The first round of North London Region National Junior League matches for 2015/16 was held at Ellenborough on Saturday 10 October 2015. Fifteen teams from eight Clubs (fourteen teams from seven Clubs last year) had entered, thus two divisions, one of eight teams (Division 1) and a Division 2 of seven teams. Chelmsford thus had one team in each Division. The format of both divisions was matches of nine games so that the players of each team played one another in their Division matches. With Fusion’s two team’s each being a player short most matches were played on two tables but sometimes two matches shared three tables.

Again Chelmsford were unable to enter a Cadet Team this season but despite the loss of most of last season’s junior players the Old Chelmsfordians Club provided four players keen to take part in Tournament play this season.

For the A team Ryan Gooday and Daniel Berry were joined by Tanishq Kotwal and their first match was against Mossford 1, not anywhere near as strong as previous years. Ryan and Daniel had easy opening wins against Abbas Essop and Ben Williams. For Tanishq his opening match was against 12 year old Jaden Aulakh, their best player on the day. He had two game points in the first game which he could not convert and lost the next two. His other two matches both went the full distance, a fluctuating -3, 5, -6, 3, 7 win over Ben and an 11-8 loss in the decider with Abbas after being 2-1 up. Ryan also lost 12-10 in the fourth game to Jaden, who had yet to accrue any Junior ranking points, but Daniel won his other two matches, both 3-0, to register a 6-3 team win.

Their second match was against the Ellenborough B, one of the expected weaker teams in the Division, Ryan and Daniel opened up with 3-0 wins over Aaron Fox and Ray Yan respectively. Tanishq found himself playing ten year old Essex girl Sophie Chiang, ranked No 7 in the England Under 13 Age Group. After losing the first game 11-8 and winning the next two he was taken to a decider to gain his win. He went on to lose 3-1 to Arran Fox but had a very good 3-1 over Ray Yan. With Ryan and Daniel winning their other four matches an 8-1 win was achieved to put the team in second place.

The last match of the day was against new team Warren Springs who, after an opening 8-1 win had lost to leaders and expected Division winners Ellenborough A 8-1. Ryan and Daniel won their opening matches again, although for Ryan it was only by11-9 in the decider over Bruce Yao, ranked 160 points below him. Daniel won his other two matches to stay unbeaten on the day. Ryan lost to both Charlie Shepherd (ranked 140 points below him) and Joshua Ybanez (unranked) and it was left to Tanishq to come back from 2-0 down to beat Bruce 11-8 decider and gain the team a 5-4 win.

The B Team comprised O. C’s players Tejus Kotwal, Adam Chalk and Harry Rogers. The fourth member of the B Team squad, Harry Matthews, was not available to play. Their first match was against Ellenborough C and each player started with a win to take their team into a 4-0 lead, although for Harry it was a tough 12-10 in the decider against Isaque Silva. He went on to lose to Adam Wilson 3-1 but beat his brother Sam 3-0 which included a 17-15 second game win. Adam lost his other two matches and with Tejus winning two an opening 6-3 win was a great boost for the team.

In their next match against newcomers Graham Spicer they found their opponents far too strong. Seven of the nine matches were 3-0 defeats, Tejus took Darshan Kumaresan to a deciding game but Harry’s 15-13 deciding game win over Darshan avoided a team whitewash.

Their last match was against BATTS B. Tejus beat the two girls Jaz Harvey and Samadhi Udamulla whilst Harry also beat Samadhi but lost in five to Jaz after being 2-1 up. Thus a 6-3 defeat. However they all enjoyed the days play and will have benefitted from playing players they had never seen before.

A Team           Ryan Gooday 6 out of 9, Daniel Berry 9 out of 9 and Tanishq Kotwal 4 out of 9.

B Team           Tejus Kotwal 5 out of 9, Adam Chalk1 out of 9 and Harry Rogers 4 out of 9.

DIVISION 1 TABLE   

DIVISION 2 TABLE 

The next round will be four matches on Saturday 21 November and finishing time is likely to be about 5.30pm. For Division 2 the Team will have a bye in one of the rounds.

A decision will be made after completion of the next round of matches as to whether there will be any promotion or relegation between the Divisions.

Comparing with previous years the Division 1 table is slightly false as the Fusion teams only had two players and none of their listed A Team players were able to play. Thus that Table could change considerably. The same goes for the Division 2 Table where Graham Spicer have had two massive wins over teams in the bottom half of the Table and their two reserves seem stronger than the absent colleagues.

Arthur C. Clark - Chelmsford Junior Match Secretary