Burton Uxbridge boys celebrate 2nd top flight team

Burton Uxbridge Table Tennis Club’s top juniors made claim to being the most competitive club in the country as the boys claimed a 2^nd successive Division 1 title, pushing the club’s Premier Division quota to 25%, by the far the highest nationwide.

After the boys' A team ran away with last year’s Junior British League Division 1 crown, the B team took their chance this year and giving themselves an even chance lying 3^rd after the first weekend.

However, a first game loss to Penial from Essex on day 3 meant only a 100% from here on in, would be good enough. The rest of the day went much planned as Cippenham were quickly despatched 6-0. The final game on day 3 put the boys up against the leaders DHS Greenhouse Progress and with confidence now running high, many would have mistook the Burton team for the leaders as a dominant 5-1 scoreline left them a point behind now joint leaders Progress and Barnet. The Barnet side were first up on day 4, but it seemed nothing would stop the team of Adam Nutland, Matthew Outhwaite & Tony Zeqiri now as all played some sublime table tennis to record a crushing 6-0 win.

This left Burton still 2^nd just a point behind Progress who now had to play Barnet, and a Horsham team left to play containing the division’s top player Dash Zhang, who had previously lost just one game, coincidentally to Burton’s Eddie Freeman, missing for the 2^nd weekends play. Adam was first up and quickly put Burton 1 up before Dash proved too much for Matt. The Progress/Barnet match on the table next door had also played 2 games and with Barnet surprisingly 2-0 up, spirits were lifted.  Tony Zeqiri, playing out of his skin, then made things 2-1 and a further Barnet win next door meant 2 more games and Burton could tie the top spot. Adam was next up and despite a thrilling 5 set encounter against Dash he finally succumbed 11-9. As Tony started the 5^th game cheers came from the table next door as Barnet amazingly made it 4-0 leaving Burton with their fate in their own hands: win the last two games.. win the title!! Pressure.. what pressure!!, for Tony as he brushed aside his opponent 3-0 to leave Matt with the last game. Maybe thinking about the situation, the first end quickly went away, but a word with coach Simon Upson soon saw Matt back on track, so much so that the 4^th end was over in less than 2 minutes, a 3-1 victory achieved, and for the team, the 4-2 scoreline they needed for promotion to the premier division. Coach Simon Upson had nothing but praise for the boys “ the commitment and determination they showed was exemplary” he said “to come back from that first game loss in the way they have shows how much they truly deserve the chance to have a pop at the big guns next year and maybe even topple the A side!!”

Burton’s top side were just edged out of the medals in their first Premier Division season, finishing 3^rd. James Ward put in a much improved 2^nd weekend performance, taking 6 of his 10 games, but this wasn’t enough to topple winners Irish boys, the Irish National side!! and Waterside, featuring 2 of the top 6 juniors in England on show. The girls A team were severely weakened by unavailability, finishing 6^th, but some bright spots were still there, including 13 year old Charlotte Carey losing 11-9 in the 5^th to England number 1 junior Karina Le Fevre. Back to full strength, both these sides will be pressing for honours next year. The girls' B team had a great finish to the weekend, beating a good Spicer York Gardens team. This moved them up to equal points with the London outfit but unfortunately countback saw them placed 3^rd.

 Div 1 Boys Winners Matt Outhwaite, Simon Upson (Coach), Adam Nutland, Tony Zeqiri

Overall the competition was again a great club success. Club Development officer said, after replacing the division 1 trophy in the trophy cabinet; “to have 3 sides playing at the pinnacle of Junior Team Table Tennis is a fantastic achievement for all at the club. The works that goes on behind the scenes is tremendous and the effort put in by all the coaches who gave up their time for two weekends to help, I think rubbed off on the players. There is no better way to thank volunteers than for the players to go out and perform as they did, whilst winning or losing, always giving 110%. It will be a proud moment when the programme comes out next October and Burton Uxbridge Table Tennis Club features so prominently, right at the top of English table tennis’ premier junior competition” For more table tennis information please go to our website www.uxbridgettc.co.uk  

Simon Price
Club Development Officer
M: 07890 520692
E: simonp_54@hotmail.com