ESSEX CADET AND JUNIOR INTER LEAGUE 7 APRIL 2018

The Essex Cadet and Junior Inter league competitions for Season 2017/2018 were held at the Holmwood House Sports Centre, Lexdon, the home of Colchester League Club, Tollgate, on 7 April. Disappointingly only three Essex Leagues entered the Junior event, Clacton, Colchester and Southend. Originally four teams, Clacton, Colchester and two Southend teams entered the Cadet event but Clacton had to withdraw due to player easter holidays so Colchester entered a second team. Thus there were three rounds of matches to be played in both events. All matches were played on two tables. The Junior format was four players with each player to play two singles and one doubles thus giving a ten match format whilst the Cadets format was three players, nine singles plus one doubles.

 CADETS

In the first round Southend A (Daniel Zeffie William Skelt and Livi Jones) crushed Colchester B 10-0, all matches won 3-0. In the other match Colchester A achieved a narrow 6-4 win over Southend B with Ollie Rampton and Andy Huang both winning two matches and joining together to win the doubles with Liam Harris chipping in the vital winning match over Joe Boscombe despite Harrison Sadler winning his three for Southend B.

In the next round Southend A beat Southend B 9-1 with Toby Zeffie winning the one match for the B team. In the other match Colchester A beat their B Team 10-0, all matches won 3-0.

In the final round of matches Southend B beat Colchester B 8-2. Joe Boscombe won his three matches with Luke Burridge winning the two matches for Colchester B. On the other tables Southend A were the favourites to win and they duly achieved this with a narrow 6-4 win over Colchester A, the win only achieved in the final two matches with  Daniel Zeffie defeating Ollie Rampton and then joining up with Livi Jones to win in five games over Andy Huang and Liam Harris.

 TABLE

P          W        D         L          Pts

Southend A     3          3          0          0          25
Colchester A   3          2          0          1          20
Southend B     3          1          0          2          13
Colchester B   3          0          0          3            2

 JUNIORS

Despite there being only three teams in the Junior event match results were so close that honours were not resolved until the final match of the last match

The first match was between Clacton and Colchester and after the first four singles and the two doubles the match score stood at 3-3.  The match result turned on the next two singles when Scott Campbell and Daniel Young both won five game matches respectively against Bright Bedding and Olly Fifield. Although Arran Hutchinson pulled one back by beating Ethan Lloyd 3-0 Sam Hume’s 3-0 win over Jared Chelski meant that Clacton won 6-4.

The second match was between Colchester and Southend and there was never more than one match between the two teams. Olly Fifield won his two matches for Colchester as did Harry Keys for Southend. The two doubles matches were shared with Matthew Stringer and Harry Keys defeating Jared Chelski and Arran Hutchinson 11-9 in the deciding game. A 5-5 draw was the result.

The final match was between Southend and Clacton with all results possible and once again there was never more than one match between the two teams. Sam Hume and Daniel Young both won their two matches for Clacton and each of the Southend players won one so the singles were divided 4-4. Both doubles went the full distance, Clacton’s Daniel Young/Scott Campbell defeating Harry Small/Reece Harris-Griffiths 12-10 in their decider while on the other table it took a little longer Southend’s Matthew Stringer/Harry Keys defeating Sam Hume/Ethan Lloyd 14-12 in their decider. Another 5-5 draw. Three very close matches with some great rallies and top class table tennis.

 TABLE

P          W        D         L          Pts

Clacton            2          1          1          0          11
Southend         2          0          2          0          10
Colchester      2          0          1          1            9

Trophies will be presented to the winners and runners up once received.

 

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary

The end of the County Championship season was completed by the long trip to Christchurch, Dorset for the final round of Junior Division 1B matches. Before Christmas the teams in the two halves of the Division had played one another to reduce travelling. As a result of these matches Devon 1 and Essex 1 led the Division with six points each followed by Surrey and Dorset with four points each. For this final round each County had four matches to play although Cambridgeshire 1 withdrew their team five days beforehand. The Essex team was Sam Hume (799), Jack Stockdale (984), Jared Chelski (313) (playing in place of Joe Walker who was not available for the second time this season), Tiana Dennison (915) and Gracie Edwards (720). The figures in red are the current TTE Junior ranking points for the players.

 

 

 

Devon 2 were Essex’s first opponents. For the opening matches Jared had to play Benjamin Edmunds (714) and Jack played

 

Herbie Sage (665). Jared won his opening game but lost the next three while Jack beat Herbie 3-0. Gracie and Tiana both won their matches 3-0 against Francesca Maestri and Lauran Loosemoor (206) respectively as they did in the reverse fixtures later on. Sam then lost to number one Leon Zacharkiw 3-1 but Jared had an excellent win over Herbie 8, -4, 9, 9. In the final two matches Jack lost to Leon 3-0 while Sam beat Benjamin 3-0. A 7-3 win.

 

 

 

The second match was to be the big match of the day. With Devon 1 having a walkover against Cambridgeshire 1 both teams were on eight points but the Devon team, having been relegated from the Premier Division last season, had the better sets difference. Jack and Jared both lost their opening matches to Daniel Kerr (858) and Uther Kingdom (985) (3-1 and 3-0 respectively). Tiana had a titanic battle with Emily Haskett (753) finally losing that match 9, -6, 8, -13, 7 while on the other table an excellent win for Gracie over Mari Baldwin (966) 10, 7, 7. Sam then went on to get an ever better win, a 4, 9, 8 win over number one Joshua Millman (1089). For Jared it was a 3-0 defeat to Daniel despite losing the first game 12-10. In the Girls reverse fixtures Gracie lost to Emily 3-0 while Tiana came back form 2-0 down to beat Mari 3-2. In the final two matches Sam lost 3-1 to Uther and Jack beat Joshua 3-1. A 6-4 defeat but the closest that any team got to the Devon Team. Also it meant that Essex needed to win their final two matches for a chance of the Runners Up position.

 

 

 

In the third round of matches Essex had lowly Berkshire to play who were trying to avoid relegation alongside Cambs.  It took Jack five games to overcome Jo Barraclough while Jared lost 3-1 to Felix Thomas (696). Tiana and Gracie had little trouble in winning their four matches against Rishika Desai and Alicia Simonova, only dropping twenty seven points in the twelve games. Both Sam and Jack beat Harry Munro (693) 3-1 and, after Jared had lost three straight to Jo, Sam completed the Team’s 7-3 win by beating Felix 3-0.

 

 

 

For the final round of matches the Table could be more complicated than it looked. Unbeaten Devon led the Table with 12 points and they had to play Surrey who had 10 points and had enjoyed three crushing wins and, if they had a big enough win, could overtake Devon on sets difference. Equally Dorset, with 8 points and the day’s highest ranked girl, had to play Essex 1 who had 10 points and Essex would drop to fourth place if they lost.

 

 

 

In the opening two matches Jack and Jared both lost their opening two games to Kai Major (670) and Ali Mallock (618) and whilst Jack came back to win his last three games 2, 8, 6 Jared won the third 12-10 but lost the fourth 7-11. Tiana again found youngster Sophie Barcsai (205) difficult to play but came through to win 14, 7, -10, 4 whilst Gracie found Katie Holt (971) just too hot to handle losing 3, 7, 9. The middle two matches were those to swing the match the Essex way. Sam beat the higher ranked Jamie Blair (870) 6, 3, 5 but much more important was the match on the other table where Jared came through a gruelling encounter with Kai to win 5, -13, -7, 5, 8 for Essex to get their noses in front. Gracie ensured Essex with at least third place when her game plan against Sophie gave Essex the fifth set. Tiana gave her all against Katie but in a close match it was just not enough, losing 10, 12, -6, 11. All now on the last two matches which both went the full distance. First to finish was Jack’s match with Jamie but not with the result that Essex wanted, Jack losing 9, -8, 9, -9, -7. Sam’s match with Ali took even longer and with a 4, -11, -13, 6, 13 result Sam had scraped the win the Team had hoped for and now what was the score of the Devon 1 v Surrey match that was still in play. Soon to reveal it was 8-2 to Devon so Essex 1 were the Runners Up. A great Team effort.

 

 

 

FINAL TABLE

 

P          W         D          L            F          A        Pts

 

DEVON 1          7          7          0          0          58         12         14

 

ESSEX             7          6          0          1          44         26         12

 

SURREY           7          5          0          2          48         22         10

 

DORSET           7          4          0          3          45         25         8

 

MIDDLESEX 2  7          2          1          4          33         37         5

 

DEVON 2          7          2          1          4          32         38         5

 

BERKSHIRE     7          1          0          6          23         47         2

 

CAMBS                        7          0          0          7            3        67         0

 

 

 

Arthur C. Clark

 

Essex Junior Match Secretary and Junior Division 1B Organiser.

