14/15 MAY 2011
The last BATTS One Star Junior Open Tournament of season 2010/11 was held at the home of BATTS Table Tennis Club, the Norman Booth Centre, Old Harlow on 14/15 May with players coming from as far afield as Oxfordshire, Nottinghamshiire and Yorkshire to play despite the event being in the middle of the exam period.
In all the Boys events every player proceeded from the Group Stages into the Main or Consolation event KO stages. It was disappointing that there was only one Girls event which was a round robin and insufficient entries for the Under 13, 14 and 16 events.
Saturday started with the Under 16 Boy’s event. With 3 Groups of six players and one of five players, the only Group top seed not to win his Group was Ryan Williams and he was to lose in the first round of the KO stage to top seed and eventual winner Tyrone Wells 11, 10, -10, -12, 9. Ryan’s victor in the Group, Zachary Bull, went on th reach the final where he lost 5, 7, 3 to Tyrone.
The Consolation event was won by Alex Savva who defeated Karim Khassal -7, 9, 3, -4, 9. Karim had narrowly scraped through both quarter and semi-finals with 10 in the fifth and 11 in the fourth victories over Charlie McNally and Nathan Knowles respectively.
The afternoon event was the Under 16 Boys. The old saying ‘you don’t see buses for ages and then three arrive at once’ was certainly true. Two Groups of five players and three of six produced three Groups where three players in each Group had equal numbers of wins and losses and Group positions could only be arrived at on points countback. Tyrone Wells won this event as well defeating Surrey’s unseeded Mickel Miller 9, 8, -10, 7 in the final and Tyrone had earlier beaten him 3-1 at the Group stage. Tyrone had accounted for another Surrey player, George Harris, 3-1 in the semi whilst Mickel had beaten Karim Khassel 3-0 at the same stage.
In the Consolation event the victor was Mitchel Jones who defeated Shane Clark 8, 4, -11, 8. Mitchel had come back from 2-1 down to defeat Zachary Bull 10 in the fifth in the quarter final and another Zachary, Mandel, 10 in the third in the semi. Shane had been taken all the way to get past Nathan Knowles and Charlie Charalambous in his quarter and semi finals.
Sunday’s events started with the Under 13’s. the two Girl entrants joined the Boys for the event to become an Open event. Three Groups of six and one of five players. Alexander Gillen was the only top Group seed not to win. The top two seeds reached the final but it was won by the number two, Christian Gibson, who defeated Ryan Williams 5, 9, 9. Ryan had to come back from 2-0 down in his semi to defeat Alex Savva whilst Christian had a more comfortable 3-1 victory over Kleber Silva in his semi.
In the Consolation one of the two girls, Hiba Feredj, reached the semi final before losing to the eventual winner Marcus Hensher 6, 7, -8, 7. Marcus beat Bradley Smith 5, 10, 1 in the final after Bradley took five games to get past Charlie McNally in the semi.
The afternoon Boys event, the Under 15 Singles, was scheduled to have nine Groups, each of five players. The top two seeds failed to turn up and the fourth seed pulled out just before matches started so it was left to the number three and five seeds to contest the final. Neither had an easy journey to the final in what was now a more open event. Both had Zachary’s to play in the semis, Jack Josephs beat Mendel 5, 9, -5, -8, 6 and James Denyer beat Bull 7, -8, 9, -8, 4. The final between them was a classic rising to a crescendo at the end of the fifth game. James fought back from two games down and then 5-2 down at the change round in the fifth to lead 10-8. Jack retrieved these two points and eventually won 9, 6, -8, -10, 12. Of the long distance travellers Oxfordshire’s Lewis Sumner lost in the first round and Buck’s Oliver Thomas in the quarter final to Zachary Mandel.
In the Consolation final Essex’s Liam Williams defeated Hert’s Dale Millet 9, -9, 8, -8, 6. He had earlier beaten Yorkshire’s Adam Peng in the quarter final and then Nottinghamshire’s Terry Emmerson in the semi final. Dale had beaten Neil Mendosa -7, 5, -3, 10, 8 in his semi.
The Under 15 Girls event was a round robin of five, one girl having withdrawn through illness. Former Essex player Annabelle Gibson was the winner with Heba Feredj the runner up.
Arthur C. Clark
Essex Junior Match Secretary