Ilford TTL - News Articles 2008/09

The following articles are as submitted to the Ilford Recorder. (Not necessarily as published!)

22 Apr 2009
The main event of the Ilford League tournament was the Open Singles, which was well supported with the top eight seeds being the players with the highest averages in league matches.

Some of the matches in the early group stages were close, especially when number 3 seed Matt Spero just beat Steve Kerns in the fifth game and Andzelika Dorau defeated number 8 seed Peter Radford also in the fifth game. Ninth seed Gavin West also succumbed when Klaudia Szadkowska beat him in the deciding game.

Number six seed Jason Tendler, having defeated Spero in the quarter finals, came from two games down to take number two seed Darek Zurowski to a deciding game in the semi-final before losing the fifth game. In the final, Zurowski met number 5 seed Euan Liddle, whose defensive play had been impressive in reaching the final. However, Darek proved too strong with an 11-7, 11-7, 11-6 win.

The pick of the other events was the Open Doubles, which featured two women in the final, one on each side. Matt Spero, the only English person in the final was partnered by Andzelika Dorau. They were against top seeds Darek Zurowski and Klaudia Szadkowska. The playing styles were totally different, the two women relying on their ferocious forehand smashes, Matt using his left-handed loop to good effect and Darek using clever placement shots.

The first three games were extremely close with the Polish pair winning the first two 11-9 and Spero and Dorau claiming the third by a similar score. However, Darek and Klaudia won the fourth 11-6 to lift the title.

The Veterans Singles went to a fifth and deciding game as Ray Lam beat current Essex Veteran champion Peter Radford 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6.

Other results:

Veterans Doubles: Ray Lam and John Tendler beat Ray Brown and Paul Pells 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-9.

Div 2&3 Singles: Chris Willcock beat Ray Brown 11-8, 11-7, 11-7.

Handicap Singles: Matt Spero beat Darek Zurowski.

Under 18 Singles: Chris Penrose beat David Green 13-11, 11-2, 11-8

Div 3 Singles: Andy Patmore beat Andy Home 11-7, 7-11, 11-3, 9-11, 11-3. This match was also significant for the sporting spirit in which it was played, which made watching it especially enjoyable.

Player of the tournament: Darek Zurowski.

15 Jan 2009
In the Ilford league division 2, bottom team Rhodium had the worst preparation for their match at Redbridge 1, when two of their players were delayed en route. When number one Susie Hughes arrived after suffering a puncture, she found that her usual clinical smash had deserted her as she lost in four games to Alan Rosenfeld. Mike Marshom suffered a similar fate in his first match after a traffic delay.

The next four matches were won in three straight games by Redbridge, giving them an overall 7-0 lead. However, matches eight and nine provided much closer entertainment. In match eight, Rhodium’s Joan Donovan began brightly against Richard Clemence, winning the first game 11-4, losing the second 7-11 and winning the third 11-6. The fourth game went to deuce, with Clemence closely winning 12-10 before he finally won a tight fifth game.

The final singles saw Redbridge’s Ray Brown win the first two games 11-7, 11-8 against Susie Hughes, who then got her forehand working to take the next game 11-9. Brown switched to the backhand but Hughes produced several backhand topspins to win the fourth game. In a close deciding game, Hughes led 10-9 only for Brown to level the match at deuce and then win the next two points for victory. The final team match score of 10-0 to Redbridge did not reflect an excellent match played in a friendly spirit.

04 Dec 2008
With the Ilford League season approaching the half way mark, Mossford 1^st team took over the leadership of the table for the first time, having recorded a resounding 10 – 0 defeat over the defending champions, Frenford 1^st.

The only time Frenford looked like recording a victory was when their experienced captain, John Tendler, was poised at 2 games to nil, and 10 points to 6 up against Mossford’s Didier Ngoma, but still contrived to lose the third game eventually 10 – 12 and the next 2 games to concede defeat by 2 games to 3.

Mossford have a 100% record so far, and they have averaged almost 9 points from a maximum of 10 available points per match. It seems they may be favourites to lift the league trophy this season, which would be the first time a Mossford team has become the Ilford champions for about 25 years.

Newly promoted Maylands Green appear to be doomed to return to Division 2, finding life in the first division somewhat harder than they may have expected. They are rooted to the bottom of the table and have only managed to record 5 points in their 8 matches so far.

27 Nov 2008
Newcomers Redbridge Social 1 have been setting the pace in Division 2 of the Ilford league, superbly led by Sebastian Golebiowski who in the first six matches has won all his eighteen games.  This week, they played Eastlea Wanderers 2, who also have one of the leading players in Shola Omowanile. 

The first match of the night set the tone with Catherine Chen, making her league debut for Eastlea, against Sebastian.  The first four games were shared with the fifth being a titanic struggle with both players having match points before Sebastian won 8-11, 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 20-18. 

In the 3rd match of the night, Shikiru Oropo (Eastlea) played Babatunde Ajibawa, which was another five-set match with Babatunde winning 9-11, 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 11-4.  With the match tied at two matches apiece, Sebastian played Sikiru in another closely fought game.  It was tied yet again after four games with Sebastian winning a tight fifth game 11-9 to take Redbridge Social into a 3-2 lead. 

Shola won the 6th game to level the match 3-3 before Sikiru had another five-set match against Richard Adenaike, who played superbly but just failed to win, losing 11-9 in the fifth game.  With Redbridge Social losing 4-3, the pressure was on Babatunde to beat Catherine to level the match again.  This he did in yet another tight match, Babatunde winning 11-8, 9-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-9. 

This left the two unbeaten players on the night Sebastian and Shola to play the ninth match to guarantee their team a draw at the minimum.  Shola took a 2-0 lead (11-9, 11-6) before being stunned by Sebastian showing his class with an 11-1 victory.  This shocked Shola, who also lost the fourth game 11-8.  With some fascinating rallies, Shola just edged out Sebastian 11-8 in the fifth game, to deny him his 100% record as well.  The match was rounded off with Eastlea winning the doubles to win the overall match 6-4, which was the first time Redbridge Social have not won.

?? Oct 2008
In the Ilford league division 1, Woodford Wells 2, newly promoted from division 2, hosted Mossford 1, who are expected to be amongst the championship contenders.

The star of the match was Phil Walker of Wells, who won both his teams matches in their 2-8 defeat.

Firstly, he beat Didier Ngoma, who last season was the beaten finalist in the Individual Singles tournament. Phil won the first two games then Didier began to acclimatise to Phil’s hard-hitting looped attack and drew level at two games all. However, Phil then won the deciding fifth game to take the match.

Phil’s next match was against fellow left-hander Matthew Spero, who seemed to struggle to cope with Phil’s serve. Phil’s aggressive attack won him many points and he eventually emerged victorious by three games to one.

Phil came within a whisker of remaining unbeaten, when he narrowly lost 2-3 to Mossford’s Peter Tan. Paul Pells and Keith Turner completed the Wells team.