 

 

 

 

REPORT ON THE JUNIOR DIVISION 2C MATCHES PLAYED ON SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER 2017

DIVISIONAL HONOURS ONLY RESOLVED AT THE END OF THE FINAL ROUND OF MATCHES

 

The final round of Junior Division 2C matches were played at the NETTS Table Tennis Club at the Recreation Club at Earls Colne where the first round of matches had been played some six weeks before. After that first round only two points separated the top four teams so there was all to play for when these teams played one another. Cambridgeshire 2 played an ineligible player in the first round of matches but the corrections only affected Sets and Games of their team and their opponents and not the points of any of the Teams.

 

The Essex Team was the same team as that that played in the first round of matches on 21 October, namely Abdul Raqueeb (483), Matthew Stringer (411), Jared Chelski (214), Jaz Harvey (307) and Maliha Baig. As Jaz had to get to the Harlow Playhouse for a Dress Rehearsal Chloe Andrews would play in the last match. Figures in red brackets are the current Junior Rating points of the relevant players.

 

In the first round of matches Essex played Herts who were one point ahead in third place in the Table. In the two opening matches Matthew lost to Finlay Cameron-Pryor (506) 3-1 whilst on the other table Jared lost to Jamie Watkin-Rees (546) 3-0. Jaz then played Ilyssa Lacorte (504) and after losing the first game 11-6 went on to win 3, 9, 11 and was extremely relieved to win that fourth game as that was the only match that the much higher ranked Ilyssa lost over the two days of play. On the other table Maliha was playing the highest ranked girl of any of the County teams, Charlotte Marsden (624) and understandably lost 3-0. Abdul lost 3-1 to the higher ranked Carl Breindel (687) whilst on the other table Jared was involved in a marathon match with Finlay. After winning the first two games 14 and 13 he lost the next two 8 and 6. In the decider he won the first six points only to lose the next seven. Resilience set in and five points later a great win was achieved. Jaz lost 3-0 to Charlotte while Maliha after going 2-1 up against Ilyssa finally lost 11-9 in the deciding game, a fine effort for a ten year old. Abdul beat Jamie 3-1, a good win, while Matthew lost 3-0 to Carl. With this defeat, 3-7, the Essex hopes of any honours were effectively over.

 

The Essex team now had to play second placed Sussex 2 who could take over the lead of the Division depending upon the result of the Suffolk v Herts match. The Sussex team were determined to get back to Division 1 having been relegated last season and won the first four matches. Jared and Matthew both lost 3-0 easily to Kiego Burnham (405) and Billy Keegan (487) respectively. Maliha lost 3-1 to Joelle Bennett (262) while Jaz was involved with a marathon match with Jodie Morris (264), finally losing -9, -9, 9, 10, 11. Abdul finally achieved an Essex win, 3-1 over Owen Brown (513). Jared found Billy too much of a handful, losing 3-0 but Jaz beat Joelle in a very close match 10, 5, 9. Maliha had a five game match with Jodie losing 11-6 in the deciding game having been 2-1 up. Jared and Abdul lost the last two matches to enable the Sussex team to take over the top spot in the table after this 8-2 win and a Suffolk defeat.

 

For the last round of matches Essex played Beds who were one place below Essex in the Table. Having not won a match all day Matthew employed Maliha as coach and two wins as a result, both 3-0 over George Whitley (243) and Ben Reddy (469). It came as a bit of a surprise for Abdul to lose to both Oliver Horswell (485) and Ben Reddy, both in the fifth game. Two wins each for both Chloe and Maliha over Maddie Whitley (70) and Gemma Russell and  for Jared over Oliver and George gave the Essex Team an 8-2 win and fourth place. For Chloe a place in the Essex Hall of fame for junior players having a 100% record playing for an Essex Junior Team. For next season Chloe, Matthew and Abdul will no longer be Junior players.

My thanks to John Jennings for umpiring all day and Tim, John and Tehmoor for coaching the players.

FINAL TABLE

P          W         D         L          F          A          Pts

Sussex 2                     7          6          1          0          58        12        13

Herts                           7          6          1          0          55        15        13

Suffolk                       7          5          0          2          50        20        10

Essex 2                       7          4          0          3          40        30          8

Cambs 2                     7          3          0          4          26        44          6

Beds                            7          2          0          5          22        48          4

Sussex 3                     7          1          0          6          25        45          2

Northants 2                7          0          0          7            7        63          0

Arthur C. Clark

Essex Junior Match Secretary and

Junior Division 2C Organiser.