Four Kidlington Forum teams competed in the 1st round of National Junior (Under 18) League (South) matches at Cippenham on Saturday, 20th October. Pride of place goes to the girls’ quartet, Kristelle Brook (14), Teisi Tamming, Chloe Yau and Vicky Coll (11), who defeated Ellenborough 7-2, Lingfield Notre Dame 9-0, Cippenham 7-2. Leading the way with 9/9 was Kristelle, winning them all 3-0.
The Boys’ A team had a harder time of it, going down to strong opposition in the form of Reading A (4-5) and Chiltern A (2-7), but held on well to pick up nine valuable points at the end of the day: every match won scores at NJL, so the 9-0 trouncing of Crusaders helped to soften the earlier blows. Overall Lewis Sumner won 7/9, and both Simon Price and Jonah Stott 4/9.
In Division 2, Niall Harris (14) played a captain’s role for the B team, taking a maximum 9/9. However his efforts were not enough to overcome Reading B in the first match, with only a solitary win from Ethan Ball (14) to support him. The next match, against Chiltern B, was equally close, but James Rowan squeezed out one win for a 5-4 victory. As with the A team, the opposition grew less fierce in the afternoon in a 9-0 demolition of Hillingdon. Ethan won 5/9 and James 4/9.
The C team, competing in the 3rd of the four divisions, provided one of the brightest spots of the day in beating Horsham Spinners C 9-0, Chiltern C 9-0 and Kingfisher 8-1. Newcomer Kavan Warrender (14) was something of a revelation, winning several games 11-0 and looking as though he is ready to move up to a higher division. He was well supported by Fabian Audifferen, Josh Selby (11) and Ben Neumeier.
All in all a good day, and wonderful for the Forum club to be able to field 14 juniors of such promise, with one or two of similar standard (Luke Jobling, Jamie Felton, Reuben Cox, Reece Chamdal) left at home!