The adjacent County Cadet Division 1A match between Essex and Hertfordshire was held at BATTS Harlow on Sunday 26 January 2013. All but two of the Division’s matches had already been played and the result of this match would determine positions 3 and 4 in the Table. Herts needed a draw on Sets difference and Essex needed a win. For Essex this would be difficult as the Herts boys were all ranked well above the Essex boys. The match was played on two tables as were all the previous matches in the Division.

In the opening two matches Sam Hume played Herts No. 1, Chris Clifford and Ryan Gooday played George Coulson. Sam lost the first two games 5, 7 but determined play saw him lead 10-6 in the third game but the England No. 41 cadet clawed these points back and also the next two to win the match. Ryan faced the task of playing a player ranked 270 points above him. Having won the first game to 8 Ryan narrowly lost the second to 9 and nothing went right in the third, losing to 2. In the fourth 10-6 down Ryan won the next six points to take the match to a decider. 5-0 down at the change round the Herts coach called a time out at 6-6 to calm down the now anxious George and Howard Grant, the Essex coach, did the same with Ryan 6-10 down Ryan got three points back but lost the next from a net cord. The next two matches were the girls, both won 3-0 Tania Dennison winning against Megan Allaway and Zoe Davies losing to Charlize Uy although at 5-1 up in the second game there were Essex hopes. James Knudsen was no match for the quicksilver Ethan Walsh, the England No. 4 Under 13 ranked player and both representing BATTS in various tournaments, being destroyed 1, 7, 4. However the ever improving Sam kept Essex in the match by beating George 9, 7, 8 after some great attacking rallies by both players.

Zoe and Tania then both won their matches to bring the match score to 4-4, Zoe winning the last half dozen points in the third game to pull back a 9-5 deficit against Megan and Tania defeating Charlize in four after losing the second game from 10-10 to two nets. Thus third and fourth places depended upon the results of the last two matches, James against Chris and Ryan against Ethan. James fared much better in this match, much more his style, just losing the first game 11-9 but taking the second 13-11. Chris, however, upped his game to win the next two 5 and 7 for Herts to secure third place in the Table. Meanwhile on the other table a marathon match ensued. Ryan seemed much more adapted to deal with Ethan’s lighting thrusts and get his own cross table forehand shots in with good effect to go 10-9 up in the first but then lost the next three points. Ethan seemed to be on his way to a 3-0 win after taking the second game 11-6 but Ryan hit back taking the next two games 4, 3 as Ethan got more and more anxious and Ryan’s forehand more accurate. The start of the decider went Ethan’s way and at the change round he was 5-0 up. Two minutes later it was 8-8 and time for the Herts coach, Roger Close, to call a time out. This worked and with Ryan 8-10 down it was Howard’s turn to call a time out. This worked as well as the score became 10-10 but unfortunately for Ryan his next two forehands just missed the end of the table so Herts won the Match 6-4.

A good match and thanks to Howard for coaching the Essex Team in Stuart’s absence due to a Vets British League commitment. Just five points was the difference between a Herts 6-4 win and an Essex 6-4 win and a good overall performance from the Essex Team.

The match between Kent and Middlesex to determine the winner and runner up positions in the Division is likely to be played on Sunday 16 March.

Arthur C. Clark
Junior Match Secretary and Cadet Division 1B Organiser.

The Essex Junior Closed was held at BATTS Harlow on Saturday 11 January 2014. At the Closing Date there were 62 entries (the reverse numerals figure at the same stage last year) and with the acceptance of late entries the final entry figure was 73 entries as against last year’s 37, ie just on double. It was great to have this number of entrants, the downside being that most events had to start with Groups of three players instead of the four to six range of last year to avoid a late evening finish.

The opening events were the Under 13 Boys and Under 15 Girls events. In the Boys event the only seed in the eight Groups not to win his Group was Eastbury’s Rokas Dedinas, defeated by Havering’s Oscar Terrell, and Rokas then found he had to play the number one seed Rahul Jindal (Mossford) in the first round of the knockout stage, losing 6, 10, 7 to him. Oscar, however, went on to reach the final defeating number 2 seed Morgan Harvey (Clacton) 9, 8, 5 in the quarter final and number three seed Casey Mansfield (BATTS) 5, -8, 5, 9 in the semi. Rahul dropped games in his quarter and semi-finals against Louis Jones and Ali Cangir (both Eastbury) and went on to take the title with an 11, 7, 9 win over Oscar. Only one Group match needed a deciding game, Syed Hussain (Eastbury) clinging on to his seeded position with a 11-6 win after the opening two games with Sean Miley (BATTS) were shared.

