Regions' Star Table Tennis Juniors Shine

Uxbridge Table Tennis Club kicked off their 2007/08 season with the reinvention of the Uxbridge Masters competition, last played in 2000. It has now evolved into a Junior invitational event featuring 13 of the most promising youngsters aged between 11 & 15, from as far a field as Leamington Spa & Barnsley. Designed to give the players much needed early season practice, spice was added to the event by inviting former world number 3 Desmond Douglas and England number 1 Helen Lower to both play and offload their wealth of experience.

The girls' event always promised to be an extremely close affair and it started that way in the first set of games with Laura Robinson (13) from Sheffield coming back from 2-1 down to edge past Sophie Neil (14) from Nottingham 3-2. Hannah Winfield (14) from Grantham made a promising start, defeating Burton Ladies Champion Abbie Milwain (13) 3-1, whilst recent Summer league victor, Jessica Birbeck (13)  beat Charlotte Spencer (14) from Leamington Spa 3-0. Abbie's form improved to see to wins over Charlotte Dixon (14) from Barnsley & Jessica before Jess returned with an excellent 3-0 success over Laura. It was then Charlotte Dixon's turn to come good as she completed fine wins over Hannah 3-0 and Sophie 3-1. Just to confuse things even more Sophie's game improved to beat Jess & Charlotte Spencer and with Hannah & Laura also beating Charlotte no less than 6 of the 7 girls had now all won 2 games.

 

Pictured: back row- Hannah Winfield, Charlotte Spencer, Helen Lower, Jess Birbeck
front row- Laura Robinson, Sophie Neil, Abbie Milwain, Charlotte Dixon

Charlotte Dixon looked to be on top in the all Yorkshire battle with Laura but as in her first game the Sheffield girl battled back from 2-1 down to beat Charlotte 3-2. Laura could not repeat the feat against Hannah as she went down 3-0 and with victory against Charlotte Spencer, Hannah rose to top of the standings. Needing a victory to stay in contention, Charlotte Dixon had no answer to Jess as she lost in 4 leaving the game between Abbie & Sophie to decide the final contender for the crown. A tight first set, was edged by Sophie 13-11 before Abbie took on a more positive approach which eventually saw her take the next 3 sets and bring her level with Hannah on 4 wins each. Hannah's last game was against Sophie and after taking the first set 11-2 looked to be on the way to victory. But this only spurred Sophie onto some inspired attacking play and a 2-1 lead. Not to be outdone Hannah stormed back to take the 4th and leave a 5th set where the girls traded point for point until at 11-10 Sophie finally crept over the line. This left Abbie having to beat old rival Laura to take the title. In recent times it has been Laura who has had the edge and the first set began that way as Laura built up a small lead. But Abbie was not ready to lie down and taking the initiative with some exhilarating forehands she clawed the deficit back and came home 11-9. Her form carried on into the 2nd game as she ran away 11-5 but as in keeping with the closeness of the competition all day, Laura was not about to give the game away as her big shots came to fore in the 3rd game. At deuce both girls had the chance to take the set but it was Abbie who produced the final winning shot to win 14-12 and take the title.

Of the 4 girls finishing on 3 wins each Charlotte Dixon came out 3rd with Sophie 4th Jess 5th and the unlucky Laura 6th but possibly only 1 win away from winning!!

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The boys' event saw a clash of two favoured players first up with Jack Williamson (14) & Alan Caffery (15), both from Birmingham trading blows to go a 5th set. Here Jack stepped up the pace to race over the line 11-2 and set up what was to be a successful day. Nick Gilmore (14) from Wolverhampton was at his frustrating best early on firstly brushing aside James Ward (14), Uxbridge's top junior, before suffering a similar fate to fellow Wolverhampton player Ryan Fellows (13). The triangle was completed an hour later when James beat Ryan 3-0 as well !! Jack continued his winning form against Eddie Freeman (11) 3-0 and Ryan 3-1 while Alan completed victories against the same 2 players without dropping a set. Eddie completed his games losing to Ryan and Nick before Nick turned his attention to the unbeaten Jack. Although tight, Jack always held the upper hand and despite Nick taking the 3rd set Jack wrapped up victory in the 4th 13-11. This left Alan as his only challenger and at 1-0 against James, things looked like Jack was going to take the title a game early. But spurred on by the chance to still beat his Birmingham colleague, Alan raised his game to take the next 3 sets and force the result to be decided in the final games. Jack had to beat James to ensure victory whilst Alan could still overtake Jack if he won and Jack lost but could also lose 2nd place if Nick beat him.

Driven by the chance to finish second, Nick came out the blocks all guns blazing against Alan, establishing a 2-0 lead and with a deficit in the 3rd game Alan decided to throw caution to the wind and go for everything.

Pictured: back row- Alan Caffery, Des Douoglas,
Nick Gilmore
front row- Jack Williamson, James Ward, Eddie Freeman, Ryan Fellows

Quickly the game swung in Alan's favour and the more he attacked the more the ball went on and from a losing position he stormed away to win the 4th and 5th sets to 2 & 5 to ensure 2nd place. That left Jack still having to beat James to lift the trophy and he started nervously as the first game remained close until a lightning return of serve gave Jack the game 14-12.

James wasn't going to lie down and he battled on taking the 2nd 11-9 and ran up  a small lead in the 3rd set. Now it was Jack's turn to turn the attack burners on and as he had done all day, he didn't turn them off !! He quickly caught and passed James to take the 3rd set 11-7 and was not to be denied in the 4th running out an 11-5 winner to take his first title of the season. Of the triangle of players winning 2 games, Nick secured 3rd place James 4th & Ryan 5th with Eddie although finishing last, smiling and enjoying the experience immensely.

All onlookers were in agreement at the end that the standard of both the play and the sportsmanship had been top class and although the winners played excellently to take their prizes everyone should be proud of the way they played. Organiser Simon Price said " To have this level of competition here in Burton is a credit to the club and the players representing the club. With competitors ranging from 11 to 15 years old, this is where the future stars of our game will emerge and it is healthy for the top juniors of today to know there are youngsters hungry and training hard to take their places. The lessons they all learned from Helen & Des today with hold them in good stead to progress and all win competitions throughout the season"

 

For more information on the above contact:
Chris Newton
English Table Tennis Association
Tel: 07904115138
Email: cjn@etta75.freeserve.co.uk
Website: www.etta.co.uk