Leagues
North
Middlesex Table Tennis
League
Closed
Tournament 2008/9
This annual
event was contested
at the Ellenborough Table Tennis Club in Enfield on four evenings
during the
week commencing 16th February 2009.
On the first
evening the Handicap
Singles, the Hard Bat Singles and the Division 3 and 4 Singles were
played. The
Handicap Singles was a chance for the lesser lights to defeat the
top-ranking
League players, given anything up to a 9-point start. Nobody really
achieved
this and, in fact, Sameer Patel of the Edmonton Club and Eddy Grant of
Middlesex University both got through awkward Round 1 matches in which
they had
to give an opponent such a start. These two players then fought out the
Final
with Sameer being the winner.
The
Division 3 and 4 Singles saw
only one leading player from the higher division taking part, namely
John
Fitzgerald from Tottenham 1. He remained unbeaten and won the event,
although
he had to battle past Division 4’s leading player, Ian
Herriott
of Bounds Green
2 in his group as a 3-1 winner before Nicholas Evangelou from the
Bounds Green
club took him all the way in the Semi-Final, John just winning by 11/7,
10/12,
8/11, 11/6, 11/7. The final saw John cruise past the younger Evangelou
brother,
George, in straight games.
The
Hard Bat Singles is a
fiendish event, because you have to play with the old fashioned
racquet, which
has a fairly thin piece of rubber directly adhering to the blade, and
no sponge
in between which generates speed in one’s shots. In this
contest
we welcomed as
a contestant one of the stars of the 2007 Oakwood Youth Club team,
regrettably
now defunct, namely their star junior player William Maybanks. He
professed to
be a novice in this discipline but nevertheless played brilliantly
throughout,
beating last year’s champion, Gary List, of Mayfield, both in
the
groups and
then in the Final!
On the next night we staged the Open Singles when most of the League’s top players took part, and there were close on 40 entrants. This turned out to be one of the most astonishing events of the week, with some amazing results and fantastic play. Outstanding was the performance of Ellenborough’s 14 year-old Bradley Tuttle, who was obliged to commence his programme by playing in the Preliminary Round, prior to defeating two opponents in Rounds 1 and 2, not losing a game in any of these three matches. This brought him apparently to the end of his run, as he had to face Joseph Chacholiades, arguably among the best 3 players in the League’s Premier Division. Unbelievably, however, Bradley ousted Joseph in a 5 game thriller, after losing the first two games, by 6/11, 6/11, 11/9, 12/10, 12/10 and thus reached the semi-final. In the other quarter of the draw, meanwhile, another sensation had occurred, because the expected opponent for Bradley, namely Jonathon Proffitt, many times winner of this event, and undoubtedly one of the best players in the League, had been beaten by Edmonton’s Sameer Patel in another 5 game battle. Once more it was thought that Bradley could not possibly advance any further in the tournament, but he sensationally took only 4 games to beat Sameer in the semi-final, and was in the Final!
While
all this was happening,
such brilliant players as Jimmy Walsh, ten times the champion; Simon
Proffitt,
‘Aka’ Akajagbo, and Didier Ngoma were having their
own
private contest. These
four players met in the quarter-finals, where Jimmy and Didier proved
the
strongest. Their semi-final was yet another fantastic match, which was
eventually won by Didier 11/6, 10/12, 12/10, 9/11, 12/10.
Didier
is a player who seems to
turn all of his matches into exhibition type contests, and so it was
when he
played Bradley in the Final. To his absolute credit Bradley played a
wonderful
game, giving Didier almost as good as he received. However,
Didier’s greater
experience finally told, and he got home by the close scores of 11/7,
11/8,
13/11. A great win for Didier but a terrific show from young Bradley
Tuttle.
Alongside
all of these remarkable
goings-on the staid proceedings of the Veterans (over 40’s)
Doubles took place
and the fairly predictable final was fought out between the Proffitt
brothers,
Jonathon and Simon and the Middlesex University pairing of Eddy Grant
and Aka.
