All posts by nbrierley

2015 Essex Junior Closed Table Tennis Championships

The 2015 Essex Junior Closed Table Tennis Championships is taking place this season on Saturday 10th January at BATTS, Old Harlow.
An entry form for this event is available for download using the following link –  Essex_Closed_2015-Junior
Players should note that an entry form must be completed for each player and is to reach the  Referee:-
Arthur Clark, 2 Top Road, Woodham Walter, Nr. Maldon, Essex, CM9 6RQ.
Not later than Wednesday 17th December 2014.
Entries can also be made via email and information on how to do this is included on the entry form.

 

ESSEX SCHOOLS INDIVIDUAL TOURNAMENT

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The Essex Schools Tournament was held at BATTS on Friday 17 January 2014. For the previous two years the Individual Schools submitted their entries to Essex County Council Sports Organisers and with just under 200 entries received in total each year, (players can only enter their particular Age event), numbers needed to be reduced to manageable proportions with the event having a scheduled start and finish time. For this season the format was changed and each School District (there are 14 of them including Southend and Thurrock) held District qualifying events for each gender and age with the top two qualifying for the Essex Finals.

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As usual the Closing date was the Friday before Christmas and some Schools were submitting entries right up to three days before the event. Active Essex Organisers and I agreed to accept these.  Altogether there were 86 entries. Five players did not turn up on the day and we accepted the two players who turned up having not been notified previously.

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To fit in with timing schedule all matches were best of three games and winners and runners up were:

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WINNER, RUNNER UP

U11 Boys Ethan Silvester (Southend) Zach Harrington (Southend)

U13 Boys Casey Mansfield (Harlow) Sam Fullick (Castle Point & Rochford)

U16 Boys Sam Hume (Tendring) James Knudsen (Harlow)

U19 Boys Jared Patel Brentwood) Kieran Skeggs (Southend)

U11 Girls Emma Knudsen )Harlow) Alana Mansfield (Harlow)

U13 Girls Gracie Firkins (Tendring) Emily Smith (Southend)

U16 Girls Ella Patel (Brentwood) Stephanie Cross (Brentwood)

U19 Girls Emily Godfrey (Southend) Lucy Carrington (Chelmsford)

 

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary
19 January 2014

 

Essex Vets update

Vets Secretary Neil Brierley provides a round up of Essex vets teams in action so far.

1st team : Captained by John Monk and with Alex Abbott, Paul Cuming and Gill Locke completing the team, they faced a really tough weekend in Div 1A at Woodfield in the Midlands. As such, a draw with Oxfordshire, and narrow 6-4 defeats to Worcs and Yorks was a highly commendable performance.

2nd team : led by Keith Fung backed up by Phil Walker , Paul Martindill and Sue Hickman, they were always going to find Div 1B at Graham Spicer venue exceptionally tough. So it proved with 8-2 defeats to Avon and Middx.

3rd team : Lin Attridge runs this team and had John Poysden, Dave Bowles and Stuart Kimm to support her. Playing in Div 2B at BATTS , they had great results with a 6-4 win over Middx 2 and 5 all draws with Surrey and Beds. Highlight in this last match was a win for Lin over Sandra Harper.

0 60 1st team : Dave Bowles runs this side with Stuart Gibbs, Peter Radford and Marjorie Dawson and this season they welcomed “youngster” Terry Guymer into the squad in the hope he would make an impact. What an impact he made with an amazing 8 wins out of 8 at Milton Keynes. The upshot was fine wins over Kent and Sussex, a draw with Surrey and a narrow 6-4 defeat to Lancashire. All to play for second half !

0 60 2nd team : Led by Chris Jacob and featuring Sue Body in the absence of Shirley Carroll, Alan Burgess and yours truly completed the team. Sue was the star and was unbeaten in the singles and the team won 2 matches and lost 2 matches over the weekend at BATTS.

Check out the link to county championship tables to see how all the Essex teams are doing.

ESSEX JUNIOR CLOSED 2 JANUARY 2012

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.

Essex Cadets off to a great start

The Victorious Essex Cadet Team

Arthur Clark reports on the first round of matches in Division 1B of the Cadet County Championships.

Essex’s first venture into the Cadet County Championships provided a successful day for the Team. Essex hosted the Eastern Region of the Division at BATTS Harlow on 3 December 2011 with matches played on two tables whilst the other four teams in the Division held two rounds of matches at Leamington Spa.

 Against a Suffolk team Essex did not get the start they would have wanted. Samuel Lowman lost to Max Boulter 3-0 whilst on the other table Livingstone Nadarajah, having won the first game 11-8 lost the next three 6, 8, 6 to Alex Horscroft. Next on the girls showed how it should be done. After a nervous start in which she had to save a game point against Katherine Shaw, Stephanie Cross settled to win 10, 3, 2 and Jane Li, having just completed two five game singles in the adjacent Essex Junior Inter League match, beat Natalie Wills 5, 10, 6. For Ryan Williams it appeared that he thought his match against Harvey Dinkele would be a cake walk and a lacklustre effort in the first game resulted in a 11-9 loss. However after an interval talk with coach Paul Collier Ryan showed what he could do by winning the next three games 2, 1, 3. On the other table Samuel lost a first game he should have won 13-11. Winning the next two 7 and 10 he won’t want to remember the fourth and saving two match points in the fifth he finally won 13-11. The girls then won their remaining two matches easily 3-0. Ryan then beat Max 4, 8, 3 but Livingstone had to endure a five game match with Harvey before coming through -5, 15, -10, 3, 3 . Essex had started off with an 8-2 win.

 Suffolk then played Cambridgeshire, Cambs winning all the boys matches and Suffolk the girls matches, two of which were conceded because Cambs number one girl failed to arrive through illness.

 Essex then played the Cambs team knowing they started 2-0 up because Cambs still only had one girl. Samuel lost his opening match to Adam Jepson, ranked 130 places above him 3-1, but Livingstone won his opening match against Max Schwiening 3-1. Stephanie had an easy win over Ena Catlin 6,3,4 and later on Lara Esquivel had an even easier win over Ena 4, 3, 1.After scraping through his first game with Harris Ryder 14-12 the next two were far easier, 6 and 3. Samuel had to come back from 2-1 down to Max before winning -10, 3, -5, 8, 5 and although Ryan’s match with Adam was close he lost 9, 9, 7.Livingstone also lost his match to Harris 3-0 so Essex had a 7-3 win. Thanks also to Neil Warren for his help in coaching the team during this match.

 With results now known of the matches played at Leamington Spa at the same time Essex lead the Table on sets difference by one set over Leicestershire. A league table will be added once published on the ETTA website.

 The final round of matches will be played at Leamington Spa on Saturday 17 March.

 Arthur C. Clark
Junior Match Secretary

Results and Final Table for County Senior Div 2C

Seniors Division 2C
County P W D L F A Pts
Norfolk 5 4 0 1 36 14 8
Oxfordshire 5 3 2 0 29 21 8
Essex 2 5 3 0 2 31 19 6
Cambridgeshire 1 5 2 1 2 22 28 5
Suffolk 2 5 1 1 3 22 28 3
Cambridgeshire 2 5 0 0 5 10 40 0

 

Seniors Division 2C – Results
Ca 1 Ca 2 E 2 Nk Ox Sk 2
Cambridgeshire 1   7-3 3-7 1-9 5-5 6-4
Cambridgeshire 2 3-7   2-8 0-10 3-7 2-8
Essex 2 7-3 8-2   4-6 4-6 8-2
Norfolk 9-1 10-0 6-4   4-6 7-3
Oxfordshire 5-5 7-3 6-4 6-4   5-5
Suffolk 2 4-6 8-2 2-8 3-7 5-5  

Essex Vets campaign news

Veterans Match Secretary Neil Brierley reports on the progress of the Essex Vets teams in the County Championships so far this year.

The following link provides latest table for all the county sides: http://etta.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/county_championship_tables-2011-12.pdf

5 of our 6 vets sides have commenced their campaign and round up as follows:

ESSEX 1 – Team of captain Tony West plus Clive Carthy , Mark Wicker and Lucy Wang. Played at Keighley and lost 9-1 to Kent, drew 5 all with Leics and lost 6-4 to Sussex. Lucy unbeaten but matches very tough and still have hopes of staying up with second weekend at  Ashford in February.

ESSEX 2 – Led by John Monk with Alex Abbott, Paul Cuming and Elaine Sayer , they have made a great start with wins over Durham, Cambs and Yorks  and were unlucky to lose 6-4 Notts.

