The first round of North London Region National Junior League matches for 2016/17 was held at Ellenborough TTC, Enfield on Saturday 15 October 2016. Sixteen teams from eight Clubs (fifteen teams last year) had entered, thus two divisions of eight teams. Chelmsford again entered two teams with one team being put in each Division. The format of both divisions was matches of nine games so that the players of each team played one another in their Division matches. Generally two matches shared three tables,

Again Chelmsford were unable to enter a Cadet Team this season (most of the cadets play football on Sundays) This season the intended Junior players were to come from the Chelmsford, Old Chelmsfordians and Felsted Clubs. However Adam Chalk had to pull out of the B Team when he found out that his School mock GCE Exams were to be held on the Saturday and eventually Galleywood’s 12 year old Aidan Noguchi took Adam’s place in the B Team. Then Harrison Matthews had to withdraw a few days beforehand from the A Team but as I could find no reserve the A Team had to play with two players.

The A Team’s first match was against Fusion 1 and a nervous Matthew Laws lost his opening match 3-0 to Daniel Nzekwe. Connor Payne then squeezed a narrow tough win over Stephen Domingo 10, 9, -10, 14 and he went on to beat Hugo Dodd 7, -11. -6, 9, 5, but lost to Daniel 3-1. Sadly Matthew lost his other two matches 3-0, not a good start on his debut.

Against BATTS 1 Matthew lost 3-0 to the higher ranked Essex George Campbell. Then after losing the first two games to the rapidly improving Essex girl Jaz Harvey, Connor got his forehand going to take the next three games. Having seen what Connor could do Matthew gave Jaz no chance winning 6, 3, 7 and he went on to beat Te Steward 14-12 in the fourth game. Connor had already beaten Te 3-1 and he came back from 10-6 down in the third game with the higher ranked George to win that game and with it the match 5-4.

Match of the day from the Chelmsford players was the opening match between Matthew and the Warren Springs A team player Charlie Shepherd with some fantastic full blooded back from the table rallies and retrievals between the two players culminating in a deciding game with both players having match points and Matthew losing 13-11 after having won the first two games. Connor, who had played well all day won his three matches although he had to come back from 2-1 down to beat Charlie. His other two wins against Daniel Emery and Thomas Ronayne were both 3-0. Matthew finished with a hard fought 3-0 win over Daniel after having lost to Thomas following the loss of a 2-0 lead once again. Final match score 4-5

A Team. Connor Payne 8 out of 9: Matthew Laws 3 out of 9.

The B Team’s first match was against BATTS 2 with Jamie Penkman and Harry Rogers playing the opening two matches, Jamie losing to Charlie Read 10, 7, 7 and Harry Rogers totally outclassed by Finley Cameron-Prior. Aidan then made his debut against Jake Harvey and what a close match this was. Just nudging the first two games he closely lost the next two so the match went to a deciding game. Close all the way he had to save a couple of match points to finally win 12, 9, -8, -11, 11 and open the B Teams account. Subsequently Jamie and Harry both beat Jake 3-1 in four very close games and Aidan lost his other two matches 3-0 for the Team’s 3-6 defeat.

For the next match they played Fusion 3. Jamie won his opening match with Ricardo Parsons 10,, 9, 4 whilst Aidan lost 3-0 to Ivan Berdnikov. The Team went 2-1 up when Harry beat Emeka Ohanekwu 9,8,7. Five of the next six matches went to a deciding game and Chelmsford only won one of them. Aidan won the one against Emeka 11-5 after losing the first two games whilst Jamie lost 11-7 to Ivan and 13-11 to Emeka after being 2-1 up in both matches and Harry 12-10 to Ricardo. Harry also lost 3-0 to Ivan after failing to take three chances to take the match to a fourth game. Thus a 3-6 defeat and so close to a win.

For the last round of matches Harry had to leave by 2.00pm for a family commitment. With the schedule running half an hour late and with the co-operation of the Warren Springs C team Harry was able to play one match instead of the hoped for two. Harry won that match against George Thorn 16-14 in the third game. Jamie beat Panduka Meth Wijeyekoon 3-1 but the Teams player of the match was Aidan, defeating George 3-0, Maddie Whitley 10, 7, -10, -7, 9 and Panduka -9, 4, -10, 9, 15, coming back from 8-4 down in the decider after Jamie had lost his other two matches, 6-11 in the decider with George and -7, 10, 10, 2 to Maddie. A great finish to end the day with a 5-4 win.

B Team Harry Rogers 3 out of 7, Jamie Penkman 3 out of 9 and Aidan Noguchi 5 out of 9.

The next round will be four matches on Saturday 26 November and finishing time is likely to be between 5.30 and 6.00pm.

For Division 1 they will have Graham Spicer, Barnet, Mossford A and Ellenborough A to play
For Division 2 they will have Mossford B, Fusion 2, Ellenborough B and Warren Springs B to play.

A decision will be made after completion of the next round of matches as to whether there will be any promotion and relegation between the Divisions.

Looking back over the days play it would appear likely that Graham Spicer will retain the Division 1 Title they won last year and I cannot remember the last time (if ever) that I saw an Ellenborough A team at the bottom of the table.

Connor had an excellent day in Division 1 as did reserve Aidan in Division 2 and a tired looking Aidan was looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Matthew was involved in some terrific rallies in his matches and could have won a couple more matches. Jamie admitted afterwards that his forehand shots were not as consistent as is usually the case.

Harrison Matthews and Adam Chalk should be available to play in the next round of matches. With a long days play to come in the next two rounds I think Aidan has earned the right to stay in the B Team so we rotate the four players on the day.

Arthur C. Clark
Chelmsford Junior Match Secretary