Ilford TTL - News Articles 2012/13

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

17 May 2013

The final week of the Ilford league Closed tournament featured the Veterans Singles and the Handicap Singles.

In the former, the bottom half of the draw went as expected, with No. 2 seed Phil Walker meeting no. 3 seed Gavin West in the semi-final. The top half was full of surprises. Firstly, no. 1 seed Peter Radford withdrew through illness, then no. 4 seed Mike Wood was beaten in the group stage by unseeded Colin Green.

No. 5 seed Paul Martindill, having survived a marathon match against Feizal Mauthoor, then lost to Sal Ahmed. In the semi-final, Green played brilliantly to beat Ahmed and set-up a final match against Walker. However, the final was an anti-climax as Walker won easily 11-6, 11-2, 11-5.

The Handicap Singles final was just the opposite, full of excitement and surprises. Players play the best of three games up to 33 points with each player given a handicap according to ability. Sal Ahmed (handicap 5) won the first game 33-30 against Casey Cross (handicap 10), who in turn won the second game comfortably 33-22.

In the deciding game, Ahmed won seven of the first nine points to draw level at 12-12. Cross then played some positive attacking shots to lead 21-15. Ahmed fought back to level at 22-22 but Cross then won the next two points. Ahmed then had a purple patch to lead for the first time at 29-27 and then 31-29. Cross was not to be denied and he levelled the scores at deuce (32-32) then won the next two points for a 34-32 victory.

10 May 2013

The second week of the Ilford league Closed tournament featured the doubles events. In the Open Doubles, defending champions Darek Zurowski and Klaudia Szadkowska from the Langdon club met Gavin West and Maciej Nakielski from Fellows Cranleigh. The latter pair, runners-up last year, had defeated top seeds Spero and Lesser in an earlier round.

In the final, the Langdon pair dominated from the start and won the first two games, both 11-6. In the third game, it looked as if the combination of West’s attack and Nakielski’s defence would produce dividends as they led 10-8 but the Langdon pair pulled back to deuce, finally winning 14-12 to seal a deserved 3-0 victory.

In the Veteran’s doubles, West was again involved, this time with his Cranleigh partner Feizal Mauthoor, against defending champions Phil Walker and Paul Martindill from the Woodford Wells club. The champions narrowly won the first game 11-9 then came from 8-10 down to win the second game 12-10. Their opponents won the next two games 11-7, 11-4 to set-up a deciding fifth game.

The fifth game began well for the champions as they won the first three points but the Cranleigh pair then won the next six points to lead 6-3. Despite a gallant fight back, the champions couldn’t rediscover their earlier consistency and lost 8-11, so West and Mauthoor are the new champions.

03 May 2013

The first week of the Ilford league Closed tournament took place this week. In the main event, the Open Singles, Darek Zurowski, who improved with every match, defeated Roland Zaunmayr in the final in three straight games 11-7, 11-7, 11-6.

In the Division 2&3 Singles, Colin Green, having defeated number one seed Paul Pells in the semi-final, faced Ray Brown in the final. Green began the final as he had finished the semi and won the first two games. Brown recovered from his slow start to win the next two games. In the fifth and deciding game, the players were inseparable at 9-9. Green then won the next two points to give him victory 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 10-12, 11-9.

There was a similarly close finish to the Division 3 final. Number one seed Stan Kenner reached the final despite playing with his spare bat as his had gone missing at the start of the evening. His opponent, unseeded Malik Diop was in sparkling form and had also reached the semi-final of the Division 2&3 event. Diop won the first two games 11-9, 11-9 then lost the next two 9-11, 5-11. In the decider, both players reached deuce at 10-10. Kenner’s experience then told as he won the next two points for a 12-10 victory over his young opponent.

21 March 2013
Second-placed W/Wells 3 had a shock when they found themselves 2-3 down against Heathcote 4, despite a win by Ray Brown over Brian Brown in the opening match and a very close win by David Penrose over Heathcote’s Shahid Mahmood 12-10, 12-10, 10-12, 9-11, 12-10 in the second match.

In the third match, Wells’ Adrian Joseph won the first two games against David Adeleye then lost the next two 9-11, 10-12. In the decider, Joseph led 8-1 only to see Adeleye claw back the points to win 11-9.

Mahmood was intent on making amends and he did so with a convincing win in match 4 over Wells’ Ray Brown, 11-9, 9-11, 11-2, 11-2. Brian Brown of Heathcote then beat Joseph in five to give his team a 3-2 lead.

However, all the other five matches went to W/Wells, who have now guaranteed finishing second in the league.

07 March 2013
In division 3 of the Ilford league, Grove Castle hosted Langdon 5, who are challenging for one of the promotion places. True to form, the visitors won the first three matches, then Grove won the next three, guaranteeing that rare scenario of nobody winning all 3 and nobody losing all 3.

In the next match, Grove’s Graeme Wilson met Chris Alexander. Chris was 2-1 up and 10-4 up in the 4^th game. He then went for a spectacular winner, lost it and it seemed to spur Graeme on to win eight consecutive points. Graeme got to 8-8 in the deciding fifth game before losing it 11-8.

Grove drew level at 4-4 when Andy Petrou beat Akram Bhuyan, then took the lead when captain Andy Home came from 2-1 down in games to win the decider11-9. Langdon then won the doubles for a 5-5 draw on the night.

28 February 2013
 In division 1 of the Ilford league, Woodford Wells 1 hosted Heathcote 1. Wells were without their number one, Roland Zaunmayr, so called upon Kevin Carby from their 3^rd team in division 2.

Nana Ansah was unbeaten on the night for Heathcote but Carby was the only player to extend him to a fifth and deciding game. Carby then beat Casey Cross but his best effort was losing 12-14 in the fifth game to Heathcote number one, Mike Wood.

Wells other two players, Phil Walker and Paul Martindill, won two of their three singles and the doubles to record a narrow 6-4 victory.

22 November 2012
 Leaders of division 2 in the Ilford league, “Mossford 4” visited second-placed “Woodford Wells 2”, who were just one point behind in the table. A close encounter was expected and five of the ten matches went to a fifth and deciding game.

However, nobody expected that the final result would be 10-0 to Wells. The opening singles was close, with Paul Pells of Wells beating Tony Cantale 11-9 in the fifth game. Cantale was involved in another 5-game marathon when he played Keith Turner. Cantale came from 2 games to 1 down to win the fourth game 11-8. Then in the fifth game, a rare occurrence as Turner won 11-0.

The next match saw another close match as Paul Pells beat Colin Green in the fifth game after losing the first two games 11-4, 11-6. Phil Jacobs of Wells then played brilliantly to defeat Colin Henderson 11-0, 11-4, 11-4. Two 11-0 scores in one match is an even rarer event.

With all the singles completed, Wells led 9-0, so Mossford only had the doubles to get on the scoreboard. Wells had Jacobs and Turner against Henderson and Green. Unsurprisingly, this also went to a fifth game and at 14-14 it was difficult to separate them. However, the Wells pair finally got the important two-point advantage to win 16-14.