County Cadet Championships Day 2 Gainsborough Saturday 17^th December (Division 1 b)

Lincolnshire v Warwickshire (5-5)

 Warwickshire sent five cadets (3 boys and 2 girls) to the second and final day of the county cadet championships held at Blitz ttc in Gainsborough. The opening match was against a strong Lincolnshire side which they drew 5-5 against. The two boys Ricardo Bolanos (Warwickshire’s no 1) and Nikit Sajiv (Warks no 2 ) were victorious in all their singles matches. Bolanos defeated Henry Walshe (Lincolnshire’s no 2) in straight sets and then went on to beat Luke Nimmo (Lincolnshire’s no 1) in a tight tussle which Bolanos overcame in 4 sets. Sajiv impressively defeated Nimmo in straight sets and dispatched Aalhad Kulkarni (Lincolnshire no 3)  in routine fashion. The Lincolnshire girl’s duo were particularly strong with Darcie Proud (Lincolnshire no 1) ranked 9^th in the country in cadets and Alex Robinson (Lincolnshire no 2) also highly ranked. The Warwickshire girls were always going to find it tough but they gave it their best efforts, Milly Green (Warks no 2) went down in straight sets to Darcie whilst Emily Beasley (Warks no 1) also suffered the same fate. Robinson also defeated Beasley in straight sets but Green took Robinson to the limits. After trailing 2-0 Green levelled the match at 2-2 but it was not to be as Robinson took the 5^th game 5. A valiant effort by Green. This left Dan Burgess (Warks no 3) to face off against Aalhad in another fascinating match. Aalhad led 2-1 but Dan took the fourth set and then went on to grab a very important point for Warwickshire by winning the fifth game 6. This put Warwickshire 5-4 up knowing that another point would give them victory. However, this was not to be despite Burgess showing his resilience from coming back from 2-0 down to Henry Walshe he could not stop the Lincolnshire no 2 seed from winning the final set game 7 and thus concluding to a 5-5 draw.

Cambridgeshire v Warwickshire (5-5)

Up next for Warwickshire was Cambridgeshire and they followed up this result as they did the first with a very credible 5-5 draw. Bolanos took down Kamran Bastani (Cambridgeshire no 2) in straight sets. He added to this a scintillating performance against Daniel Hearn Poton (Cambs no 1) again winning in three including one set which was game 0. Nikit Sajiv continued his blistering form defeating Dan in straight sets and then going on to beat Mathew Pryke (Cambs no 3) also in three. One of the Cambridgeshire girls Sophie Chiang (Cambs no 1 ) was ranked 4^th and 21^st in the country in under 13’s and cadets respectively. Milly lost to Sophie in straight sets but one of the sets went 16-14 to Sophie showing Green’s determination. Emily also went down in three to Sophie but the first leg in particular was very tight. Dan Burgess lost to Kamran Bastani in straight sets but it could not have been closer 10,9 and 10 in favour of Bastani. Dan then lost to Mathew in 4 sets again the scores being very close. Chloe Pryke and Emily Beasley were involved in a classic encounter which was decided in the fifth going to Cambridgeshire’s no 2. Warwickshire were now 5-4 down knowing they needed the next match to rescue a draw. It was up to Milly Green to save the day. It didn’t start off too great with Chloe winning the opening set, before Green equalised in deuce. Chloe then regained her advantage to lead 2-1 before Green turned on the after burners to win the next two games 4 and 3 to gain the second consecutive 5-5 draw.

Warwickshire v Norfolk (8-2)

After being away in the first two fixtures, Warwickshire were at home to Norfolk in the next match which they emphatically won 8-2. Nikit Sajiv yet to taste defeat won his two singles matches, defeating Edward Horton (Norfolk no 3) in straight sets and then going the distance against Bradley Burgess (Norfolk no 1) in a topsy turvy 5 set match before clinching the fifth game 3. Bolanos added another singles win against Alfie Nicholls in three and then seemed to be in complete control against Bradley Burgess 2-0 up and playing with confidence before Burgess staged an unlikely comeback taking the next three legs 10, 9 and 9 to inflict Bolanos first defeat. Luck was certainly not on Bolanos side but credit must be given to Burgess. The Warwickshire girl’s duo got their campaign under way in this fixture. Beasley winning her first match against Darcy Brewer (Norfolk no 2) and then following this up with a frantic 5 set match against Ella Barnard (Norfolk no 1) which went in favour of Beasley notching the decider game 3. Milly Green also did her part beating Darcy Brewer in four after losing the first game but could not add to this against Ella as she proved too strong and defeated Green in three. The win was already assured for Warwickshire but they wanted more and Dan Burgess stepped up to win his brace of singles. First defeating Edward Horton in straight sets before claiming an impressive victory in 5 sets against Alfie Nicholls. This resulted in a memorable victory for Warwickshire with one final fixture to be played.

Durham v Warwickshire (6-4)

Warwickshire’s final match of the county cadet championships was against Durham. At this stage Durham already knew they had won the championships but for Warwickshire final positions were still at stake so all to play for. Bolanos bounced back after his only defeat to win his two singles against Jamie Peacock (Durham no 2 seed) in four sets and Callum Mcrae (Durham no 1) in three. Nikit Sajiv was leading 2-0 against Troy Maddison (Norfolk no 3) before Troy conceded due to injury. Sajiv then took on Callum and went 2-0 down before levelling the match at 2-2. The final game could have gone either way but it was Callum who triumphed 14-12 to inflict Sajiv’s only defeat. Erin Greensmith (Durham no 1) defeated Milly Green in three with all the games being really close. Erin then went onto comprehensively defeat Emily Beasley. At this point Warwickshire were looking very leggy after a long day’s play. Beasley then narrowly lost out against Katie Wray (Durham no 2) in yet another 5 set match which Katie won game 9 in the decider. Dan Burgess lost to Troy Maddison and Jamie Peacock both in four sets and both where the games were very close. Although Warwickshire had lost this match, Milly Green produced a phenomenal performance to take down Katie Wray in straight sets winning 9,9 and 10. Final result going to Durham with a 6-4 victory.

Warwickshire ended up in 4^th out of 8 counties over the two days. The winners were Durham, followed by Lincolnshire in second and Staffordshire in third. It was truly an honour to captain the Warwickshire county cadet team and the whole squad were brilliant to work with. There table tennis was fantastic and their attitude was spot on. More than anything else the support for each other was remarkable.

Ricardo Bolanos (played 14 won 12) 85% winning average

Nikit Sajiv (played 14 won 12) 85% winning average

Dan Burgess (played 12 won 5) 41% winning average

Joshua Yarrow (played 2 won 2) 100% winning average

Emily Beasley (played 14 won 5) 35% winning average

Milly Green (played 14 won) 35% winning average

Final Table