|
Pictured
before the start; from left to right - Baddow Village
A - Sam Pitt, Haydn Upson & Rykki Vansertima;
Match Official, C&DTTL Junior Match Secretary
Arthur Clark; Baddow Village B - Phil Twite, Laura
Pyman & Bradley Hudgell. |
But would the A Team be able
to hold onto the cup? That was the question. And with both
teams bringing along a small group of supporters there was
no shortage of views either way.
Match official
Arthur Clark (The League's Junior Match Secretary) called
order promptly at 7.30 and invited the team managers to call
for which team would be home and which away. Richard Upson
for the A Team won the toss and decided the A Team would
play away! So, it was the unlikely combination of Laura and
Phil for the B side who took the table first in the opening
doubles against Haydn & Sam. Laura decided to play with
her new long pimpled bat potentially making life difficult
for her partner and being untried in match play it seemed a
doubtful decision against a strong pair. And things started
well for the A side, but after two very close ends they were
2:0 down. And when Laura and Phil romped home in the third
for a 3:0 victory it looked as if it might be a tough call
for the A Team to hold onto the title.
Things looked
even bleaker after the next three singles. Bradley
dispensing of Rykki 3:0, Laura coming through 3:1 against
Haydn and then arguably the best match of the night with
Phil taking on Sam. For two ends Sam seemed stage struck
allowing Phil to race into the lead. But with some power
hitting in the third and a little nervousness from Phil, Sam
struck back to level the match at 2:2. With great discipline
Phil kept his head and went straight out to steady work at
the start of the last end. A combination of short and long
play and some excellent backhands forced mistakes from Sam
as Phil strode home 11:2 in the last end to give the B Team
a 4:0 lead.
Surely this was
the end of the match as Bradley & Laura stepped up for
the next doubles against Haydn & Rykki. But early on it
seemed that Bradley & laura were struggling to play for
each other. This, and some clever forehand top spin from
Haydn against the long pimples followed by some excellent
winners from Rykki saw the A team back in the match with a
1:3 victory.
Singles wins
then followed for Rykki, defeating Phil over 4 very closely
contested ends, and Sam also winning over 4 ends against
Laura - in what was perhaps the battle of the two most
immobile players of the night! The match score now stood at
4:3 and the nerves were starting to show!
But ice cool
Bradley showed no such sign of nerves in the battle of the
No.1's dashing through the first two ends against Haydn 7
& 2. Haydn picked himself up in the third to score a
very creditable 11:13 win but only to see Bradley blast back
in the 4th with a convincing 11:3 display.
Game, set and
match to the B Team. An excellent display of the best in
junior table tennis from both sides and in the end a close
run match. Match Official Arthur Clark presented the
trophies on behalf of the League to generous applause from
the small crowd of spectators.
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Rykki,
Haydn and Sam - the A Team -with their runners-up
awards |
|
Match
Official, Arthur Clark, presents the B Team - Bradley,
Laura & Phil - with
the Junior KO Cup and their winners medals after their
5:3 victory over the A Team. |