The surprise in the U15 Girls event was Zoe Davies (Southend) loss in Group 2 to Rebecca Lowman (Burnham) 6, -10, 4, -9, 13 in her first match, perhaps a 0910 start was too early for her. Rebecca went on to win the Group with Zoe the runner up. In the other Group match number one seed Gracie Edwards (Clacton) woke up a little quicker after losing her first game to Emily Smith (Southend) to take the next three 6, 10, 6. Emily also lost narrowly 10, 6, 11 to runner up Sarah James. Thus the expected final became the semi final with a rejuvenated Zoe winning a tremendous battle 10, -9, 3, -10, 8. In the other semi Sarah James (Eastbury) beat Rebecca 16-14 in the fourth game to reach the final but lost to Gracie 2, 9, 7.

There were 13 Groups in the U15 Boys event and the top four seeds all reached the semi finals. Of the top seeds in each Group only Louis Jones (Eastbury) failed to win his Group, losing to Alexander Terrell (Havering).Alexander went on to reach the quarter finals where he lost to top seed James Knudsen (BATTS) 6, 7, 5. However, in a tight match, James then lost to third seed Dylan Dixon (Mossford), Dylan coming back from 2-0 down to win the deciding game 11-7. Dylan had also won the decider in the previous round 11-7 against Southend’s Daniel Payne. In the other half of the draw Sam Hume (Clacton) reached the final without dropping a game and continued this form in the final winning 5, 10, 7. The fourth seed was Numayr Malik (Eastbury) who came back from 2-0 down to beat Casey Mansfield in Round 2 and Jack Stockdale 3-1 in the quarter final.

In the U18 Girls event with the withdrawal of one girl on the day I changed the three Groups of three players to two Groups of four. Top seed Emily Wood had a disastrous day in her Group and will quickly want to forget it. This left the way open for Zoe Davies to reach the final but only after a last gasp 14-12 deciding game with Emily in the Group. Zoe’s semi final victim was Lauren James (Colchester) 7, 6, 9. who had finished runner up to Gracie Edwards in the other Group after two 3-2 wins over Shannon Conway (Eastbury) and league compatriot Chloe Andrews. The final was another titanic battle only this time Gracie gained revenge for her earlier defeat to Zoe 8, 9, -8, -10, 8.

For the U18 Boys event there were six Groups. Only seed not to win his Group was Luke Jones (BATTS) defeated by the ever improving Dylan Dixon. Of the four first round matches three of them went the full distance, Sam Hume 7, 8, -8, -11, 5 over Luke including a saved match point, Dylan 5, -8, -5, 9, 10 over Joshua Poland (BATTS) and Daniel Payne (Southend) over Tharujan Sivarajah -4, 10, -9, 6, 9. Three of the four top seeds all reached the semi finals but James Knudsen again lost to Dylan, this time 3-0. Patrick Gilbert (NETTS), who had beaten Sam 9, 7, 11 in the quarters, defeated top seed Livingstone Nadarajah (Eastbury) 11, 5, 9 whilst player of the day Dylan defeated defensive clubmate Navdeep Panesar 6, -8, 6, -8, 8. In the final both players had game points in the first game but thereafter Dylan just kept his nose in front to win 15, 9, 7.

Meanwhile on the other tables the U13 Girls and U18 Girls Restricted Girls events were being played. The U13 was a round robin of four players, Gracie Edwards, Emily Smith, Alana Mansfield (BATTS) and Mia Charles (NETTS). All matches were won 3-0 except for the match between Emily and Gracie which decided the top two positions in the Group, Gracie winning -8, 10, 5, -11, 5. In the Restricted event Emily Wood had to concede her semi final to Rebecca Lowman due to a prior commitment after the earlier Girls events overran their allocated times and in the other Semi Shannon Conway just sneaked past Lauren James -7, 5, -9, 7, 9. The final also went to five games with Shannon just getting home after a fight back for Rebecca 9, 5, -7, -9, 8.

The last event of the day was the U18 Boys Restricted Singles and three groups. Luke Jones, Patrick Gilbert (a deciding game over Numayr Malik) and Tharujan Sivarajah (a deciding game over James Ashley (Mossford) were the three Group winners. In the final Patrick beat Luke 6, 10, 9

My thanks to Umpires John Jennings and Tom Jones for their stalwart duties and Alan Wood for obtaining such nice trophies. A joy to see so many more entries than the last two years and I think a good day was enjoyed by all. Finishing Group positions and Knockout Stage scores and Results for every event are on the Essex website.

Arthur C. Clark
Junior Match Secretary and Tournament Organiser.

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.