Essex Press Office

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

Junior Secretary Arthur Clark Reports on on Junior Division 2C matches played on 20th October 2007

The first round of Junior 2C matches was held at BATTS Harlow on Saturday 20 October which included the Essex 3 and Essex 4 teams. However, Staffordshire 2 withdrew their team one week before and on the Sunday evening after return from Junior British League I managed to recruit a fifth Essex team to take Staffordshire’s place and thus avoid their opponents sitting out for two hours. I must say the fifth team acquitted themselves very well (more later) This day also enabled the new Essex coach, Hill Dowsett, to meet and watch the players and coach the Essex 3 team other than in their first match against Essex 4 where both teams were left to coach themselves.

As is regulated in the Rules where a County has more than one team in the same Division they must play one another before the 31 December. Thus Essex 3 and Essex 4 met one another in the first match of the day.The Essex 3 team was Nial Akata, Anthony Kent and Joe Stannard (all Fellows Cranleigh) with Maddison Andrews (Mossford) and Claire Austin (Chelmsford) whilst the Essex 4 team was Andrew McEwan (Braintree), Lewis Ewers (Mossford), Chris Penrose (Romford), Lawrence Wilcox (Colchester), Kymberley Garrard (Romford) and Kalyani Nair (Mossford) with a boy standing down each round of matches.

All matches are played on two tables. Whilst Anthony was confirming his Essex Assessment Trials domination over Andrew 6, 2, 7 Joe found it tougher beating Chris 9, 16, 8 in the opening matches. Later on Chris was involved in another opening 16 game before losing to Anthony 16, 5, 7. Nial started with a comfortable win over over Lewis but later lost to Andrew 10, 4, 8.In the last match Joe, after winning the first two games lost the next three to Lewis. For the girls Maddison was taken the full distance by Kalyani before winning -9, 8, 10, -9, 7 and dropped the second game against Kymberley but Claire beat both opponents 3-0. Final result 8-2 to Essex 3.

After the first round of matches it looked as though Oxfordshire would be the Essex 3 team’s closest opponents having beaten Norfolk 7-3 and these were to be Essex 3’s opponents in the next match. With never more than one between the progressive scores up tom 4-4 the match was in the balance. Joe had won his two games 3-0 and Anthony had come through a tough five setter against Olafur Pall Geirsson-10, 9, -4, 9, 8. Nial had lost to Joe Cheung 3-1and Maddison and Claire had lost three games against Isabel Hessey and Nicole Hunt for Essex to be 4-3 down. Nial squared the match with a close -8, 9, 10, 10 win over Olafur. Maddison and Anthony achieved comfortable wins in the last two matches for a 6-4 Essex 3 win.

The next match for Essex 3 was against Norfolk and the final score was in no way a true reflection of the match. Of the boys Joe won both his matches 3-0 and Anthony his 3-1. Nial beat Shane Underhill a nail biting 9 in the fifth after failing to capitalize on a match point in the fourth game and Aaron Marche 9, 9, -9, 5. Maddison and Claire both beat Claire Wiggs 8 and 9 in the fifth respectively. Maddison achieved an excellent 3-0 win over Molly Ajeto but Claire dropped the only match to her 3-1. After the third round of matches Essex 3 were the only team with a 100% record.

For the last round of matches Northamptonshire 2, second from bottom in the table, were the opponents. Only Anthony was taken to five games by Jack Coleman, winning -5, 9, 8, -10, 9 to preserve his 100% record on the day. Nial won both his games 3-0 and Joe both 3-1.Surprisinly Maddison, who had been playing well all day lost both her matches 3-0 to Rachel Thompson and Gina Stedman. Claire easily beat Gina 3-0 but lost tio Rachel 3-1. Player of the day was definitely the unbeaten Anthony. Joe lost only one and Nial two.

After their math against Essex 3, Essex 4 played Cambridgeshire. Lewis won his opening game against Patrick Mohan 3-1 whilst Lawrence had an up and down match Mark Dawkins finally losing -4, -12, 8, 1, -8. Andrew won both his games easily 3-0. Lewis lost his match to Mark 8, -9, 6, -8,-7. Kalyani beat Amy Catlin 3-1 and Olivia Miller 3-0 with Kymberley, who had lost 3-1 to Olivia beating Amy -5, 12, 9, -8, 2. Lawrence beat Ian Gregory 3-0 in the last match for a winning score of 7-3.

Their last official match of the day was against Bedfordshire. Andrew won both his games, the second only by 6, 5, -9, -6, 9 over Ben Gardner to bring the match score to 4 all from 2-4. Earlier Chris had been despatched 2, 5, 3 by Ben and Lawrence had lost 5 in the fifth to James Coleman whilst Kalyani had lost 3-1 to Hong Kong import Venus Wu Yan who is on a year’s residential course at Bedford. Both girls beat Zoe Gardner and at the end of the day the interesting fact was that Venus was the only girl not to lose a match and Zoe the only girl not to win one. Chris came back from two down to win the last game against James -4, -13, 10, 6, 4 to clinch a draw. Overall Andrew won 5 out of 6, Lewis 2 out of 4, Chris and L:awrence 1 out of 4, Kalyani 3 out of 6 and Kymberly 2 out of 6.

The Essex 5 team in the friendly matches was Chris Matthews (Romford) Phillip Lawson (Braintree) Laurence Williams and Joe Butler (both Mossford), Kerry Sacre (Romford) and 10 year old Sarah Austin (Chelmsford). Being a friendly all four boys played in each match and rotated so that they all played six matches overall. Against Cambridgeshire in the opening match Chris had a heartbreaking start losing 4, 9, -5, -7, -10 to Ian Gregory and -9, 7, 6, -12, -9 to Patrick Mohan with Kerry in the same situation losing 9, -10, -7, 5, -8 to Olivia Miller and 9, -7, -8, 9, -8 to Amy Catlin. Sarah lost 3-0 to Amy and 3, 8, -5, -10, -7 to Olivia. The wins came from Phillip, winning both his matches and Laurence and Joe their single matches for a 4-6 loss.

Against Bedfordshire Sarah and Kerry both beat Zoe, Joe and Chris (9 in the fifth) both had wins over Dom Wilson. Phillip suffered his only loss of the day 8, 8, -9, 9 to Ben Gardner, and Ben pipping Laurence 5 in the fifth. Laurence however beat James Coleman 3-0 for a second 4-6 defeat for the team.

For the next match against Northants 2 the playing format was the same as that in the first match.Phillip opened with a 3-2 win over Jack Colemanand followed up with a 3-1 win over Rob Griffin. Chris lost his first match 3-0 but beat Jack -11, 7, 3, -9, 9 with Joe and Lawrence winning their single matches. Kerry lost both her matches but Sarah beat Gina Stedman 9, 9, -5, 7 to take the team to a 6-4 win.

For their last match of the day Essex 5 had to play Essex 4. Phillip started with a 3-0 win over Chris Penrose and with Joe beating Lawrence Wilcox Essex 5 were 2-0 up. Joe later beat Chris -5, 7, 16, 11 for his teams three wins. Although the girls lost all four matches Sarah and Kerry both took Kimberley to four.

Overall a pleasing performance from the three Essex teams. The next round of matches will be held at St. Neots on Saturday 19 January 2008 where Essex 3 will only have two matches to play, an opening match against bottom team Cambridgeshire and a potential title decider against Bedfordshire, the surprise team of the day. Essex 4 will have Northamptonshire 2, Norfolk and Oxfordshire to play.

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary.