Ryan Gooday - undefeated for Champions Chelmsford A

Chelmsford A are the 2016 Central Essex Summer Table Tennis League Champions and they won the title in some style amassing 22 points out of 30. They also won all six of their matches and in Ryan Gooday they had the League’s outstanding player. Ryan won all of his 10 singles. Ryan showed up particularly well in Chelmsford’s 4-1 win over Galleywood where he beat Gary Brignall 11-5, 11-9, 11-8 and James Hicks 11-9, 11-4, 11-3. He also excelled against OCs A where he defeated Daniel Berry 11-8, 11-8, 12-10 and Peter Windley 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-2. In the match between the first and second placed sides Chelmsford beat Danbury A 3- 2. Gooday was again to the fore and he beat Steve Buer 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5 and Chris Buer by an impressive 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 margin. Over the course of the Season Ryan received excellent support from Paul Nicol who won six out of his 10 singles. Danbury A (Steve Buer and Chris Buer) finished second with 18 points ahead of Rayne A, who also scored 18 points. Chris Buer was Danbury’s top performer with six wins out of 10 whilst Steve Pennell (six wins out of six) was unbeaten for Rayne. Pennell showed his battling qualities against OCs beating Daniel Berry 5-11, 11-9, 17-15, 11-3 and  Peter Windley 10-12, 11-4, 11-7, 11-5. The improving Peter Windley impressed in this match by scoring an excellent 18-16, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8 win over Adam Buxton. 5-0 results were few and far between but Galleywood were one of the teams who did achieve the “maximum” win. James Hicks and Gary Brignall gave nothing away as they whitewashed Ramsden A 5-0. Hicks defeated the hard-hitting Gary Ward 11-6, 11-4, 11-9 whilst Brignall overcame Gary Ward 11-8, 10-12, 5-11, 11-7, 11-5.

Writtle A (Matthew Brown and Hector Rogers) were runaway winners of division two scoring a massive 27 points out of 30. Matthew Brown won all 11 singles he played with Hector Rogers returning a win rate of eight singles out of 11. Their only really closely contested match, a 3-2 victory  was against second placed Buttsbury A, who were clear runners-up with 20 points. Matthew Brown had to pull out all the stops to get the better of Paul Sturton 9-11, 11-9, 11-3, 6-11, 14-12 whilst Sturton was a four-games winner over Hector Rogers where he
came out on top 11-7, 7-11, 11-4, 12-10. Paul Sturton with nine wins out of 12 was Buttsbury A’s best player and they excelled against Danbury C where they won 5-0. Sturton was on “electric form” downing the challenges of Herbie Smith (11-7, 11-3, 11-5) and Dave Marsh (11-2, 11-9, 11-6). Buttsbury A were pushed
to beat OCs B 3-2. Ashton Parker showed up well for the Old Chelmsfordians side and he beat Louis Brown 11-2, 11-5, 11-7 and he also pushed Paul Sturton “to the brink” before succumbing 11-6, 8-11, 7-11, 11-6, 10-12. Danbury B ran out 3-2 winners against Ramsden B. Dan Anderson defeated Neil Freeman by a nail-biting 11-8, 3-11, 11-8, 5-11, 18-16 margin and suitably fired up he breezed past Colin Barham 11-5, 11-5, 11-5. Danbury D won a close match against OCs B 3-2. David Gatherall won twice and he defeated Ashton Parker (8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9) and if that wasn‘t tight enough, he went on to get the better of Tom Barker 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10.        

OCs C took the third division title with 23 points out of 30, and Dave Porter was their talisman staying undefeated in his 12 singles. They had a healthy four point cushion over Chelmsford C. When these two sides met in week two it was OCs who came out on top 4-1, with Porter coming out on top over five ends against Jaroslaw Pietraszuk 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7. Mike Hayes also showed up well with a 11-5, 11-2, 12-10 win over Jason Clark. OCs completed their fixtures with a 3-2 victory over Chelmsford B. This time Porter had to
pull out all the stops to get the better of Mick Richardson 11-8, 5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9 - quite a battle.  Richardson had previously seen off Mike Hayes 7-11, 11-4, 11-8, 5-11, 11-9. Richard Baxter, excelled with a record of 90 % and he played well to lead Chelmsford D to a 3-2 win over Chelmsford C. Baxter beat Jaroslaw Pietraszuk narrowly 12-10, 13-11, 11-8 and Jason Clark 11-8, 14-12, 11-2. Felsted RBL A were 3-2 winners over Chelmsford B. Ian Butler was their match-winner and he beat Mick Richardson (11-7, 7-11, 11-5, 11-7) and Dave Parker (11-6, 11-2, 6-11, 11-9). Rayne B finished bottom but they had the satisfaction of beating OCs D 3-2. Dave Moles, that most prolific of Marathon runners showed all his tenacity and stamina as he  defeated Dave Newman 11-9, 9-11, 7-11, 14-12, 11-9 and Farooq Ahmed 11-8, 12-14, 11-8, 6-11, 11-8. Dave Allison was also
a five-game winner and he overcame Ahmed 11-8, 11-13, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8.

Writtle B (26 points) are the division four Champions and their four-man team of Tom Griffiths (87.5 %), Robert Garson (100 %), Colin Griffiths (83 %) and David Meah (75 %) all played notable roles in their success. However, despite this level of consistency they only captured the title in their last fixture when they beat  Chelmsford F 4-1. Colin Griffiths was a four game winner over Sarah Austin and he also prevailed in five games against Ian Austin. Chelmsford G had a hard-fought 3-2 win over Chelmsford E. Victor Chan perhaps not unsurprisingly won twice for the E side beating John Wickins 11-3, 11-6, 11-9 and Ian Austin 11-4, 8-11, 11-3, 14-12. Butsbury beat OCs E 3-2. Matthew Elliott won twice and he defeated Steve Pratt (11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 5-11, 11-7) and Harry Rogers (11-4, 6-11, 11-8, 13-11). Buttsbury C ran out 4-1 winners over Chelmsford G. Andy Pepper and Alan Toffs took all four singles against John Wickins and Charles de Havilland but managed to lose the doubles in five ends.  Bottom side OCs E lost 5-0 to the eventual Champions Writtle B but they made  a very creditable showing with both Harry Rogers and Adam Chalk taking games off the more experienced duo of Robert Garson and Tom Griffiths.    

Norman Smith, the Chelmsford League President is standing down in his role as League Chairman and  fittingly he was a third time recipient of the League’s Rosebery / Pope & Smith Award, the League’s Award to acknowledge service to the Sport. Norman was also a somewhat surprised and delighted recipient of the
County’s equivalent Award  - the Corti Woodcock Memorial Award at the County’s AGM and Steve Kerns - the Chairman of the County‘s Awards Committee “thanked him for his continued hardwork, enthusiasm and dedication to the Chelmsford League for what is approaching 30 years“.  Norman will be replaced as Chelmsford League Chairman by Dave Porter (OCs) although he is staying on as an active League President.

There was global success for two former Chelmsford Mens Singles Champions in the 2016 World Veterans Table Tennis Championships played in Alicante in Spain in May. Lorestas Trumpauskas was a brilliant winner of the Mens Over 40s Doubles,  and paired with Dimitriy Abramenko (Israel) they defeated the Russian pairing of Aleksandr Savelev and Georgi Rubinshtein in the Final. Neil Charles another former Chelmsford Mens Singles winner, and paired with his usual partner Tom Cutler (London) took the Bronze medal in this event from a massive field of well over 1,000 competitors. 

Steve Kerns
Press & Publicity Officer
Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League