The first round of North London Region National Junior League matches for 2018/19 was held at Ellenborough TTC, Enfield on Saturday 6 October 2018. Sixteen teams from eight Clubs (twelve teams last year) had entered, albeit four teams after the closing date. With a new Organiser it was decided to have four Divisions of four teams. Chelmsford entered two teams this season which were put in Divisions 2 and 4. The usual format of the Divisions was matches of nine games so that the players of each team played one another in their Division matches. Each Divisional pair of matches shared three tables.

The Chelmsford League have also entered two teams in the National Cadet event this season.

The second panic was teatime on the Friday evening from Harry Buckle’s mum at the hospital when she rang me to say that Harry would not be able to play the following day. Fortunately Danbury’s Ben Porter was able to play in Harry’s place. The first panic was that a number of players registered for the second team had also been entered in a tournament at BATTS Harlow by Adi Kamma as well as some of the players for both events had still not renewed their TTE Licences. With no current licence they would be unable to play. Thus the A Team comprised of Aidan Noguchi, Charlie Craig and Ben Porter whilst the B Team was Ben Jackson, Harry and Saul Chivers.

The A Team’s first match was against Elmgreen DTTC, a team that had not played at Ellenborough before and comprised the three Cordova’s, Juan, Danner and Emilio. A good start for the A Team with Aidan beating Juan 3-0 followed by Charlie’s fluctuating match against Danner which he won by the narrowest margin, 8-11, 11-7, 18-16, 5-11, 12-10. After losing the first two games to Emilio 8, 9 Ben won the third game11-6 but lost the fourth, Emilio winning a string of nets and edges. Charlie then lost to Juan having been 2-1 up and on the other table Aidan lost 3-0 to Emilio.  A more comfortable Ben then beat Danner in a close match 11-7, 13-11, 11-9 to open his account while Charlie lost to the undefeated Emilio 3-0 leaving the match score 4-3 to the opponents. Another close match for Ben, after winning the first game he lost the next three to Juan 13-15, 11-13, 9-11. On the other table Aidan came through a fluctuating match with Danner to win 11-5 in the final game and make the final score 4-5.  

Their next match was against Twickenham Brunswick A, another Club that had not played at Ellenborough before. Another close match in which four matches went the full distance and only one was won 3-0, Aidan’s opening match win over Morgan Wilkins. Charlie lost 3-1 to Harshil Shah and Ben, after three close games went on to win the next two 11-3, 11-5 to beat Arya Lim Amcri. Not satisfied with one five game win he went on to win his other two matches both 3-2 and 11-7 in the deciding games with Morgan and Harshil, a great performance. Sadly Charlie lost his other matches both 3-1 as did Aidan 3-1 to Harshil and by the strange score line of 11-1, 10-12, 12-10, 1-11, 11-4 to Arya. Another 4-5 defeat. 

The final match of the day was against the Table leaders Ellenborough B. In his first match Aidan won the first game against Richard Huang but lost the next three. Charlie and Ben both then won their matches against Emily Ravetto and Jackson McFarlane but both lost the third game. The team won the next four matches all 3-0 and Ben completed his second hat trick of the day to put the team 6-1 ahead. Against Jackson Aidan won the first game 11-6 but lost the three 9, 10, 10 so it was left to Charlie to come back from 2-0 down to beat Richard 9-11, 7-11 13-11, 11-2, 11-9 to win his first hat trick. However the umpire put the final game score the wrong way round and the error was picked up when game scores did not match the winner’s letter on the score sheet. Chelmsford and Twickenham finished at the head of the Table with the same number of points.  

DIVISION 2 TABLE

                                                 P          W         L          Pts

Twickenham Brunswick A      3          3          0          15

Chelmsford A                           3          1          2          15

Ellenborough B                        3          1          2          13

Elmgreen DTTC                        3          1          3          11

The B Team were placed in Division 4 and with some of the registered players playing in a Harlow Tournament Ben Jackson was drafted in and thus strengthen the team once he had renewed his TTE Licence on the Friday. Harry and Saul Chivers were the other two players. Their first match was against Mossford 3 who only had two players. In the opening match Ben was taken the full distance by Sandheep Benning eventually winning 10-12, 11-6, 6-11, 11-4, 11-4. With Harry defeating Kenneth Lan 3-1 and Saul receiving a concession the team were 3-0 up. It was soon 4-0 when Ben beat Kenneth 3-0. Saul lost both his matches 3-0 but with Harry beating Sandeep three straight and the three concessions a winning 7-2 start was achieved.

The Team then played Twickenham Brunswick C with Harry taken the whole way by Sihao Zhou before losing the opening match 9-11, 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8.  A good run followed, Saul beating Roya Lim Amcri 3-0 and Louis McPhee 3-1, Ben his three matches and Harry 3-0 over Roya to give the Team a 6-1 lead. Saul lost his last match to Sihao 12-10 in the fourth game but with Harry, a 3-0 winner over Louis, another 7-2 win.

Their last match was against Fusion TTC 2 with both teams leading the Division with 14 points so a close match was expected. In the event only two matches went to a fourth game. The Fusion team was Felix Jones, Mohammed Jonoyed Ahmed and Kevin Lou. A good start with Harry and Ben both winning their matches 3-0 but the Fusion players won the next three matches. The following two matches were shared, both won 3-0, and it was left to Harry and Ben to win the last two matches, both 3-0, over Kevin and Felix for a narrow 5-4 win.  

DIVISION 4 TABLE 

TABLES FOR THE TWO OTHER DIVISIONS ARE:

DIVISION 1 TABLE

Watford Jets                            3          3          0          20

Ellenborough A                       3          2          1          19

Mossford 1                              3          0          3        8

Woodford Wells 1                  3          1          2        7

DIVISION 3 TABLE 

Woodford Wells 2                   3          3          0          19

Fusion TTC 1                            3          2          1          17

Twickenham Brunswick 2     3          1          2          13

Mossford 2                              3          0          0            5

 
It is difficult to know whether there will be promotion and relegation between the Divisions. 

The next round will be three matches on Saturday 24 November and finishing time is likely to be about 3.30pm. 

Arthur C. Clark - Chelmsford Junior Match Secretary