Sunday 16 September 2007

The Essex Assessment Trials were held at the Norman Booth Centre in Harlow on 15/16 September. Chelmsford Table Tennis Club had a number of players entered into the Essex Assessment Trials as well as players that attend the Club's coaching sessions on Friday evenings.

On Saturday 15 the Under 18 Boys and Under 18 Girls Events took place and representing the Chelmsford League were Bradley Hudgell, Adam Pitt, Sam Pitt, Patrick Whelpdale, Hannah Pitt, Stevie Pell and Claire Austin.

The Under 18 Boys Event was split into 2 Pools and 2 rounds per pool were played over the day. Bradley Hudgell played in Pool A and won 3 out of 5 matches to finish 3rd in his group, unfotunately Bradley picked up an injury and was unable to play in the 2nd round of matches. Adam, Sam and Patrick all played in Pool B where Adam won 4 out of 4 to finish 1st in his group, Sam won 2 out of 4 to finish 3rd in his group and Patrick won 1 out of 3 to also finish 3rd in his group. In the 2nd round of Pool B Sam and Patrick were drawn in the same group. Sam won 5 out of 5 in this group after scraping through his last match 12-10 in the 5th. Patrick won 1 out of 5 to finish 5th in the group. Adam won 3 out of 5 in his group, but so did 4 other players in the group, but due to the "Ratio Countback" Adam finished 5th in the group.

The Under 18 Girls Event was split into 2 groups for the first round and a type of round robin in the 2nd round. Claire Austin was in Group 1 and won 2 out of 4 and finished 3rd in the group, Hannah Pitt won 3 out of 4 in Group 2 and finished 2nd in the group, Stevie Pell won 4 out of 4 in Group 2 after winning the grudge match against Hannah. In the round robin, Claire won 2 out of 3, Hannah won 2 out of 3 and Stevie won 1 out of 2.

On Sunday 16 was the Under 11/13/15 Boys and Under 11/13/15 Girls Events and representing the Chelmsford League were Sarah Austin, Hannah Pitt, Brandon Crouchman, Scott Dowsett, Matthew Davis and James Austin.

The Under 13 Boys Event was based on two rounds of groups of four. Brandon Crouchman and Scott Dowsett won 3 out of 3 in their groups without dropping a set and so met each other in the next round. Scott unfortunately didn't manage to win any games in this group and so finished 4th, but Brandon on the other hand managed to win all his games 3-1 and came 1st in this group.

The Under 15 Boys Event originally only had James Austin and Matthew Davis entered, but after a few players dropping out Brandon and Scott were able to enter as well. Brandon managed to win 3 out of 4 games in his first group losing to Luca Mariano who finished 2nd in the Under 18 Boys Event. Matthew Davis also won 3 out of 4 games in his group to finish 2nd. James won 1 out of 4 and finished 4th in his group, but Scott managed to win 4 out of 4 in his group to finsh 1st. In the 2nd round James Austin made up for his 1st round group to win all his games in this group to finish 1st in the group. Matthew Davis and Brandon Crouchman were in the same group and Brandon won 3 out of 5 and finished 3rd in the group, but Matthew was unlucky not to win any. Scott won 1 out of 5 to finish 5th in his group.

The Under 15 Girls Event included the Under 11/13 Girls Events as well and represting Chelmsford League was Sarah Austin and Hannah Pitt. Hannah won all her games 3-0 and so finsihed 1st in the group for the Under 15s. Sarah Austin won 1 out of 5, which is a great result for her first appearance at the Essex Assessment Trials.

If you would like to see the full results of the trials then please click on the link below:

2007-08 Essex Assessment Trials Results

Report written by Ryan Pitt