This was won by the Profitts (yet again!) by the scores of 11/9, 8/11,
13/11, 11/5.
The
third night was reserved for
various junior events and the Veterans Singles. It was possibly
predictable,
after what happened on the previous evening, but, back in his own age
group,
Bradley Tuttle only lasted one round in the Junior Boys Singles before
going
out at the hands of the very competent Pritesh Kakad –
Middlesex
University.
Anthony Constantinou had a real humdinger against his 3E’s
club-mate Luke Smith
before defeating him 15/17, 11/9, 8/11, 12/10, 11/9. Pritesh then beat
Anthony
in a close match. Meanwhile Connor Neenan had stormed through to the
Final,
where he comfortably defeated Pritesh.
A
second title fell to Connor,
when, partnered by Bradley Tuttle, he secured the Junior Boys Doubles
event.
However, he and Bradley had to pull out all the stops in the semi-final
in
order to beat Luke and Anthony by 11/8, 11/4, 4/11, 10/12, 11/8.
Similarly,
Sam Cowan and
Saiesvaran Ratnajothy had an epic struggle to beat Jamie Merison and
George
Evangelon in the other semi-final by 11/7, 10/12, 11/13, 11/8, 13/11.
Bradley
and Connor won the final 11/7, 4/11, 11/6, 13/11.
The
Veterans Singles was a
triumph for Derek Balding, of the Edmonton Club. Derek has struggled
with an
injured back during the last two seasons, so he was delighted to record
a very
fine win on his Final against Mirhana Akajagbo by scores of 12/14,
11/6, 11/6,
11/3. Earlier Aka had himself had a fine win over Simon Proffitt by
6/11, 11/6,
2/11, 11/8, 11/8, while Derek had achieved another great victory by
beating Jon
Proffitt 11/9, 9/11, 7/11, 11/4, 11/7.
The
Cadet (under 15) Boys Singles
also went to Connor Neenan but he had to work very hard before beating
Bradley
Tuttle 10/12, 11/9, 11/7, 7/11, 11/1.
The
Senior Veterans Singles (over
60’s) also took place on this evening in the form of a Round
Robin between 4
players and in this Ellenborough coach and general factotum, Terry
Wilson, won
all his matches against the other elder statesmen of the League with
Ben Payne,
Middlesex University, being runner-up.
The
final night of the Tournament
included the last two events, namely the Open Doubles and the Ladies
Singles.
The first of these saw another chance for the Proffitts to get their
names on
the Honours Board. This they succeeded in doing by beating Eddy Grant
and Aka
for the second time in the week in the Final. Jon and Simon had taken
four
games to beat the Connor Neenan/ Joseph Chacholiades partnership in
their
semi-final, while Eddy/Aka had to come from a position of 2/6 down in
the fifth
and final game of their semi-final in order to beat Robin Ashleigh /
Daniel
Bronziet, of Edmonton by 11/7, 9/11, 8/11, 11/7, 11/9.
The
Ladies Singles event
concluded the week’s proceedings in the form of a three
–girl Round Robin,
which was won by Megan Sparrey, Ellenborough and Colette Neenan, also
of
Ellenborough as runner-up.
North Middlesex
Table Tennis League
Results
Handicap
Singles
Division 3/4 Singles
John
Fitzgerald (Tottenham) beat George Evangelou (Bounds
Green) 2,9,8
Hard bat Singles
William
Maybanks (Oakwood Youth) beat Gary List (Mayfield)
4,10, -12, 3
Connor Neenan (Ellenborough) beat Pritesh Kakad (Middx
Uni.) 3,9,7
Veterans Singles
Derek Balding (Edmonton) beat Mirhana Akajagbo (Middx Uni.) -12, 6, 6, 3
Open Doubles
Simon/Jonathon Proffitt (Ellenborough) beat Eddy Grant/Mirhana Akajagbo
Ladies Singles – Round Robin
Referee: Alan Shepherd