has always meant safety but this year had we have beaten Warwicks, their three boys were all ranked more than 100 points above the Essex boys, 6 points would not have been enough as Yorks ended up drawing with Middlesex who claimed the Title by 1 point from Sussex

 Jared 2 wins out of 4. Ryan 3 out of 8, Armagan 4 out of 8, Charlie 1 out of 4 Ella 4 out of 8 and Jane 2 out of 8.

 Looking back at the weekend’s matches the equal second bottom teams Yorkshire and Glamorgan strengthened their teams over those that played in the November rounds of matches and thus avoided relegation. So the win over Yokshire was a good one. Overall Teams were stronger and more equal in strength than previous years with no 10-0 results. Girls wise most teams had their top two players (all except Warwickshire were in the top 30 in the Ranking List) and Jane was 33.

 Thanks must go to the players themselves for coaching one another.

Final Table

 Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary.

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