Essex Press Office

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

Four rounds of Junior County Championships Division 2D matches were held at East Grinstead on 21 November. This season the Essex third and fourth teams had been moved from Division 2C where they had been for several seasons to Division 2D.
Four teams, Berkshire, who last season were also in Division 2C, Kent 2, Surrey 2 and Sussex 2, appearing to be the pick of the County’s seeking honours at the end of the second round of matches in February. Kent’s hopes, however. were dealt an early blow when Emma Tovey, at the table and about to start her first match against Essex 3’s Ella Patel, was taken ill and took no further part in the rest of Kent’s matches. All matches were played on two tables.

Essex also had team problems and the postal disputes had not helped. Third team selections Phillip Lawson and Philip Barthee had reported non-availability a week beforehand so Brandon Crouchman, to be selected as a second team player, was brought in to replace them. Stevie Pell was also injured so that was not a problem as they still had Estelle Purkis and Lucie Collier. For the fourth team Tim Hunt had withdrawn midweek and reserve Sam Langton, originally OK, subsequently had to withdraw through injury. The problem came Friday lunchtime when Damola Fenyui, having finally confirmed Thursday evening that he was OK withdrew. Two hours of frantic phone calling Friday teatime failed to provide an eligible replacement. Thus only five boys travelled Saturday morning but Scott Dowsett and Adam Dukes were still eligible to play for the fourth team so between them, with the agreement of the opposing teams, they could play in two matches at the same time for the first three rounds of matches. On arrival I found that Estelle had not travelled as she was ill but the reserve, sister Samantha Purkis had so one of the fourth team girls could play up each round. In the end it worked out that these four girls all played in three matches out of four

In the first round of matches Essex 3 played Kent 2. Both opening games were won 3-0, Scott Dowsett losing to Gregory Kaddock and Adam Dukes beating Sean Waddell. The girls matches were due next with Ella Patel playing up. However as stated above Emma Tovey was taken ill in the warm up so received a concession. On the other table Lucie Collier had a five set match against Daniella Gray. 2-1 up she couldn’t convert the match points that came her way in the fourth set finally losing it 17-15 and the fifth 11-8. Brandon Crouchman lost to Sam Smith 3-1 but Scott then beat Sean 3-1 to make the match score 3-3. With Ella beating Daniella 7, 9, 4 and the concession Essex went 5-3 up. In the last two matches Adam lost to Sam 11, -10, 9, 9 but Brandon eventually beat Gregory -9, 9, -12, 13, 4 for the team win. Perhaps a lucky win for Essex 3 courtesy of the two concessions. Meanwhile Essex 4 were playing Surry 2 and lost the opening four matches. After being 2-0 up in the opening match Michael lost to Jack Bennett -10, -9, 9, 4, 6. Jack was to go on as the only unbeaten boy on the day. On the other table Sukrit Sood lost 3-0 to Alex Forshaw. Scott crossed from the other match to play his first match against Tejas Padalkar. Winning the first set he lost the next three easily. Connie Hodges lost 3-1 to Lois Peake. After a nervous start in her first match for the County , although winning the first set against Rebecca Mann she went 2-1 down but came back to eventually win 6, -10, -4, 9, 5 to put the Essex team on the score sheet. Later on Connie also managed to come back from 2-0 down to beat Rebecca -8, -9, 9, 9, 8 and similarly Emily, who seems to like long matches and the concentration to win deuce sets, came back from 2-0 down to beat Lois -3, -8, 10, 10, 5. Alas Michael, Scott and Sukrit all lost their remaining matches for a 7-3 defeat.

In the second round of matches after a short lunch break Essex 3 took on Berkshire who had had an extra two hours in bed (they had a bye in the first round), were runners up last year and determined to go one better this season. The Berkshire team of Daniel Moses, Jarrod Knowles, Daniel McTiernan, Megan Knowles and Maria Tsaptsinos raced through the first nine matches, only Scott and the playing up Emily in both her matches able to take a set of the opponents. Scott managed to beat Daniel 3-1 in the last match so Essex 3 only lost 9-1. Essex 4 played Cambridgeshire who look to be the weakest team in the Division and came away with a 9-1 win, Adam Dukes, who was playing in both matches, the one to lose 9 in the fifth to Patrick Mohan. Cambs had only one girl, Amy Catlin, who lost to both Connie and Samantha Purkis.

For the third round of matches Essex 3 had to play the Sussex 2 team who had beaten Essex 4 7-3 in the first round of matches. Brandon lost the opening match to Tejas 8, 6, -9, -8, 9 and the only other match to go to five sets was Ella Patel,s 1, -8, 4, -10, 5 win over Rebecca. Four matches were lost 3-1 and the other three 3-0. Having completed his matches for Essex 4 Scott was -12, 8, 9 down to Jack Bennett when going for a wide ball at the start of the fourth set he collided heavily with the wall and skirting sustaining an injury that forced him to concede the match. Essex 3 thus lost 9-1. Scott had already completed his matches for Essex 4 beating Jason Zhao 3-0 but losing to Ben Woodbridge 3-1. Michael won both his matches, the opening game against Alex Nagle 3-1 and the last match against Jason 7, 10, -10, -10, 6 which gave his team a narrow 6-4 win. In between the four girls, Connie and Samantha for Essex and Christina Lane and Camilla Zeitlin for Bucks, each won one match. Sukrit had lost his opening match to Ben 3-1 but won his roller coaster match against Alex 5, -13, 9,-2, 10.

In the last round of matches Essex 3 had to play Essex 4 and with Scott and Adam now committed to the third team Essex 4 had only Sukrit and Michael to play for them. In the opening match, Brandon, not at his best on the day, scraped through 8, -8, -9, 7, 10 against an inspired Michael. Subsequently Ella gained revenge over Emily for her defeat at the trials and also beat Samantha -9, 13, 9, 9 whilst Lucie also won her matches against the two girls 3-0 and 3-1. After half an hour’s rest following his injury in the previous match Scott tried to play his only match but had to concede after a couple of points, the pain too much. With the void match Essex 3 won 7-2.

Sussex 2 lead the Table with 8 points with Berkshire, Surrey 2, Kent 2, Essex 3 and Essex 4 all on four points, although both Berkshire and Surrey 2 have a match in hand. Much, therefore, to play for in the second round of matches at Cippenham on February 20. Only Sussex 2’s Jack Bennett for the boys and Surrey’s Fei Fei Pei for the girls still have 100% records after the first day of matches.

Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary