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

15^th/16^th 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

12^th/13^th November Essex 2^nd 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
15^th November 2011

2^nd/3^rd April 2011 Senior Premier Wednesbury

 Team: Emran Hussain, Euan Liddle, Clive Carthy, Sarra Wang, Lucy Wang. 

Going into this second weekend of matches Essex were facing a stiff challenge, they were holding up the rest of the division on 1 point scored although Yorkshire and Devon were in a similar position but on better sets and games averages.  The good news for the team was that 3 of our four matches were against teams around us, so wins against these teams could be viewed as double points in our fight to stop relegation. We played, in order, Middlesex, Yorkshire, Berkshire and Devon. In years past Devon have been a bogey team for Essex so that match was looked on in trepidation. 

We achieved the following results:-

 Middlesex       –           3-7
Yorkshire         –           6-4
Berkshire         –           6-4
Devon              –           7-3

Three critical wins pulling us clear of the drop zone and leaving us in a clear fifth position on 7 points. Well done to the team for maintaining Premier status.

2^nd/3^rd April 2011 Senior Division 1A – Draycott 

Team: Martin Kubrt, Tony West, Steve Joslin, Michael Andrews, Ella Patel.

This was a tough weekend for the squad with 7 matches being played over two days. We were also in the unfortunate position of only being able to field one lady player. I should like to record my thanks to Ella Patel who turned out for a Senior team for the very first time and gave a very good account of herself. The team was further impacted when Ashley Stokes had to withdraw from the first team squad on the 29^th March. This meant that Euan Liddle was moved into the first team, leaving the second team one player short. Michael Andrews stepped in at very short notice into what was a real baptism for him in a very tough division. Suffice to say that all matches were lost and unfortunately the team has been relegated. An interesting point to note is that all other teams taking part were their county first teams. Last season Essex 2nd team were in division 1B and in my view had we remained in that division the team we fielded would have survived the drop. 

The Senior sub committee is meeting on the 20^th April to review what arrangements should be recommended to Management committee for next season.

 John Andrews
Essex Senior Match Secretary