NATIONAL JUNIOR LEAGUE 2010/11

LONDON NORTH REGION

A GOOD DAY FOR CHELMSFORD’S NATIONAL JUNIOR LEAGUE TEAMS

The second round of National Junior League matches, London North Region, was held at the Ellenborough Club, Enfield on Saturday 27 November. There were to be four rounds of matches to be played but both Chelmsford teams would have a bye and sit out for one of the rounds. With four rounds to play all of the matches would be played on two tables.

The A Team’s first match was against Ellenborough B, a team six points behind Chelmsford, the leaders after the first round, but with a match in hand. Robert Shrimpton and James Austin were joined by Mark Smith and the team opened up with a 9-0 win against Jordan Anderson, Sam Wilson and Arit Ahmed. Closest match was Robert’s match against Jordan where he came back from 10-6 down in the fifth game to win 9-11, 12-10, 11-5, 8-11, 16-14 and put the team 8-0 up. His other two matches were both won 3-0. Mark only dropped one game, to Arit, whilst James dropped two, to Sam and Arit.

The second round of matches was the A Team’s bye so they had to wait until after the lunch break to start the third round. This match was against TT on Sea A, the team that won the Division last year but now without Owen Warren who has a Saturday job. Mark started with a 13-11 win in the fourth against Kieran Skeggs whilst Robert had an easy 3-0 win over Essex Junior third team girl Emily Godfrey. James then let a 2-0 lead slip before beating Charlie Bates 14-12, 11-9, 11-13, 6-11, 11-7. The A Team finished with an 8-1 win, Robert losing three straight to Charlie, James needing four games to beat both Kieran and Emily and Mark winning his other two matches 3-0.

Their last match of the day was against Ellenborough A who had moved up to second equal in the Table, but 10 points behind Chelmsford. Mark’s toughest matches of the day, opening with a five game win over Ryan Gaveglia and finishing with a close 3-0 win over Beau Durman. Once again James opened up a 2-0 lead, over Beau, only to be pegged back by the loss of the next two close games before sailing through the fifth for a 11-7, 11-5, 12-14, 9-11, 11-3 win. His other two wins were easily achieved over Ryan and the other Ryan - Williams. Robert won his fist two matches, dropping only one game to Beau but found Ryan Gaveglia a much tougher proposition, finally winning 11-3, 10-12, 11-6, 9-11, 11-0.

For the B Team Emily Knight went down ill on the eve of the match but fortunately Sarah Austin had recovered from the illness that prevented her playing in the previous round. Their first match was against Ellenborough E who, after the first round of matches, were equal bottom of Division 2 but only one point behind the B Team. In the opening two matches Sarah had an easy 3-0 win over Mustafa Findik but Chris Denyer soon found himself 2-1 down to Dace Mitlett before taking the last two games to win 6 in the fifth. Rebecca also followed in her brother’s footsteps to come from 2-1 down to beat Joel Bustiki and in her next match she was 2-1 up against Dace before winning with the same scoreline as Chris in the fifth. In her last match she held her nerve to beat Mustafa in a very close game 9, -7. 10, 9. Meanwhile Sarah won her other two matches 3-0 and with Chris winning his last match 3-0 a 9-0 win was a great start to the day and a delighted Rebecca over the moon with her first hat trick of wins.

Their second match was against TT on Sea B who were to finish in second place at the end of the day. Chris lost the first game to Bede Kelly to 9 and won the next three 2, 8 and 6. Sarah, 2-1 down to Elliot Treglohan took the last two games 3 and 5 for an opening 2-0 lead. Rebecca lost 3-0 to Behn Taylor but after Chris baet Elliot 3-0 Rebecca added to the Chelmsford scoreline with a three straight win over Bede, albeit 12-10 in that third game. Sarah gave her team the win with a nail biting 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 12-10 effort over Behn and two matches later Chris beat him 3-1. Bede managed to keep the scoreline to 6-3 when winning a very close last match against Sarah -6, 11, 10, 9. A good win.

The Chelmsford Team now had a rest with the bye before the last round match against Barnet TTC. With confidence from their previous two wins the B Team opened up a 6-0 lead but this was much tougher than it sounds. Although Sarah beat Danny Waxkirsh 3-0 and Chris beat Sasha Somers by the same score Rebecca had to come back from 2-0 down to Chris Clifford to win -9, -7, 8, 5, 10 and in her next match , after agonisingly losing the first game 18-16 to Danny, to win  6, 6, -5, 7. Sarah also had to comeback from 2-0 down to beat Sasha and went on to win her last match against Chris with three 4’s. for the team’s 8-1 win.

The third round of matches is on Saturday 29 January 2011 when there will be four rounds of matches to play with each match to be played on two tables. The last round of three matches will be played on Saturday 26 March. A decision will now be made as to whether or not there will be any promotion or relegation between the two Divisions. It looks as though Mossford ought to be promoted but with the bottom three teams in Division 1 all winning one match it will be difficult to relegate any one of these.

DIVISION 1.  Mark Smith 9 out of 9, James Austin 9 out of 9, Robert Shrimpton 8 out of 9.

DIVISION 2  Chris Denyer 9 out of 9, Sarah Austin 8 out of 9, Rebecca Denyer 6 out of 9.

Full Results

                        Division 1                                                                                Division 2

Current Tables positions

                        Division 1                                                                                            Division 2

                                    P          W         L          Pts                                                                   P          W         L          Pts

Chelmsford A              6          6          0          44                                Mossford                     6          6          0          45

TT on Sea A                6          4          2          31                                TT on Sea B                6          4          2          33

Ellenborough B           6          5          1          27                                Chelmsford B              6          3          3          31

Ellenborough A           6          3          3          25                                Ellenborough C           6          4          2          28

Three E’s                     6          1          5          23                                Ellenborough D           6          3          3          28

Watford Jets               6          1          5          21                                Barnet                         6          1          5          13

BATTS                        6          1          5          18                                Ellenborough E           6          0          6            11

Arthur C. Clark

Chelmsford League Junior Match Secretary