ESSEX 3- Captain Paul Martindill , Phil Walker, Ray Lam , Marjorie Dawson and Sue Hickman have made a steady start beating Herefordshire  9-1, drawing 5 -5 with Worcs and losing 6-4 to Herts.

ESSEX 4- Captain Lin Attridge has picked Dave Bowles, John Poysden and Gary Baker  and they beat Bucks 7-3 and lost by the same score to Northants.

ESSEX OVER 60 FIRST TEAM – Captain Dave Bowles has picked Stuart Gibbs and Peter Radford plus Marjorie Dawson  and have made a great start in defence of their national  crown . They beat Herts 7-3,  drew 5-5 with Surrey and beat Worcs 7 -3. All to play for on 25/26 Feb at Milton Keynes.

ESSEX OVER 60 SECOND TEAM – Shirley Carroll captains this team and they play their first weekend later this month. 

Essex Juniors face relegation battle


Arthur Clark reports on the junior premier division matches played on Saturday/Sunday 12/13 November 2011 and junior division 1A matches played on Saturday 12 November 2011

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011/2012
12/13 NOVEMBER
JUNIOR PREMIER DIVISION
TEAM P W D L SETS F SETS A Pts
MIDDLESEX 3 3 0 0 18 12 6
SUSSEX 3 2 0 1 17 13 4
WARWICKSHIRE 3 2 0 1 14 16 4
KENT 3 1 1 1 17 13 3
YORKSHIRE 3 1 1 1 16 14 3
BERKSHIRE 3 1 0 2 15 15 2
ESSEX 3 0 2 1 14 16 2
CLEVELAND 3 0 0 3 9 21 0

 The first round of Junior Premier County Championship matches was held at the Cippenham Table Tennis Centre on the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 12/13 November with one match Saturday afternoon and two on Sunday. Having finished runners up the last two seasons there were hopes that this at least might be possible again this season but after a disappointing series of results this is now a distant vision. Currently second bottom in the Table the fight against relegation is a tough proposition since the teams we have to play in the next round of matches all seem likely to strengthen their teams.

 The opening match on the Saturday afternoon was against newly promoted Warwickshire. With Jared Patel deciding not to play on this day shortly before the weekend Ryan Williams replaced him playing his first mach for the County.

In the first match Brandon Crouchman, who replaced the now over age Luca Mariano, faced England No. 15 Matt Outhwaite. No fairytale premiership debut however losing 6, 6, 13 although there was a chance of extending the match to a fourth game. Although Ryan took the first game to 8 off Matt Lun he lost the next three 9, 7, 8. Iffy’s win was off the table as Warwicks had only one girl, Holly Thompson who subsequently lost 3-0 to Ella Patel and 3-1 to Iffy. Alex and Ryan both lost 3-0 to Laurence Sweeney, Ranked 21 and Alex also lost 3-0 to Matt Outhwaite. Brandon did his best to get the boys a win but after going 2-1 up he fell away to lose in five to Matt Lun

 Sunday morning’s match was against Kent who, on the basis of their 8-2 win over Cleveland yesterday, appeared to have a much stronger team than last year. Essex quickly went 3-0 up thanks to wins by Jared over Luke Savill, although he dropped the opening game 13-11 in a breakneck speed match, and 3-0 wins for Brandon over Brian Gray and Ella over Emma Tovey. However Kent hit back to take the next four, Alex losing 3-1 to Reece Placid, ranked 25, Iffy and Ella both 3-0 to No. 11 Emma Torkington and Brandon to Luke in five where all the games were won at the same end of the table, -12, 5, -5, 3 7 after Brandon led 5-2 at the change round. Jared then beat Reece 3-0 coming back from 10-7 down in the first game to win the last five points. Iffy led 10-7 in the first and 8-6 in the second but couldn’t convert to game wins and thus lost to Emma Tovey 10, 9, 4. Thus all on Alex for a win against Brian to draw the match. Another match like Brandon’s earlier where the same, and it was the same, end seemed to dictate the match only this time Alex , who led 5-3 at the final change round  managed to hold his nerve to win the last two points and win his match 4, -8, 9, -8, 9 for the Team draw.

