NATIONAL CADET LEAGUE – 2006-2007

CHELMSFORD ‘A’ HANG ON TO THE RUNNERS UP POSITION DESPITE SETBACKS AND CHELMSFORD ‘B’ SNATCH THIRD PLACE WITH A STUNNING LAST MATCH WIN

The fourth and last round of National Cadet League matches was held at Stowupland near Stowmarket on Saturday 3rd March 2007. 

To comply with ETTA requirements that a Club with two teams in the same Division must play the match between them early in the last round of an event Chelmsford A and Chelmsford B had to play one another in the first match of the day. With Stevie Pell and Claire Austin unavailable James Austin was promoted from the number one position in the B Team to the number three position in the A Team. With each match played on two tables Kane Lambert played Matthew Davis simultaneously with Scott Dowsett playing Adam Pitt. After winning the first game 11-4 Adam took things too easily and lost the second 12-10. However, after a talking too by Big Brother Ryan he went on to win the next two 11-8, 11-7. Everyone could then watch the ding-dong on the other table. 11-7 to Kane, 11-3 to Matthew, 11-9 to Kane, Matthew levelled it at 11-9. point for point in the fifth to 8-8, then two match points to Kane clawed back by Matthew, match points for both players before Matthew won 15-13. 2-0 to the A Team. In the next pair of matches Adam quickly demolished Kane 4, 3 and 5. The match on the other table between Brandon Crouchman and James Austin was another match to ebb and flow, James saving three game points to win the first 13-11, Brandon carrying all before him in the second 11-2, third to James 11-7, fourth to Brandon 11-6. However James was getting more and more uptight in the fifth and after leading 8-7 Brandon’s two winners led to a warning to James about his behaviour. A further winning point from Brandon and unacceptable behaviour from James led to his removal from the court and no further part in the days play. Brandon completed the match with a 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 15-13 win over Matthew and with James’s concession to Scott the match was drawn. The question now was could Adam and Matthew win enough games in the remaining four matches for the A Team to hang on to second place and what assistance could the B Team give. By this time Sarah Austin, who had also come along, had gone shopping with mum in Bury St. Edmunds. A quick mobile phone call, a dash by Ian to Bury and back and she could be back in time to play in the last three matches, alas not quick enough to play in the next match for the A Team against bottom team Stowmarket B. Adam and Matthew won their four matches quickly with the opposition only managing to get more than four points in one of the twelve games played. Sarah arrived back just as the A Team’s game against Stowmarket A was about to start. A difficult match since Stowmarket’s number one Josh Broadbent had only lost one match in the previous three rounds. Although Adam and Matthew both took a game off him, Josh ran up two more wins. Adam beat Becky McIntyre three straight and Matthew came back from 2-1 down to beat Martin West, son of former Chelmsford League player Tony West, in five. Sarah lost both her games but did manage 9 points in the third against Martin so the match was lost 2-4. The A Team now had only an 8 point lead over their opponents with two tough matches to come. However in the next match against Bury St. Edmunds Adam and Matthew won both their matches, two of them at deuce in the fourth, for a 4-2 win. With Stowmarket losing 4-2 to NETTS the A Team were assured of second place. In the last match of the day against NETTS Their only win was achieved by Matthew’s win over Luke Tarrant 11-13, 11-4, 11-9, 11-13, 11-8. Sarah also played well against Luke, losing 9-11, 9-11, 3-11.

After their draw with the A Team the B Team lost 5-1 to League winners NETTS, Scott Dowsett winning the last game against Luke Tarrant 11-4, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6 after Brandon had lost in five to Luke and Kane had taken a game off Phillip Lawson. In the next match against Bury St. Edmunds the B Team were unlucky to lose 4-2, three matches being lost close in the fifth by Kane and Scott. Brandon won both his games for the teams two wins. At this stage the B Team were second bottom, 3 points and 9 points respectively below the two teams above them. The next match against bottom team was a straightforward 6-0 win to enable them to climb above Bury St. Edmunds, but Bury had Stowmarket B to play and the B Team had Stowmarket A to play with top player Josh Broadbent. The opening two games were nail biting crackers with five setters finally going Chelmsford’s way, Kane coming back from two games down and beating Becky McIntyre 10-12, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 12-10 whilst Scott achieved the win of the series by beating Josh Broadbent 11-9, 9-11, 15-13, 9-11, 12-10. Josh was heard to disappear down the adjacent corridor knocking hell out of the wall with his bat and failing to appear for his next match. Following these two deuce matches Brandon was involved in another deuce match, beating Martin West 10-12, 12-10, 9-11, 11-4, 12-10. With no Josh, Kane was awarded that game, Brandon defeated Becky 8, 9 and 8 and Scott ended on a high note after his previous magnificent win by making the scoreline a 6-0 team win by defeating Martin West 11-8, 12-14, 17-15, 11-4.

 

Averages over the four rounds of matches:

A Team -   Adam Pitt 29 wins out of 40 matches, 72.5%, Claire Austin 15 out of 20, 75%, Matthew Davis 27 out of 40, 67.5%

B Team -   James Austin 7 wins out of 16 matches, 43.75%, Kane Lambert 15 out of 33, 45.45%, Scott Dowsett 16 out of 33, 48.48%, Brandon Crouchman 23 out of 36, 63.88%

The Final Table reads:

Team	P	W	D	L	Pts
NETTS	20	17	3	0	92
Chelmsford A	20	10	6	4	74
Chelmsford B	20	7	5	8	64
Bury St. Edmunds	20	8	3	9	63
Stowmarket A	20	7	5	8	63
Stowmarket B	20	0	0	20	4