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On 9th/10th February 2007 the Junior British League second and final weekend took place at Wolverhampton. Each team would play 5 hard matches over the weekend – with a very hard schedule! The weather for
travelling was atrocious – snow covered a good part of the country,
visibility was poor and the roads were icy – but only 2 teams from the
whole of the UK were absent. Looking at the
results and divisions to date the Ellenborough teams sat at the bottom of
their division or one step up. Knowing that two teams would be relegated
the coaches and players would have to work hard to ensure safety in this
prestigious league. BOYS
1st TEAM -
DIVISION 1 The team were second
from bottom at the end of the first weekend, and as they proceeded through
the second weekend - Joe Chacholiades, Suchira Gallage and Hoxley Baron
(Stephen Kong was unavailable) played determinedly, but had they done
enough on the first day? They came off the bottom by winning 4-2 against
TTK Greenhouse Morpeth – both Joe and Suchira winning their matches –
Hoxley not being at his best. The first match on Sunday against Peniel A,
a 3-3, was the crunch match. Joe won 2, and Suchira was so close but
couldn’t clinch a game; luckily Hoxley won this time so we got a result.
The team did not
seem to get it together at the same time – perhaps they were missing
Stephen. Results: Joe 12 wins from 20; Suchira 6 wins from 20; Stephen 1
win from 10; (from the first w/e) and Hoxley 1 win from 10. We finished 2nd
from bottom. This division was
very strong and almost divided itself into good teams and not such good
teams; perhaps if we had done better on the first weekend we might have
stayed up – it now looks unlikely! BOYS
DIVISION 1 final table
BOYS 2nd TEAM
- DIVISION 3A This was a team that
went originally through qualifying rounds from the Junior National League
to get into the Junior British League and last season did well in Division
4 to get promotion into Division 3. Our team the second
weekend consisted of Craig Thompson and Connor Neenan who had played
before and two new, boys, Paul Read and Mahdi Qadri
(who were probably out of their depth the first day, but played so
much better on the Sunday). When you see 35 tables in one hall with two
teams on each table it is an awesome sight for the first time. In the second match
on the Saturday, Ellenborough lost to rivals Barnet 1-5, Craig had a good
win over Zak Zileswick and Mahdi only lost closely in 5 to Guy Ben-Aroya.
Connor also had a good match against Ben Swart ranked 41 in the England
rankings, taking him to 4 sets. Craig won 2 against Uxbridge with his
colleagues, Paul and Mahdi losing so closely – so no points there
either. In the match vrs
Aquaserv Club Mid Cheshire Mahdi won 2 matches 16-14, and 17-15 in the
fifth but again they lost the match 2-4 without Craig and Paul picking up
1 match – no points there either. The team found it
very tough in this division and perhaps if Hoxley had played (he was with
the first team this weekend) they would have just clinched those near
misses to help them off the bottom. Also Craig did not play in the first
weekend matches. Craig
and Hoxley in the same team would have helped overall. The division seemed
once again to split itself into two with regard to strength. Individual
results: Hoxley Baron 4 wins from 10; Craig Thompson 5 wins from 10; Perry
Melville 3 wins from 10; (not available second weekend); Mahdi Qadri
(debut appearance) 3 wins from 10; Connor Neenan 1 win from 10; and Paul
Read (debut appearance) 0 wins from 6. BOYS
DIVISION 3A
final table
GIRLS DIVISION
3 This
season we started with almost a scratch team, with only Collette Neenan
having previously played for us in the British League. We included 4 new
girls, all having potential but all very young. The squad for the first
weekend was Tin-Tin Ho, Natasha Walsh, Madison Andrews, Kalian Nadir and
Collette. After the first weekend we were firmly on the bottom of the
division with only 2 points so for the second weekend we decided to try
our hardest to avoid having to qualify again from the National Junior
League, as we did last season, and to ‘go for broke’ by taking only
the best 3 girls: Collette, Tin-Tin and Natasha. Our
first match on the Saturday, against league leaders Oldham, was
disappointing for us. Although Oldham were without their No.1 player, we
still lost 2-4, Collette and Natasha winning one each. In the second
match, Collette and Tin-Tin won 2 matches against higher ranked players
resulting in a 4-2 win. Natasha was unlucky to lose one of her matches in
the final set – a good effort though. In the third match of the day
against Wensum (who were equal bottom on points after the first weekend),
we fired on all cylinders and won 6-0. Eight year-old Tin-Tin had now
beaten two No.1’s in consecutive matches, both opponents being more than
20 places above her in the England Rankings. In one day we had picked up 4
points from a possible 6, and things looked promising. We all slept well! On
Sunday, our first match was against Byng Hall and we lost 2-4.
Collette and Tin-Tin won 1 each, losing to Kirsty Wilson who is
ranked in the top 40 of the England Rankings. We
badly needed to stay a couple of points in front of Darlington. In our
last match against St.Andrews B, we drew 3-3.
We knew we were home and dry being up on sets average and equal on
points. All three girls won
one each, very fitting – what a team effort. It
was a pleasure to watch all these girls play. Colette is tremendously
determined and performed well winning 12 from 20; Tin-Tin won 9 from 20
and Natasha 5 from 12. Both Madison and Kalian were without a win but both
will come good in time. Again the Division was split into two halves. Most of the players were ranked above our girls but the team worked hard, supported each other and achieved their target. We can now look forward with confidence to next season. GIRLS DIVISION
3 final table
Sylvia Tyler |