Essex Press Office

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

The Essex Junior Assessment Trials were held at BATTS, Harlow over the weekend of 15/16 September with Under 11, 13, 15 and 18 categories for both Boys and Girls. The best supported event was the Under 18 Boys with 48 entrants. Based on the matches played and using other information such as the current ETTA National Ranking List a County Ranking List has now been issued

The initial problem was that two of the top seven Under 18 Boys seeds sent messages on the morning that they would not be playing which meant that all the eight Groups had to be reformatted. This achieved, the event still managed to start on time. With players beating one another at random only the top two seeds of the top four Groups - Emran Hussain and Mark Mulley actually managed to come out on top with Luca Mariano and Matthew Mulley winning the other two Groups.

For the second round of Group matches, Emran lost to Luca 12-10 in the fifth end in the top Group and he also missed out to Mark Mulley 3-1 to finish third whilst Mark beat Luca 3-1 to take top spot on the day. The anticipated rivalry in the second group between Bradley Hudgell, Greg Green and Mike Shore failed to materialise when Bradley had to pull out with a foot injury. Although Greg beat his League team mate Mike 3-1 he was only the Runner-Up in the Group as he lost 3-0 to Braintree League rival Andrew McEwan, whilst Andrew in turn lost to both Mike and to Anthony Kent.

In the Under 18 Girls an entry of eleven players was pleasingly the best for some years. Results went according to seeding with Holly Stubbings staying unbeaten and only Stevie Pell’s win over her club mate Hannah Pitt upset the rankings. This resolved the 2007 Essex Closed Tournament Results between these two Girls who had shared wins in that event back in January.

On Sunday morning all sixteen Boys in the Under 13 event arrived and seven of the top eight seeds achieved their allocated placings after the first round of matches. In the top Group of second round matches Brandon Crouchman (Chelmsford) confirmed his top seeding with 3-1 wins over Luke Tarrant, Lewis McKenny and team mate Scott Dowsett.

The Girls Under 15/13/11 event was played as one Group with Hannah Pitt winning all her matches 3-0, with Maddison Andrews finishing second and Sara Akata third.

In the Under 15 Boys Luca Mariano and Phillip Lawson had little difficulty in finishing first and second overall from an entry of 30 players. The surprise players were Alex Donkor from the Eastlea Wanderers Club who only lost to Phillip whilst Jorden Allen from the Mayland Juniors Club lost only to Luca and Phillip.

Leading Essex Rankings for 2007/08 are:

Under 18 Boys: 1. Emran Hussain, 2. Mark Mulley, 3. Reece Tan, 4. Luca Mariano, 5. Matthew Mulley, 6. Bradley Hudgell, 7. Greg Green

Under 18 Girls: 1. Sarra Wang, 2. Holly Stubbings, 3. Stevie Pell, 4. Hannah Pitt, 5. Maddison Andrews.

Under 15 Boys: 1. Reece Tan, 2. Luca Mariano, 3. Phillip Lawson, 4. Alex Donkor, 5. Jorden Allen.

Under 15 Girls: 1. Hannah Pitt, 2. Maddison Andrews, 3. Sara Akata.

Under 13 Boys: 1. Brandon Crouchman, 2. Luke Tarrant, 3. Lewis McKenny, 4. Scott Dowsett.

Under 13 Girls: 1. Sarah Austin, 2. Micha Panesar

Under 11 Boys: 1. Ben Langton, 2. Manveer Rayatt.

Under 11 Girls: 1. Sarah Austin.