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Monday
9 May 2005

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IT'S A KNOCKOUT!

For the first time in 10 years the League Junior KO Cup has been snatched from the hands of the Essex County Council (ECC) Table Tennis Club. And in truly emphatic style. In fact for the 13 times that the Junior KO Cup has been played for up to this year, ECC had won the trophy 12 times. Including the last 10 times consecutively. But this year it was the turn of Baddow Village. The Junior A Team of Rykki Vansertima, Haydn Upson and Sam Pitt,  trounced the ECC trio of Tom Hill, Lorna Staff and Tommy O'Donnell, 5:0. This must count as one of the biggest cup shocks in recent years. On paper the match looked to be finely balanced. And indeed the opening doubles, only decided in the fifth end, suggested it could be very close. But some of the players looked well below par as Lorna & Tommy surrendered a 2:1 lead to Rykki & Sam who looked equally out of sorts. Not so Haydn, who put in a blistering display to oust the ECC No.1, Tom Hill, 3 straight in the first singles. Rykki and Sam dispensed the same fate to Lorna and Tommy in their respective singles encounters, although Sam did let an end slip. This left ECC with a mountain to climb. And Rykki & Haydn, Baddow's top junior doubles pair, suitably completed the victory with a fine 3:1 win over Tom & Lorna to give the Club its first taste of success in this competition. A magnificent win.

The Club has a very good record in the League Handicap KO Cup. And this year has again been no exception. The B Team led by Club Coaching Officer Neil Gooday faced a combined 2nd and 4th division side from Danbury in the Final. The Baddow team was Neil, Waseem Qureshi and Andrew Orme. Adrian Pitt had also featured in the line up but injury meant he was not available for the final. Fortunately Waseem was able to return to fill the gap. In the opening match of the evening Andrew appeared completely unphased on such a stage against senior players. He made maximum use of his +10 handicap and showed just how much he has improved over the season despatching Nicky Rees-Ford (-22) 21:4, 21:13. More of the same was to follow as Waseem made light of his -27 handicap to close out Dave Oxley-Goody 19, 16. A slight hiccup in the third saw Neil lose out to Brian Ellis over 3 ends 14, -15, -10, but then Andrew raced back with another demolition job on Dave Goody 4, 15. Neil did manage to taste success against Nicky Ford before Waseem concluded the match in a hard won -15, 15, 15 fight against Brian Ellis to give Baddow a 5:1 victory.   

The Club were not quite so successful in the Final of the 6Down KO Cup. Perhaps surprised to reach the final the team of Rykki Vansertima, Haydn Upson and Phil Twite faced the divisional runners-up Writtle - to whom they had lost twice in the League. The boys still don't seem to be able to play out these ace defenders and despite wins for Phil and Haydn over Kevin Barber the match went to Writtle 5:2.