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NATIONAL UNDER 10 to 13 CHAMPIONSHIPS AT KINGS LYNN
JUNE 2005
The very best young players in England competed last weekend at Kings Lynn in the National Under 10, 11, 12 & 13 Championships. Local interest centred on Cornish reigning under 11 champion Martha Travis and DML Woolwell's nine-year-old Vicky Smith, both coached by the south west's leading female player, Marketa Myskova.
Despite taking both the under 12 (with Sarah Russo from Sussex) and under 13 (with Yorkshire's Mary Fuller) doubles titles, Martha came away disappointingly with no individual championship. In the under 13 semi-final she suffered a shock straight games defeat to under 11 winner Lucy Davidson (Derbyshire). Despite avenging that defeat in the under 12 quarter-final and scraping through a very close semi-final against Karina le Fevre from Cleveland, she couldn't get past doubles partner Sarah Russo in a repeat of last year's under 11 final.
Vicky played consistently to qualify from her groups to the knock out stages of both the under 11 and under 12 events. In the under 10's, where she was a semi-finalist last year, she cruised through to the final without dropping a game. However, she then had to concede second best to the much higher ranked Emily Bates from Lincolnshire in four games.
JUNIOR MASTERS 14/15 MAY 2005
Devon's two leading junior girls acquitted themselves well in a topsy turvy Junior Masters event at Cippenham Table Tennis Club in Slough. Restricted to the top 16 in England, many surprising results left Lisa Radford in third place despite four defeats, while Sally Smith finished tenth after six wins and seven defeats, including a victory over Lisa! Overall victory went to home club favourite Melanie Farquhar although even she suffered two losses.
CORNWALL 1* JUNIOR 8 MAY 2005
The first Cornwall One Star Junior Event was well supported at the St Austell Table Tennis Centre. Two 14 year old's stood out in the boys events. Top seed Chris Smith from DML Woolwell TTC took the cadet final with a straight games victory over Matthew Trevorrow from St Ives. However, Matthew gained his revenge taking the junior title in the last match of the day by three games to one. His sister Rachel also had a good day, defeating DML Woolwell's Laura McLeod to take the under 13 girls title.
CADET MASTERS 7/8 MAY 2005
The south west was well represented in the Cadet Masters events at Cippenham, West London which are restricted to the top sixteen boys and girls nationally in the under 15 age group. Chris Smith was the lowest ranked player in the boys event and, despite producing an outstanding victory over ninth seed Mark Simpson, couldn't survive the cut off after the first day which reduces the field to twelve. Chris's DML Woolwell clubmate Richard Marshall was more successful with three wins on the first day & a final tenth place finish.
Cornwall's national under 11 champion Martha Travis was the youngest competitor, but still managed to progress to the second day after a brilliant victory over sixth seed Rachel Greener. Redruth's Darren Reed, the only one of the four in his final year as a cadet, had an excellent first day, his only loss coming in the final game against top seed Gavin Evans. He continued this form into the second day to finish fourth with just three losses.
PLYMOUTH PRIMARY SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS APRIL 2005
34 young players competed in the fifth Plymouth Primary Schools Individual Championships at Beacon Electrical Plymouth League HQ.
The main competition was totally dominated by pupils from St Peter's Roman Catholic School in Whitleigh, who took the top six places. Pride of place went to 9 year old Vicky Smith, still only in year 4, who took the overall event beating Jack Marsh in the final. Jack also had to concede top spot in the boys event to Seb Dartnell despite having match points at 10-6 up in the final game. Alice Phillips was runner-up in the girls event.
The consolation event was won by George Monk from Tom Tilbury (both Yealmpton), while the leading girl player was Leigh Wood from Yealmpstone Farm.
Overall Winner Vicky Smith R/U Jack Marsh
Girls Champion Vicky Smith R/U Alice Phillips
Boys Champion Seb Dartnell R/U Jack Marsh
Band 1 Winner Alex Rogers
Band 2 Winner Tom Howe
Consolation Winner George Monk R/U Tom Tilbury
Consolation Band 1 Winner Harry Jarvis
Consolation Band 2 Winner Georgina Talbot
Consolation Leading Girl Leigh Wood
The teams' event was well attended with 33 youngsters taking part. As with the individual events, St Peter's Roman Catholic Primary School in Whitleigh dominated proceedings. Their boys team of Jack Marsh, Seb Dartnell and Alex Rogers took the title after a 4-2 win over the school's second team of Alice Phillips and two nine year olds, Joshua Beaven and Vicky Smith. In third place were Yealmpton Primary represented by Mike Davis, Tom Howe and Max Elleton for whom Tom found the only chink in the St Peter's armour with a 12-10 final game victory over Beaven.
