All posts by Paul Strutt

News

Gold again for Callum

19 year old Callum Turner from Ashingdon in Essex has repeated his success from 2018 by winning gold again in the British Transplant Games held in Newport, South Wales.

A late starter to playing table tennis he entered last year’s games after playing at College and won the singles event for his age group.

Encouraged by that success he joined his local club Hockley TTC who play in the Southend and District League and played his first season of competitive table tennis this year.

Returning to this year’s Transplant Games to defend his title he won in great style, not losing a set throughout. He now moves on to the World Transplant Games to be held in Newcastle this month, which he qualified for as a result of last year’s victory.

He will play singles and doubles at this event and, not to be content with that, will also take part in the badminton doubles.

Callum’s story is one of victory over adversity. Born with a defective heart he was very ill throughout his childhood until a heart transplant at the age of 15 turned his life around. Now also fitted with a pacemaker he is able to  take part in the sports he loves and his success show his strength and determination to make the most of the opportunity he has now been given.

Hockley TTC, Southend and District Table Tennis League and Essex County have all donated funds to help with his trip to the World Games and wish him the best of luck in his chosen events.

County Juniors

Essex Junior Closed 2019

The Essex Junior Closed was held at BATTS Harlow on Saturday 4 May 2019. By Easter Monday there was a doubt that the event would be held but with over a doubling of entries on the following day Closing Day date and the following two days the event went ahead with 59 entries, an increase on last years 46. The order of play of the events had to be changed from last year with the increased number of boy entrants. The opening events were the Under 11 Open (Boys and Girls), up from four entries to fifteen and the Under 18 Restricted Boys and these two events could be played at the same time and save two hours on the days playing time. Basically Groups of three players with the top two going through to the KO stages.

For the Under 11 Open event there were five Groups. The big difficulty was determining the five seeds, the top two being easy and the other three much more difficult. At the Group stage every match was won 3-0. In the quarter finals No. 3 seed equal Adam Alibhai (Woodford Wells) only dropped three points in his 3-0 win but in the bottom half it was a totally different match when the other three equal seed, Aaryan Vatsa (Sou) played No. 5 seed, Jeremy Davies (BATTS). Jeremy eventually won 11-9, 5-11, 12-10, 3-11, 11-9. The top two seeds, Ralph Pattison (BATTS) and Sudheep Kamma (Che) both won their semi-finals against Adam and Jeremy respectively and Ralph won the final 11-7, 11-3, 11-7.

The Under 18 Boys Restricted event is for players who have never played for the County. There is no seeding so the Groups are luck of the draw as is the KO stage. There were seven Groups but it turned out that four Groups only had two players due to last minute withdrawals. The bottom half of the draw seemed much the stronger, both Harry Buckle (Che) winning 12, -8, 7, -7, 8 against Adnan Riftan (Mossford) and Liam Harris (Cla) against Brightwell Yeboah (West Essex) -7, -9, 9, 5, 9 in their quarter final matches and Liam went on to beat Harry to reach the final. In the top half quarter finals Vineeth Kamma (Che) and Jacob Ling (Woodford Wells) both won their matches 3-1 against Charlie Craig (Che) and Toby Zeffie (Sou) respectively. Jacob went on to beat Vineeth 3-0 in the semi final and Liam 6, 8, 10 in the final. Sadly in winning the final Jacob injured his shoulder and had to withdraw from the later U18 Boys event. We hope the injury is not too serious.

SONY DSC

Winner of the Under 18 Girls Restricted – Nyree Marsh

The next event was the Under 13 Boys with more entries than last year and eight Groups. The top four seeds, Sam Taylor (BATTS), Ben Porter (Che), Toby Zeffie and Sudheep Kamma all reached the semi-finals with Toby the only player requiring a fourth game in one of his matches on the way. Top seed Sam then lost to Toby 11, 9, 5 and number 2 seed Ben lost to Sudheep -6, 10, 6, 11. In a rousing final Toby just got home -7, 7, -6, 9, 9. Sam was another player to sustain an injury and he withdrew from the following U 15 Boys event.

The Under 13 Girls event was played whilst the boys were playing their event. The three Girls were all under 11 players and Medha Choudary (Mossford) won the Round Robin with Hela Kolli (Che) the runner up and Aditi Seth (Mossford) third.

The event with the largest number of entrants was the Under 15 Boys. Here again the top four seeds, Daniel Young (Che), Jesse Bath (Mossford), Ralph Pattison and Liam Harris all reached the semi-finals. Liam had the toughest match to get there, a marathon with Mario Ioakim 8, -9, -9, 2, 7 while Jesse needed a fourth game for a win over Joshua Bickles (Che) -9, 9, 5, 6. In the semi’s Daniel beat a tiring Liam 3-0 and Ralph also beat Jesse 3-0. Daniel won the final 7, -9, 7, 6.

The Under 18 Girls Restricted event was also a round robin of three players and three close matches. Nyree Marsh (Che) beat Alice Cole (Sou) 5, 12, 10 and Annabel Sweeney (Che) 7, 8, -11, 6 to win the Group and Alice beat Annabel 11, 10, 6 to take the runners up position.

Under 18 Boys finalists - Harry Keys (left) and winner Daniel Young (right)

Under 18 Boys finalists – Harry Keys (left) and winner Daniel Young (right)

The last event of the day was the Under 18 Boys with less entrants than last year. Once again the top four seeds, Ray Yan (BATTS), Daniel Young, Jesse Bath and Harry Keys (Sou) reached the semi-finals. Jesse was the only seed needing a fourth game against Adnan Riftan 8, -3, 8, 10 to reach the semi. In the semi he lost to Daniel 3-0 while on the other table the semi went the full distance before Harry could defeat Ray 11, -8, 9, -7, 5. In the final Daniel won 8, 5, -8, 8 for his second event win of the day.

Due to lack of entries there were no events for the Under 15 and Under 18 Girls.

Arthur C. Clark

Essex Junior Match Secretary and Tournament Organiser.

County Juniors

Essex Junior Assessment Trials 2018/19

Please reply to:   JUNIOR MATCH SECRETARY.

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

Tel. 01245  225688

email: arthurcclark@btinternet.com

 

9 June 2018

Dear Junior League Match Secretary/League Secretary/Coaching Officer/Player/Parent

 

JUNIOR ASSESSMENT TRIALS 2018/19

 

The Essex County Junior Assessment Trials have to be early again this year as the first round of County Cadet matches are on Saturday 20 October and the first round of County Junior matches on Saturday 3 November. Until British League and British League Premier fixtures are circulated, usually in August, I will not know when BATTS will be available until then. Dates for these matches are 8 and 9, 15, 22, 29 and 30 September. If some matches are Away Matches then the BATTS venue becomes available on those dates. As the London Greenhouse 4 Star event is scheduled to be played on the weekend of 15/16 September I am avoiding arranging this weekend for the Trials as I feel sure that a number of Essex players will take part in that event.

 

I have booked Sunday 23rd September 2018 at the BATTS Club, Norman Booth Centre, Elderfield, Mulberry Green, Old Harlow, CM17 0EY commencing at 9.00am for the Cadet (Under 15), Under13 and Under 11 events as we normally require ten tables for these events. I am hoping that the British League Premier match is an away fixture on Saturday 22nd September so that the Under 18 event can be held on that date. If BATTS is not available on that Saturday then Martin Green advises me that the Under 18 Boys event can be held at the Holmwood House School, The Holmwood House Sports Centre, Chitts Hill, Lexden, Colchester, CO3 9ST. I will let everyone know which venue will host the Under 18 Boys event when I know,

 

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 CountyChampionship and other matches during the coming season and assess the future potential of other players with a view to invites to CountyTraining sessions. Thus all players wishing to be considered for selection for CountyChampionships or the various CountyTraining sessions should attend these trials. If you have 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 Entry Form list with a brief explanation. No date has yet been fixed the Essex Junior Closed event for this season but it is unlikely that it will be played on the first weekend of January as this is the weekend of the East Midlands Junior 4 Star event. The date for the Essex Junior Inter League has also not yet been fixed.

As stated above the Boys Under 18 event will be played on the Saturday and it is hoped that all other events will be played on Sunday 23rd. This may depend on the number of entrants for each event, particularly the Girls events. As a rough guide I anticipate that the Boys Under 13 and Girls Under 18 events will start at 0900 Sunday with the Boys Under 15 about 1300. As in previous years I will endeavour to organise the Under 11 entrants to all play one another during the course of the Under 13 events. For the Girls remaining events I will have to juggle the event times depending upon who enters what. For the U18 Boys event my guess is a 0930 or 1000 start.

 

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 2001

UNDER 15 – those born on or after 1 January 2004

UNDER 13 – those born on or after 1 January 2006

UNDER 11 – those born on or after 1 January 2008 (to be played as part of the U13 events)

 

Players may be nominated in more than one age category. Fees payable are £5.50 per player per age category entered. Please send nominations to me no later than Tuesday 1 August 2017 together with a cheque(s) in respect of the total fee nominations made out to ECTTA. Alternately payment may be made electronically to BATTS Account No. 23166968, Sort Code 77-13-10.

 

 

 

Please inform your nominees that normal table tennis clothing must be worn at the Trials, ie no white shirts or shorts, no tracksuit trousers when playing matches, no headwear (other than on religious grounds), and all footwear to have rubber soles. All to note 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 and restricted refreshments at Holmwood House if this venue is used.

 

Please note that I require for each player nominated 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 Entry Form. In this computer age also parents E-mail address in the E-mail column should I need to contact them during the season (but see below).

 

Also Player or Player Member Licence number (ie last season’s Licence number). Note that, assuming that there are no Table Tennis England changes from those of last season, a Player Member licence is required to play in local Leagues, One Star Tournaments carrying National Ranking points 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 Table Tennis England before players are permitted to play in any of these competitions.

Please let me know if you require a map showing the location of the BATTS Norman Booth Centre or Holmwood House if that venue is used which I can enclose in due course with event times confirmation information.

 

If you think there is somebody that I have missed out from the circulation list on this page or you know that they have changed their E-mail address or your League contact has changed please either let me know so that I can forward a copy to them or forward them a copy yourself.

 

Note that under the latest Data Protection Regulations I cannot list the E-mail addresses of those that I send circular E-mails to. I will assume that I can still send E-mails to you on Essex County Table Tennis matters unless I receive an E-mail from you stating that you, or any parent of a player, do not wish to receive communications from me in the future..

The application form can be found by clicking the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rjFCdhJOqnQjxnrUTlgL5fWgya8yqu8BpqLWYjt-eBs/edit?usp=sharing

 

County Juniors

Southend and Clacton top Inter League

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

County Juniors

Essex pipped at post for second year running

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.

 

 

 

County Juniors

Fourth place finish for Essex Juniors

SONY DSC

 

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.