Essex Press Office

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

Junior Match Secretary Arthur Clark reports on recent Essex Junior matches.

JUNIOR COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
DIVISION 2C 22 NOVEMBER 2008

Four rounds of Junior County Championships Division 2C matches were held at Cippenham on 22 November and Warwickshire were seeking to regain the Division 1 status they lost last season. Equally Northamptonshire 1 and Essex 3, both runners up in their Divisions last season were looking to go one better. Each match would be played on two tables.

In the first round of matches Essex 3 played Warwickshire. With Annabelle Gibson absent through illness and injury and Stevie Pell unavailable due to a work commitment Essex 3 would have to borrow one of the Essex 4 girls for each match. Both opening matches went the full distance and completed at 8 in the fifth, Anthony Kent losing to Jack Williamson, ranked 400 points above him, and Joe Stannard beating Jack Randle after losing the fist two games 12-10. Grace Collier, the third team girl, lost to Charlotte Spencer, ranked one place below her, three straight and Estelle Purkis three straight to Jessica Birbeck. Alex Holland lost to Matthew Outhwaite in four but Anthony pulled the score back to 4-2 by beating Jack in five. The last four matches were all lost, Grace being the closest to a win, 2-0 up on two deuces against Jessica. Essex 4 played Berkshire and what an extraordinary match. On the score sheet Essex went 5-0 down, (it was actually 4-1 on the table as the sixth match finished before the fifth) with Chris Penrose, Michael Barthee, and Ify Okafor losing three straight and Phillip Lawson and Alice McGahon in four. Phillip Lawson led the fightback beating Simon Thorne -12, 9, -6, 8, 5 , a player 120 points above him. Alice and Ify continued with wins over Megan Knowles and Maria Tsaptsinos and Chris and Michael finished with four game wins to achieve a draw. Thus every player in both teams won one and lost one.

In the second round of matches after the lunch break Essex 3 went 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3 with Bucks 2. Alex beat Sam Nolan 4 in the fifth but Nial disappointingly lost three straight to Ben Woodbridge, ranked 100 places below him. Alice lost 10 in the fourth to Angela Oetiker and Grace an easy three straight win over Christina Lane. Joe lost his game three straight but Nial won his in four after losing the first. Alice and Grace easily won the return girls fixtures easily 3-0 to put Essex 5-3 up. Alex lost 3-0 to Stuart Crichton so it was left to Joe to secure the win. This didn’t look possible after he lost the first two games to Ben 6, 2 but scraping the third 12-10 after some urging from team colleagues he took the next two 5 and 4 for a 6-4 win. Meanwhile Essex 4 had a much easier match against Oxfordshire with only three matches needing a fourth game. A 9-1 win with only Nicole Hunt’s 10, 9, 9 defeat of twelve year old Estelle the Oxon win.

The third round of matches saw Essex 3 take on Northamptonshire 1 who had won both of their previous matches 10-0.Nial beat Ryan Harrison 3-0 but after being 2-1 up Joe was unlucky to lose the next two games 9, 12. Grace and Ify both lost their games in five to Jordan Wood and Charlotte Binley respectively and Anthony beat Jack Coleman 3-1 for Essex to be 2-3 down at the halfway stage. Joe lost his match to Ryan in four but Grace beat Charlotte 12, -9, 14, 10 and Ify beat Jordan 7, 8, -10, -9, 9 to bring the match score 4-4. Sadley Anthony and Nial suffered humiliating losses to their opponents for a 4-6 defeat. Essex 4 were on a roll against Northamptonshire 2 with a crushing 10-0 win although seven of the ten matches were won 3-1.

The last match of the day was between the two teams. Although Essex 3 went 6-0 up this was by no means a true reflection of the matches played. The fourth team were determined to prove their mettle. Alex scraped through against Phillip -7, 9, 5, -10, 5 and Nial defeated Brandon Crouchman 7, 10, 9. The girls matches were even closer, Ify beating Estelle 9, -9, -9, 7, 9 and Grace beating Alice -11, 7, 9, 8. Anthony beat Michael -7, 9, 10, 9 and Phillip again lost in five, this time to Nial. Alice gave Essex 4 their first win beating Ify 9, 9, 9 but Grace was too powerful for Estelle, winning 3-0. Essex 4 won the last two matches, Michael Barthee more than pleased with his four game win over Alex and similarly Brandon with his four game win over Anthony.

Warwickshire lead the table with 8 points from Northants 1 with 6 points and Essex 4 and Berkshire on 5 points (from the only draw of the day). Essex 3 are fifth with three points. In the next round of matches at Harlow on 10 January Essex 4 have the top two teams to play whilst Essex 3 have the bottom two teams to play. For Essex 3 Grace won 5 out of 8 and Nial 4 out of 6. For Essex 4 Brandon and Chris both won 5 out of 6. Between the two teams Ify and Alice both won 5 out of 8.

Steve Kerns
Press & Publicity Officer
Essex County Table Tennis Association