The plate event was won by Yealmpstone Farm's first team of Daniel Nile, Nathaniel Rogers and Dean Squire from a mixed school team of Sam Yeo, Adam McEvoy and eight year old Ollie Buddell who completed the plate event unbeaten. The leading girl's team was Leigh & Lois Wood, and Georgina Talbot, from Yealmpstone Farm.
DEVON SENIOR CLOSED CHAMPIONSHIPS OKEHAMPTON 17 APRIL 2005
The Devon Closed Championships at Okehampton produced some tight struggles and youthful singles champions. 18 year old Chris Brown, fresh from helping the county to its second successive national title and up to a highest ever 71 in the national rankings, had an excellent victory over veteran Paul Whiting in the men's final.
Whiting's DML Woolwell clubmate Sally Smith is just 16 but proved too good in a battle of endurance for last year's champion Sonja Wicks. The two paired up to defend their ladies doubles title but were surprisingly defeated by Pat & Tracey Lyon.
Whiting, partnered by 14 year old Chris Smith, suffered another final defeat in the men's doubles against Shaun & Dennis Gibbs, but took the mixed doubles title with wife Debbie.
SPORT SOUTH HAMS AWARDS 13 APRIL 2005
Nine DML Woolwell juniors were nominated for awards at the Sport South Hams celebration of sporting achievement in 2004, which was held in Kingsbridge. Those nominated in the sporting excellence categories were Harry Cutler, Chris Warn and Sally Smith in the 16-21 age group, Richard Marshall, Chris Smith & Laura McLeod in the 12 to 16's and Alice Phillips and Vicky Smith in the under 12's. 9 year old Vicky walked away with the award for her age group for the second successive year while 10 year old Jack Marsh took the Sporting Endeavour award.
Junior & Cadet Masters Qualifying Competition 9 & 10 April 2005
This event saw several local youngsters competing at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in the qualifying competition for the prestigious end of season Masters events. They had all previously had to reach the top five in the South West Regional Trials.
The Masters, held in May, are restricted to sixteen players nationwide in boys and girls junior (under 18) and cadet (under 15) age groups. Eight places are filled from the leading performers in the season's junior grand prix competitions. To these are added the eight quarter-finalists from last weekend's event.
Plymouth's Lisa Radford has had a very successful season mainly playing senior tournaments. She maintained this form to reach the junior final before losing out in four games to top seed Lauren Spink. Sally Smith had already qualified via her Grand Prix performances but also reached the quarter-final with an excellent straight game victory over England international and number four seed Sarah Perks.
Redruth's Darren Reed had already qualified in the cadet age group and made it a double by reaching the junior semi-finals. DML Woolwell pair of Richard Marshall and Chris Smith failed to progress through tough junior groups although Smith had a shock straight game victory over number six seed Andrew Leighton. They were more successful in the cadet event. Marshall won his group but was extremely unlucky to come up against number three seed Wing Yung Chan in the last sixteen, only losing after five close games. Smith had an easier draw and made it to his first Masters by reaching the last eight before going out to eventual finalist Alim Hirji. 12 year old Laura McLeod's first appearance at this event saw her produce an excellent win over higher ranked Katherine LeFevre and gain valuable experience for the future.
DEVON JUNIOR CLOSED CHAMPIONSHIPS 27 FEB 2005
The Devon Junior Closed Championships were held recently in Exmouth with DML Woolwell table tennis club's Richard Marshall (13) and Sally Smith (16) both returning with a hat-trick of trophies.
Richard beat Harry Cutler to take the under 18 title and Chris Smith in the under 15 event after combining with Chris Warn to win the boys doubles from Harry & Freddie Cutler.
Laura McLeod (12) succumbed to a surprise defeat by Alice Phillips (11) in the under 13 final, but came back to take the under 15 event from Vicky Smith (9), the youngest female competitor. Vicky took the under 11 title for the second time.
Sally repeated last year's achievement, winning the under 18 girl's event (with Laura runner-up) and both girls and mixed doubles with the same partners as last time, sister Vicky and Harry Cutler respectively. Richard Marshall's fourth final saw him take runners-up spot with Laura McLeod in the mixed doubles while Laura surpassed even this achievement with five finals, taking second place in the girls event, partnered by Alice Phillips.
The Woolwell club failed to provide both finalists in only two events. John Handy (West Exe Club, Exeter) defeated Great Torrington's Mark Sussex in the deciding game of a thrilling under 13 final, while Mark's brother Dominic defeated Woolwell's Jack Marsh in the under 11 event.
EXETER 2* 5 Feb 2005
The long-running Exeter junior event was played last Saturday at a new venue, the excellent Okehampton Table Tennis Club, and with a new status as a two star English Table Tennis Association ranking point event.