 The afternoon match was against a Yorkshire team who had beaten neighbours Cleveland 7-3 in the morning and only just lost 6-4 to leaders Middlesex yesterday. Alex started with a match against Michael Frasier, a player he had beaten 3-2 in last season’s corresponding fixture. Sadly no repeat performance losing 7, 9, 12 although he had his chances to take the match to a fourth game. Brandon cruised through Tom Bell 5, 8, 3 and Iffy’s lack of match practice this season (she’s taking a year’s sabbatical to concentrate on exams) showed when losing to Ellen Auty 11, 9, -13, -10 8 despite having two game points in the first, leading 10-6 in the third and turning round 5-3 up in the final game. Jared lost the first game to Matthew Stephens and then went on to win the next three, albeit by 9 and 9 in games 3 and 4. Ella lost her first two game to Nicole Fiin, ranked 130 points above her, came back to win the next two but sadly unable to maintain the momentum to lose the final game to 8. Alex struggled in his first game with Tom finally winning it 15-13, found nothing going right for him in the third but won the fourth to 7 to make the match score 3-3. Ella won the first against ellen but lost the next three 6, 9, 6 despite leading 7-4 in the third  Jared had a fluctuating game with Michael with some spectacular winners and cruised through the deciding game to 3 to square the match once again.Iffy lost to Nicole 3-0 although she led 9-7 in the first. This left Brandon needing to beat Matthew for the Team draw  and he was up for it putting in a superb performance against the higher ranked player to win 9, 8, 7

 Looking back at the weekend’s matches and the current Table, leaders Middlesex only won their three matches by the narrowest of margins and only two points separates the middle six teams. Had Jared have played in the Saturday match and achieved his expected wins then Essex would have been second equal with Sussex on points (third on sets difference) and Warwickshire be in Essex’s second bottom position. Such is the closeness of the Division this season that any team having a bad second round of matches at Wednesbury on 17/18 March 2012 can be relegated.

Jared 4 wins out of 4, Alex 2 from 6, Brandon 3 from 6,Ryan 0 from 2, Iffy 1 from 5 and Ella 2 from 5.

 Thanks must go to John Holland on the Sunday for coaching the team and to the team players on the Saturday for coaching between themselves.

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011/2012
JUNIOR DIVISION 1A
12-Nov-11
TEAM P W D L Pts
Lincolnshire 4 4 0 0 8
Hertfordshire 4 2 2 0 6
Northamptonshire 4 2 1 1 5
Staffordshire 4 2 0 2 4
Worcestershire 4 1 1 2 3
Cheshire 1 4 1 1 2 3
Yorkshire 2 4 1 0 3 2
Essex 2 4 0 1 3 1

For the Junior Second Team there was the long journey to the Burton Uxbridge Club in Staffordshire for four rounds of Division 1A matches. Some players decided to travel up Friday evening and stay overnight. This meant that original travel plans changed and that I had to pick Jane Li up at six at Stanway and travel back to Chelmsford so that we could travel up with Scott and Terry Dowsett. That plan changed Friday evening when a telephone call revealed that Scott had hurt his back at his casual job on the Thursday evening and would be unable to play. Thank goodness that I had selected four boys to play so that meant that the remaining three would have to play every match. It would be a daunting day against the four County First Teams that our Second team were due to play as most or their players were ranked above ours. All matches were played on two tables.

 The first match was against Northants who had Sam Mabey and Miles Chan ranked 9 and 35 respectively in their team. James quickly lost to Miles 3-0 whilst on the other table, Robert Shrimpton, playing his first match for the County against Joe Lindsay went the full distance, the first of five of his eight matches that would go to five games. This time he lost the final set to 5 being unable to take his one chance in the fourth to win the match. Jane lost to Nicole Bird, ranked one place above her 3-1 after sharing the first two deuce games and later on Emily Godfrey lost to Nicole 4 in the deciding game and also unable to convert the match point in the fourth game. Both girls beat Bethany Tyler, Emily by 9, 9, 8 and Jane after winning the first two games, having to win the decider 11-7. Owen Warren lost 3-1 to both Sam and Joe. Robert took the first two games off Miles 5 and 9 before losing the last three 5, 6, 4. An 8-2 defeat.

 The second match was against Worcestershire who had No. 24 Michael Siket but whose girls were ranked below Emily and Jane. Owen lost 4, 1, 5 to Michael and on the other table another 5 game match for Robert, against Jack Davis. Eventually a win -12, -7, 3, 12, 7.and by this time Emily had played her match on the other table and won 7, 10, -14, 5 against Shannon Johns. James then beat Jaspreet Singh, ranked seven places above him 8, -9, 9, 6 to give Essex a 3-1 lead. However Worcester fought back to win the next two matches, Jane losing 3-1 to Ella Parry-Reece and Owen 3-0 to Jack. Jane then beat Shannon 3-1 and James lost to Michael 3-0. The last two matches were shared, Emily losing 3-1 to Ella after winning the first and Robert gaining a good four game win over Jaspreet after losing the first, a Draw the result.

 The third match was against the leaders and Division favourites Lincolnshire. Only Roberts opening match with William Ross went the full distance which he won -16, 7, -4, 11, 4. Sadly all the remaining matches were lost, six of them to 3-1 scores to Adam Harrison, ranked 7, Commor Neenan, Emily Roys and Olivia Churchill.

 For the last match of a tiring day Staffordshire were the opponents. James had a good opening 3-1 win over Stephen Ward, ranked 70, whilst on the other table another marathon for Robert against George Falcus ranked 115. Robert will remember the last two games for a long time, leading 2-1 and 10-6 up he lost no less than eight match points and two further match points in the decider to lose 9, -6, -9, 15, 11. A similar agony was to befall Jane in the next match against Lauren Evans. Turning round 5-2 down in the decider she then took eight of the next ten points to lead 10-7 only to lose the next five. Owen lost his two matches to Ryan Fellows and George and Emily beat Bekki Lycett and Lauren both 3-0. Jane also beat Bekki 3-1 but Robert must have run out of energy when playing Stephen losing 11, 9, 15 and not even able to take the match to a fourth game with the game points he had. Thus a 6-4 defeat that could, perhaps should, have been a.win.

James 2 wins out of 8, Owen none from 8, Robert 3 from 8, Emily 4 from 8 and Jane 3 from 8.

 Their next round of matches is at Wellingborough on Saturday 7 April (Easter Saturday) where it loks as though two wins from the three matches are needed if Essex are to stay up in Division 1.

 Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary.

Essex Senior Teams results

Senior Match Secretary John Andrews reports on the Senior Premier team and the 2nd team in Division 2C

15th/16th October 2011 Senior Premier Cippenham

Team: Martin Kubrt, Euan Liddle, Clive Carthy, Sarra Wang, Lucy Wang.

The first weekend of the Premier County competition comprises 3 matches leaving the second weekend where four matches are to be played becoming the deciding event.

Essex opened their campaign against Berkshire, one of the teams against whom a win is crucial to our target of remaining in the Premier division. Essex made a solid start with Martin Kubrt beating Dave Barr in five close ends, Euan Liddle matching that performance against Liam McTiernan and Lucy Wang disposing of Megan Knowles. As expected England no. 23 Tom Maynard got the better of Clive Carthy but Sarra Wang maintained the three point lead with straight sets win against Maria Tsaptsinos. The battle of defenders Dave Barr and Euan Liddle saw the Berkshire man edge it in 4 games, 13-15, 16-14, 11-4, 11-9. Lucy Wang followed this with a crucial 5 set win against Maria Tsaptsinos. This put the score to 5-2 in favour of Essex. Tom Maynard duly despatched Martin Kubrt in three but not without Martin putting up spirited resistance in the second and third games, only going down 13-11, 12-10. The ladies had been in good form for Essex in this match and Sarra Wang duly sealed the win with an 11-6, 11-3, 11-2 result against Megan Knowles. Liam McTiernan kept the final result tight at 6-4 to Essex with a four set win against Clive Carthy.

Next opponents for Essex were Derbyshire who made it two wins out of two by beating Essex 6-4 whilst Middlesex were held to a draw by Avon. Shaun Marples had a much better game against Essex and he beat both Clive Carthy (3-2) and Martin Kubrt (3-1). The ladies matches were shared. England no. 26 Sarra Wang was well-beaten 3-0 by Abbie Milwain but she hit back in her second singles defeating Emma Vickers (Emma’s only defeat of the weekend) after a five game thriller (11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 9-11, 13-11). Lucy Wang did well to beat Abbie Milwain but she in turn lost to Emma as the ladies games played a very prominent role in this match. Sam Perry who had beaten Martin Kubrt in five ends sealed the Derbyshire victory by getting the better of Euan Liddle 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 to secure his side’s victory, 6-4.

Essex were disappointed to have lost 8-2 to Sussex. Six successive games were decided in the fifth end and Sussex came out on top of these 4-2. England no. five Veteran Ritchie Venner was involved in two of these battles and he came out on top both times. He beat Clive Carthy 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-9 and he fought back after losing two close opening games to get the better of Martin Kubrt 13-15, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-9. Sarra Wang pulled through in the fifth end against Rose Rainton but despite leading 2-0 she couldn’t hold off Yolanda King. Yolanda came out on top 5-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8. It was a good match for Nigel Eckersley and the Sussex Over 50 Veteran beat both Euan Liddle (3-0) and Clive Carthy (3-1) whilst Euan Liddle made his mark. He scored a fine five game victory over Da Shuai Zhang.

We achieved the following results:-

Berkshire             –              6-4
Derbyshire          –              4-6
Sussex                  –              8-2

 County Premier Championship Table 2011/12
 County P W D L F A Sets for Set Agn’st PTS
Middlesex 1 3 2 1 0 21 9     5
Derbyshire 3 2 1 0 17 13     5
Sussex 1 3 2 0 1 19 11     4
Berkshire 1 3 1 1 1 18 12     3
Essex 1 3 1 0 2 12 18 53 71 2
Nottinghamshire 3 1 0 2 12 18 45 69 2
Cornwall 1 3 1 0 2 9 21     2
Avon 3 0 1 2 12 18     1

 

12th/13th November Essex 2nd Team Division 2C at BATTS, Harlow.

Team: Matt Spero, Steve Joslin, Antony Greenwood (Saturday), Tony Halling (Sunday), Barbara Izyk, Vicki Stredder.

Six teams in this division so all matches were able to be played over one weekend. Thanks to Paul Collier for arranging the weekend, Neil Brierley who assisted with team arrangements and Sharon Head for the catering at BATTS.

Essex were looking to move back to division one at the first attempt although Norfolk looked a very different team from last year with the addition of Neil Charles transferring from Middlesex (England no. 30), Kelly Skeggs transferring from Essex linking up with Lauren Spink (England no. 5) and would no doubt be a main challenger.

Essex played Cambridgeshire in their first match with Steve Joslin and Barbara Izyk keeping a clean sheet with one win each from Matt Spero, Antony Greenwood and Vicki Stredder. Antony and Vicki coming through close five setters to secure their wins. Norfolk were next up and were without Neil Charles and Kelly Skeggs because of work commitments. However Lauren Spink was available and duly delivered two wins. Steve Joslin maintained his winning streak with two wins against Tony Zeqiri and A. Hawes respectively. Barbara and Vicki recording one win each against J. Kelly to produce a final score of 6-4 in Norfolk’s favour. Final match of Saturday was against Cambridgeshire 2 and a convincing 8-2 result obtained with Antony Greenwood, Matt Spero and Barbara Izyk remaining unbeaten.

There were just two matches to play on the Sunday with Tony Halling replacing Antony Greenwood in the team. At the start of the day Essex were in second place on sets difference but no doubt reflecting on the close match with Norfolk which would potentially be key to their final position in the division.  First up were Suffolk 2. 8-2 was the final result with Matt, Tony, Steve and Barbara all remaining unbeaten. Vicki had a titanic 5 set battle with Sonja Talbot 11-2, 8-11, 11-8. 10-12, 11-13. There was also defence against attack with Matt Spero just edging out Richard Hutchinson in a very entertaining match, 7-11, 11-3, 11-2, 10-12, 11-8.

The final match against Oxfordshire was a must win match if Essex were to stand a chance of overhauling Norfolk who now topped the table. But, it would always going to be a tall order with Norfolk 2-0 before the start of their match against Cambridgeshire 1, who were a lady short. The match against Oxfordshire was nip and tuck all the way with no side gaining a significant advantage although Essex were always fighting from behind. The second match saw Steve Joslin lose a close 5 setter to Pavel Jaskolski 7-11, 11-9, 11-4, 7-11, 9-11 which gave the edge to Oxfordshire side. Barbara once again delivered two wins but it was Jaskolski who provided the close 6-4 win for Oxfordshire with a four set win against Tony Halling, 3-11, 11-8, 10-12, 4-11. Norfolk emerged as champions and congratulations to them on their success.

A final table will be published on the ETTA web site shortly.

 John Andrews
Essex Senior Match Secretary
15th November 2011