Ilford TTL - News Articles 2010/11

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

12 May 2011
The remaining three events in the Ilford league tournament were held this week.

In the Open Singles, reigning 3-times champion Darek Zurowski met 4-times winner Clive Carthy, in what was to prove an excellent match. Both players played an attacking game with accurate counter-hitting in generous supply. Darek emerged the winner 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-5 to equal Clive’s total of tournament wins, although both are only halfway to Stuart Gibbs record of eight wins.

In the Veterans Singles, Ray Lam faced his doubles partner, Peter Radford, in the final. The key to this match was whether Lam could consistently use his topspin loop to dictate the match. This he managed to do and he emerged victorious, winning11-7, 4-11, 11-6, 11-6.

In the Handicap Singles, Armagan Huseyin (handicap 22) beat Patrick Scarlett (19) 33-31, 33-31.

28 Apr 2011
The first four events in the Ilford league tournament were held this week.

In the Open Doubles, Darek Zurowski and Klaudia Szadkowska won for the third consecutive year, beating Matt Spero and Andzelika Burke in the final 11-6, 14-12, 11-5.

In the Veterans Doubles, there was a major surprise as Sal Ahmed and Ray Brown, who had never played as a doubles pairing before, beat top seeds Peter Radford and Ray Lam 11-9, 13-11, 11-6 in the final. In the semi-final, they had beaten number two seeds Paul Martindill and Phil Walker, also in straight games.

In the Division 2 & 3 Singles, Jamal Dennison beat Colin Henderson 3-0 in the final.

Finally, in the Division 3 final, William Onyema beat Armagan Huseyin 11-7, 11-6, 11-4.

07 Apr 2011
In the Ilford league Division 3 cup final, Rhodium had a surprise 5-4 win over runaway league leaders Mossford 6.

Star of the match was Rhodium’s number 2 Joan Donovan, who had a comfortable 11-4, 11-3, 6-11, 11-9 win over Lee Marson. This seemed to destroy Marson’s confidence as, partnered by John Hume, he lost the following doubles 3-0 to John Hickey and Rod Cadywould. This gave Rhodium a 3-2 lead.

Julian Pierre then beat Hickey 3-0 and Donovan beat Hume 3-0 before Marson drew the teams level at 4-4 with a win over Cadywould.

It was now all on the final doubles match. Hickey and Donovan won the first game, Hume and Pierre won the second and it was 10-10 in the third before the former won 13-11. The fourth game was close before the Rhodium pair pulled away to win 11-7, for an overall 5-4 victory.

10 Mar 2011
In the Ilford league divisional cups, it was semi-final week and there were two matches worthy of note.

In the Division 1 cup, Woodford Wells 1 had an exciting match with Fellows Cranleigh that went to the deciding ninth match.

Wells took a 3-0 match lead with wins for Roland Zaunmayr and Phil Walker and a win in the opening doubles. However, wins for Anthony Kent and Ray Lam brought Cranleigh into the match. Zaunmayr had his second win for Wells but a win in the second doubles and then another win for Kent made the score 4-4.

In the final doubles, the Cranleigh pair of Lam and Gavin West won the opening game. The Wells pair of Zaunmayr and Paul Martindill then won the next three games to earn a 5-4 victory.

In the Division 3 cup, Rhodium had a surprise 6-3 win against Redbridge 2. There were two key points in the match, which could have changed the result. Redbridge’s Len Tolvin was leading John Hickey by two games to one when Hickey won a thrilling fourth game by 13-11. In the decider, again at deuce, Hickey won 12-10.

The other crucial match was the second doubles where Tolvin and Michael Finegold faced Hickey and Rod Cadywould. The Redbridge pair led 2-0 only for the Rhodium pair to win the third game 11-9 then the fourth. In the deciding game, the teams reached deuce and after sharing the next eight points, the Rhodium team won 16-14.

27 Jan 2011
In the Ilford league division 3, bottom team Heathcote 4 and Mossford 7 fought out a 5-5 draw. This match was unusual this season in that no one player won all three singles or lost all three singles.

Heathcote’s Khalil Rehman lost to Rohit Sood in the fifth game. Sood lost in four games to Ercan Huseyin, whose victory was the only match he won. Mossford’s William Onyema lost his only match to Rehman in the fifth game.

Mossford went into the final doubles leading 5-4, but in a very close match, Heathcote managed to win 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7 to secure a valuable draw.

At the other end of the table, leaders Grove Castle defeated third-placed Redbridge 2 by 7-3. Andy Petrou was unbeaten for Grove, although he was pushed all the way by Len Tolvin in a classic match 11-9, 6-11, 9-11,11-9,11-9, which could hardly have been closer. Tolvin managed to deny Andy Home a hat trick when he defeated him in another five-set match. Home then defeated Fergal McCaffrey 15-13 in the deciding fifth game.

20 Jan 2011
In the top division of the Ilford league, 15-year-old Viktoras Burbulevicius not only appeared for his own team (Langdon 2) but was also required to play the next day for Langdon 1, who otherwise would only have had two players.

The talented junior showed his maturity with his composure and superb defensive technique, waiting to strike the high ball at the given opportune moment. His outstanding asset was his quick ability to retrieve smashes from the back of the court, chopping and even top-spinning them back. He was able to help both his Langdon teams win 10-0 against the bottom two teams in the division (Woodford Wells 2 and 3) with an individual maximum six wins out of six.

Playing his first season in the Ilford first division, he is fast becoming a player to be reckoned with.

There were also notable performances from his other team players, Lukasz Janisiewicz, Malgorzata Muda, Klaudia Szadkowska and Osman Bawa who were also unbeaten.

11 Nov 2010
In the first match of the round robin in the Ilford division 2 cup, Heathcote 2 took a 3-2 lead over Langdon 3. In the sixth match, Mitch Herber played Langdon’s Edward Agyeman and after four games, it was 2-2. In the fifth and deciding game, Agyeman won 11-6.

The following match between Heathcote’s Patrick Scarlett and Rizwan Umarjee was even closer. The first three games went to deuce 11-13, 15-13, 12-14 followed by 11-9. So once again, a fifth and deciding game was required, which was won 11-8 by Umarjee.

Dave Collins evened the team score to four matches apiece when he beat Kwaku Ampofo by three games to one.

The final doubles went to a fifth and deciding game 12-10, 5-11, 8-11, 11-9, 6-11 with Langdon the victors to give an overall match score of 5-4 to Langdon.