DML Woolwell table tennis club players dominated, taking five of the six titles. 13 year old Richard Marshall won the under 17 boys competition from the much higher ranked reigning champion, Shaun Hall. Richard wobbled a bit as he lost an 8-3 lead in the fourth game but came back strongly in the final game. Richard himself suffered a rare defeat to clubmate Chris Smith in the under 14 final. Chris came back from 2-1 down to take another thrilling final.
Sally Smith easily took the girls under 17 event, being a class apart from the opposition, while 12 year old Laura McLeod had to come back from two games down to take the under 14 title from Somerset's Rebecca Seal. Rebecca broke the Woolwell monopoly by taking the under 11 event from last year's champion, nine year old Vicky Smith while Jack Marsh took his first major title in the boys under 11 competition from another Woolwell nine year old, Joshua Beaven.
South West Regional Trials at Cirencester (Nov 2004)
Devon's strong squad dominated, with their two leading girls heading the qualifiers for the national trials in the junior event. After winning for the past two seasons, Sally Smith had to settle for second place after losing to Lisa Radford with Somerset's Claire Howe third.
Chris Smith scraped home in the cadet boy's event after a split tie with Richard Marshall. Chris won the battle between the two, but lost to Avon's Alex Kearney who just conceded third place to Cornwall's Matthew Trevorrow.
Later Richard provided the shock of the day in the junior age group, defeating hot favourite Darren Reed from Cornwall, who, despite this loss, won the event. Richard, the youngest competitor, suffered only two defeats and took an excellent second place from Wiltshire's Andrew Hodges and Adam Tatlow from Cornwall.
Dorset's Joy Whitehorn won the cadet girl's event from Cornwall's national under 11 champion Martha Travis, and Somerset pair, Alexandra Johnson & Rebecca Seal.
BOWLING EVENING (OCT 2004)
The club has arranged a bowling evening at Plympton Megabowl on Wednesday 13th October. It will start at 6.30pm and will be open to members and non-members.
Costs will be
£7.50 for two games of bowling and a basket meal (fish, chicken flatbread, grillsteak or spinach & feta flatbread - served with chips)
£4 for bowling only
Under 12's
£5.50 for two games of bowling and a megabite meal (burger or nuggets, chips & drink)
£3.50 for bowling only
This should be an enjoyable, good value evening out for all ages but will also raise money for the club so please support the event.
We need to know approximate numbers ASAP so please let John Smith know if you are interested in coming along.
South West U-12 Pairs Tournament--Bridgwater 13 June 2004
Zak Zacharkiw teamed up with St Austell's Ryan Bowler & very nearly came away victorious from a high quality event including most of the south west's top boys and girls.
After they had scraped through a very tough group, a convincing semi-final win saw them up against the other qualifiers from their own group, whom they had previously beaten 3-2. Although Zak repeated his group achievement of taking both his singles, the pair couldn't quite take the vital third point & finished runners-up.
Vicky Smith & Joshua Beaven, the youngest pairing, finished a creditable third in their group (and sixth overall) as Vicky won eight of her ten singles & they took three out of five doubles.
Jack Marsh & Alex Rogers in their first outing at this level found life very tough ,but were not outclassed, and managed a singles victory apiece.
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April 2004
Having exceeded expectations by reaching the Junior Masters at Cippenham, Sally performed excellently. The invitation only event, restricted to the top 16 English players, is played in two groups of eight. Despite being both the youngest and lowest ranked player in her group, Sally repeated her shock win at Derby over England number nine Emma Weil and convincingly defeated the higher ranked Emily Tucker in straight games. She lost a very tight five game match against number 12 Claire Wilson and was beaten in four by former England cadet international Sarah Perks. Needing to make the top six to qualify for the second day she ended up in a four way tie for fifth place and was unlucky not to progress.
Feb 2004
Back to full strength with the inclusion of Darren Reed, the Plymouth League team including Woolwell's Chris Smith & Richard Marshall, easily defeated Sutton & Slough in the Leach Cup semi-final, played at Maidenhead. They beat Sutton 5-0 then Slough 5-1. Richard had a brilliant 14-12 final game victory over the higher ranked Ashley Shaw.
They will now contest the final at Derby on June 13th. Chris is also in the Carter Cup (Junior) team defending their title the previous day.
Dec 2003
The Plymouth League team of Chris Smith, Richard Marshall & David Wetherill were far too good for their first round opponents from the Reading League in the national inter-league cadet teams championships for the Leach Cup. Neither Chris nor Richard dropped a game, and David only two in a one-sided 9-0 victory. They will now play the semi-final on May 2nd.
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