Essex Press Office

Reported by Steve Kerns
Press & Publicity Officer
Essex County Table Tennis Association

The BATTS Super League kicks off on Tuesday 18 September 2007 with another strong field of 32 players. Organiser Neil Brierley describes it as follows -" Places fill up fast at the BATTS Super League. It has a recipe of five top class matches for everyone, national ranking points are available as well as nightly prize money and there is often a sprinkling of national and international stars taking part". Past winners have included Ding Yi (Austria), Robert Pagonyi (Hungary), Ryan Jenkins (Wales) and English Internationals Darius Knight and Terry Young. Entrants to look our for in the first round of matches include Filip Syznanski (Poland), Lorestas Trumpauskas, Gergely Urban, John Holland, Hubert Noah, Mark Smith, Tommy Cutler, Neil Charles, Katie Shu Ying, William Maybanks and Costas Papantoniou.

Another initiative is being provided by the County's new Coaching Officer Hill Dowsett who is hoping to run a series of monthly Coaching Sessions at two separate venues in the County, at BATTS in Harlow and at the Rowhedge Club in Colchester. Hill hopes that as many players as possible will attend and he is also inviting along all of the County Coaches as well. Hill hopes to create the same work ethic that existed in the County at Coaching sessions in the 1970s and 1980s under the County Coaching Officer of that era -- Ron Gore.

The BATTS Team Peniel second team made a successful start to their campaign in Division Two (South) of the Senior British League by winning their four matches played at their home venue. Sean Gibson gave the team the same leadership that Martin Kubrt provided last season as he remained undefeated, and if this team gets the chance to field both Gibson and Kubrt at the same time they will clearly be very hard to beat. Their main rivals will be London Progress IV who also captured all eight points. The highlight for BATTS included a fine 6-2 win over a strong Fusion II side. Abigail Embling won twice beating both "Yemi" Fakorede and Farhat Rasul and coupled with Gibson's two wins BATTS were firmly in the driving seat. Fred Dove scored an excellent win over ace counter-hitter Martin Smith and Oscar Selfridge wrapped proceedings up with a commanding 3-0 victory over Fakorede. BATTS also turned on the power as they destroyed Brighton II 8-0. Gary Bonner's clash with Abigail Emblng provided the best entertainment as the hard-hitting Bonner surged into a 2-0 lead. However, Abigail hit back and she eventually came through to win 8-11, 8-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-9. Gibson, Dove and Selfridge were also unbeaten.

Steve Kerns
Press & Publicity Officer
Essex County Table Tennis Association