Essex Press Office

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

The second round of Junior Premier County Championship matches was held at the venue of Wood Green High School College of Sport Maths and Computing, Wednesbury on Saturday/Sunday 15/16 March. Essex, second from bottom after the first round of matches needed at least two wins to stand a chance of avoiding relegation. The team would be without Sarra Wang who was needed to play in the depleted Senior First Team.

The first match was against second in the table Lincolnshire, who were missing Lauren Springthorpe. Mark Mulley lost the opening match against Stuart Mudie, ranked 22, 3-0 but Luca Mariano levelled the score with a 5, -4, 7, 8 win over Michael Bates. Holly Stubbings made the score 2-1 with a 6, 6, 8 win over Dominique Jones, ranked one place above her and Emran Hussein extended the lead with a 3-0 win over Paul Johnson. Hannah Pitt could make no progress against Emily Bates, ranked 7 in England but Mark scored a five game win over Michael -7, 10, -8, 11 after leading 10-5, 7. Hannah, after a disappointing first game had a titanic battle with Doninique coming back from two games down before finally losing -3, -8, 7, 9, -10. Emran lost to Stuart -7, 9, -6, -11 after having three game points to take the match to a deciding game. Holly was no match for Emily losing easily 3-0 and Luca surprisingly lost the last to Paul 3-1 after taking the first for a 6-4 defeat. One felt a point lost.

The late afternoon match was against Hampshire, everyone’s odds on favourite to retain their title, and the final match score of 10-0 duly reflected this. Emran took both Garth Kinlocke, 6, 6, -13, -6, 8 and David McBeath, -5, 9, 10, -9, 7 to five and actually led Garth 6-4 in the fifth when the opponents Time Out came. Luca lost 3-1 to both Garth and Ruinao Zhang and in the last match Mark took the first off Ruinao 12-10. Holly and Hannah Pitt both lost 3-0 to Annabel Morle and Hannah Hicks although Holly had game points to take Hicks to a fourth game. This loss put Essex bottom of the table on sets difference. With other match results going against Essex two wins were needed on Sunday if Essex were to have any chance to overhaul Devon or the weakened Derbyshire team. Achieving these two wins was just possible against Yorkshire and Hertfordshire.

Mark lost the opening match to Yorkshire’s Damien Piper 3-1 but Luca despatched Edward Fambely 3-0 with ease. In what Holly described as her worst performance of the weekend she lost to Rebecca George 3, 12, 10 and couldn’t extend the match further despite leading 9-6 in the third. A big blow to the Essex team. Emran beat Mark Johnson 3-1 to bring the match score level again. However the next two matches were lost to put Essex 2-4 down, Hannah losing 3-0 to England No. 10 Mary Fuller and Mark also 3-0 to Edward. Hannah, playing her best game of the weekend kept Essex in the match by beating Rebecca, ranked 520 points above her, 5, -4, 5, 8 and Emran, in a cracking match, beat Damien 11, 6, -7, 9 to level the match score again. Holly lost 3-0 to Mary and if Luca could beat Mark there was still a very outside chance that Essex could catch on sets difference. Alas Luca lost -7, 6, 8, 12 and thus Essex were relegated. Only pride was therefore left for the match against neighbours Hertfordshire which on paper Essex should win to avoid the wooden spoon.

Emran started with an -8, 6, 4, 8 win over Paul Ordunast and Luca extended the lead by beating Pritesh Kalad 4, -9, 3, 11. Hannah lost to No. 20 ranked Haylee Potts 3-0 and sadly Mark lost to Guy Ben-Aroya -4, 10, 13, 6, failing to capitalise on match points in the second and third games making the match score level at 2-2. Holly beat Abigail Moore 3-0 and Luca further extended the Essex lead against Paul 6, 8, 6. Hannah then lost to Junior British League team mate Abigail 9, 9, 8 but Emran ensured that Essex could not lose in a hard hitting match against Ben after being two games down -6, -1, 9, 5, 10 with Ben serving in to the net at match point down after both players had called time outs. After being completely outplayed in the first two games Holly then played her best table tennis of the weekend against Haylee before failing to take the match point in the fifth to lose 4, 2, -7, -8, 12. Mark completed the Essex 6-4 win by beating Pritesh 7, 5, 11.

Hampshire retained their title by beating Lincolnshire 7-3 in the last round of matches.

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary.