Essex Press Office

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

The second round of Junior Division 1A matches took place at Grantham on Saturday 23 February. After the first round of matches in November Essex 2 held up the table with no points from three matches and thus needed at least two wins to stay in the Division.

The first match was against Cleveland, three places above them in the table and one of the teams the Essex team needed to beat. With all matches played on two tables Matthew Mulley beat Mark Besford 9, 7, -7, 8 but Bradley Hudgell took three games to warm up and save a match point before winning the last two games comfortably for a -8, -8, 10, 2, 3 win. Stevie Pell after winning the first two games 7, 6 then lost the next two 7, 4 before rallying to win the last game 8 against Jennifer Lowther for a 3-0 team lead. Hannah Pitt, as expected, lost to Katherine Lefevre three straight but Luca Mariano and Matthew put Essex 5-1 up with two further wins. The girls matches were again shared and Luca and Bradley won the last two matches for an 8-2 win, Bradley coming back from 2-1 down against Adam Smith. A good start to the day.

For the next match Essex faced South Yorkshire, relegated from the Premier Division last year, who had moved up to second place in the table on Sets difference following defeats for the leading two teams after the November round of matches. A good start with Luca beating Louis Havenhand 2, 7, 9 and Greg Green defeating Richard Element 4, -7, 16, 7. For this second round of matches South Yorkshire had Melissa Wright, now number 5 England Junior, available and she had no difficulty against Hannah and Stevie. Melissa had already beaten Cheshire’s England number 3 Caroline Hallows 3-0 in the first round of matches. Against Charlotte Dixon Stevie came back from 2-1 down to win a nail biting match 4, -7, -7, 11, 13 but Hannah was unable to do the same later on losing -5, 4, 7, -8, 8. Meanwhile Matthew surrended a 2-1 lead to lose 5, -15, -9, 7, 5 to England number 23 Kim Daybell whilst Greg lost in four to Louis. Kim then beat Luca in four and Matthew had a titanic battle with Richard to eventually win the last match after failing to convert match points in the fourth game 7, -9, 13, -14, 8 for a 4-6 defeat.

The third match of the day was against Durham, leaders of the Division by one Set from South Yorkshire and a team whose three boys were yet to lose a match but with only one girl. The Durham boys, Mark Simpson, Anthony and Graeme Barella, ranked 22, 43 and 32 respectively, won their six matches although Bradley took a game off Mark and led Graeme 2-0 before losing the last game of the match in five. Against Sarah Robinson, Hannah won the first 11-5, lost the second 18-20 but managed to win the next with a number of forehand winners 11-3, 11-9. With Stevie the opposite was the case, 10-8 up in the first and with further game points but lost it 13-15, 9-9 in the second but lost the next two points, eventually won the third 15-13 but unable to convert a 9-8 lead in the fourth. A 7-3 loss which maintained Durham’s one Set lead at the top of the table.

For the last match of the day against bottom team Warwickshire, a win was vital since Cleveland, one point above Essex, had lost their three matches and faced a difficult match against Cheshire. Essex started well with Matthew beating Alan Caffory 6, 9, -9, 5 and Bradley beating Joel Goddard 6, 3, 4 and there was hope that the girls matches would be shared. Hannah lost to Rachel Pilgrim, 1000 points above her, 8, 9, -9, 5 and Stevie, after leading 2-0 lost to Jessica Birbeck -9, -9, 6, 9, 9. Match score 2-2. Luca and Matthew beat Nabil Khalfey and Joel respectively 3-0 for a 4-2 lead. Hannah the beat Jessica 8, 7, -7, 7 and this win meant that Essex would avoid relegation on Sets difference at least as Cleveland were 6-1 down at the time to Cheshire. Meanwhile could Stevie achieve a sensational win against Rachel, coming back from 9-11, 5-11 down to take the next two games 11-9, 11-5. Alas no, losing the deciding game 11-3. Luca put the match beyond doubt winning 3-0 over Alan with Bradley losing 3-0 to Nabil, failing to convert game points to a fourth but Essex had won 6-4.

With three matches complete all attention turned to the last match between South Yorkshire’s Richard Element and Staffordshire’s Shaun Slater with the match score 7-2 to South Yorks. Durham had beaten Suffolk 6-4 (Suffolk finished third and would have overtaken Durham in the table had they won) so Richard needed to win for South Yorkshire to take the title on Sets difference. After some terrific rallies Richard lost 5, -15, 8, -5, 8 so sets won and lost were equal. After a quick calculator calculation it would appear that Durham take the title 137-83 to 151-111 Games difference, Durham benefiting from having no second girl who might have lost 24 games to enable South Yorkshire to snatch the Title on Games ratio. In the first round of matches Durham’s second girl lost all of her matches.

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary