DaveR
06-23-2008, 01:27 PM
http://www.sportfocus.com/newsimage/DO071544.jpg
The Table Tennis Competition in this annual Multi-Sports Tournament, which is usually held at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, was this year staged at Redbridge Sports Centre. Every London Borough is eligible to take part, and 32 of them entered a team in the Boys category, while 18 Girls teams appeared.
Unfortunately, the nature of this event dictates that there is always a vast gulf in the standards of the competing teams. As evidence of this, 17 of the initial 28 Girls group matches resulted in 5-0 victories, with Hillingdon conceding only 21 points in the 15 games they played against their opponents - a very game Islington team !.
The winners of the six groups were divided into further groups - each of three, and the two group winners contested the Gold Medal play-off. The first of these was Hillingdon (no surprise here as their team consisted of Charleigh Kirby from the London Progress Club in Southall, ranked no. 21 Cadet nationally, and unbeaten so far on the day, and she was joined by a girl not known to me - Sue Kumaning, who appears to be unranked, but was no mean player having won six of her ten games). Their opponents in the Final were Brent, who fielded Sushmita Limbu and Dipa Tamang, the highly ranked Wembley High School girls who had between them won 19 out of the 20 games played on that day.
The big match was hotly contested, and Charleigh gave her team a great chance of winning by defeating both Sushmita and Dipa. Unfortunately, Sue was not quite up to seeing these two off and everything depended on the Doubles match. This was won comfortably by the Brent girls - Dipa and Sushmita and therefore Hillingdon had to settle for the Silver medals.
The Bronze Medal match was between Kingston (Kim Beard and Lydia Regan) and Tower Hamlets (Sally Hoang and Majeda Yasmin). All four girls are ranked nationally in the top 100 Cadets, so a close match was to be expected, and it duly took place. The first two singles were shared, but Sally and Majeda took the Doubles 11-3, 11-8,
6-11, 8-11, 11-7 to lead 2-1. Kim in turn beat Majeda to level the tie at 2-2, and it all depended on the outcome of the game between Lydia Regan and Sally Hoang. It was one of those games that veered violently one way and then the other before Sally came through to win 12-10, 6-11, 1-11, 11-8, 11-8 to secure the Bronze medals for Tower Hamlets.
A similar pattern of events was seen in the eight Boys Groups, where 29 of the 48 matches ended in 5-0 results. However, the eight most powerful teams duly emerged from their original groups to contest the two "Groups of Death", from which the Gold medals would be decided.
The very first match of the Knock-Out Groups was between Tower Hamlets (Emran Hussain and Ryan Viegas) and Ealing (Daniel Basterfield and Sullivan Morais). All of these boys are highly ranked nationally at Junior level (in the top 65) and it was Emran, the Essex no. one Junior, who got his team off to a great start by beating Daniel Basterfield, the very talented Middlesex Junior 7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-8. However, with Sullivan Morais ranked some 200 points below Ryan Viegas, beating Ryan 3-1 the score reverted to 1-1. Emran/Ryan took the Doubles, and Emran secured the win for his side by beating Sullivan Morais, again by a 3-1 margin.
An inform Emran was again undefeated in both Singles and Doubles when his team defeated the strong Lewisham side by 4-1. Lewisham's team consisted of no. 57 ranked Jide Owolabi and T.J. Jaiyola, both from Kent. As Tower Hamlets also defeated Haringey (Suchira Gallage of Ellenborough and Robbie Payne-Inglis of Three E's) it was Tower Hamlets who were the first Qualifiers for the "Gold Medal match".
The team with the highest nationally rated players in Play-Off Group two was Barnet - (Guy Ben-Aroya at no. 42 and Rafi Marom at 35) and they saw off Newham and Barking both by 5-0 margins, and then Brent 3-0, to book their Final appearance.
On paper the Gold Medal match looked a little disappointing as Tower Hamlets won 3-0, but in fact it was a really well contested affair and could well have gone the distance. Emran Hussain, at his very best, gave a masterful display to beat Rafi Marom 11-3, 11-6, 11-7 but Guy Ben-Aroya made Ryan Viegas work really hard for his 11-13, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10 victory. The Doubles produced a really great battle before the Tower Hamlets lads clinched victory 9-11, 11-3, 9-11, 12-10, 12-10.
So, it was the Gold Medals for Tower Hamlets, Silver Medals to Barnet, with Lewisham clinching third place by beating Barking and Dagenham 3-1 in the Bronze medal match. Further proof of the very high standard of this year's event was illustrated by the fact that Ealing (Daniel Basterfield and Sullivan Morais) finished outside of the top four places.
Alan Shepherd
London Youth Games Referee
Photo: Dipa Tamang
ETTA Article
The Table Tennis Competition in this annual Multi-Sports Tournament, which is usually held at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, was this year staged at Redbridge Sports Centre. Every London Borough is eligible to take part, and 32 of them entered a team in the Boys category, while 18 Girls teams appeared.
Unfortunately, the nature of this event dictates that there is always a vast gulf in the standards of the competing teams. As evidence of this, 17 of the initial 28 Girls group matches resulted in 5-0 victories, with Hillingdon conceding only 21 points in the 15 games they played against their opponents - a very game Islington team !.
The winners of the six groups were divided into further groups - each of three, and the two group winners contested the Gold Medal play-off. The first of these was Hillingdon (no surprise here as their team consisted of Charleigh Kirby from the London Progress Club in Southall, ranked no. 21 Cadet nationally, and unbeaten so far on the day, and she was joined by a girl not known to me - Sue Kumaning, who appears to be unranked, but was no mean player having won six of her ten games). Their opponents in the Final were Brent, who fielded Sushmita Limbu and Dipa Tamang, the highly ranked Wembley High School girls who had between them won 19 out of the 20 games played on that day.
The big match was hotly contested, and Charleigh gave her team a great chance of winning by defeating both Sushmita and Dipa. Unfortunately, Sue was not quite up to seeing these two off and everything depended on the Doubles match. This was won comfortably by the Brent girls - Dipa and Sushmita and therefore Hillingdon had to settle for the Silver medals.
The Bronze Medal match was between Kingston (Kim Beard and Lydia Regan) and Tower Hamlets (Sally Hoang and Majeda Yasmin). All four girls are ranked nationally in the top 100 Cadets, so a close match was to be expected, and it duly took place. The first two singles were shared, but Sally and Majeda took the Doubles 11-3, 11-8,
6-11, 8-11, 11-7 to lead 2-1. Kim in turn beat Majeda to level the tie at 2-2, and it all depended on the outcome of the game between Lydia Regan and Sally Hoang. It was one of those games that veered violently one way and then the other before Sally came through to win 12-10, 6-11, 1-11, 11-8, 11-8 to secure the Bronze medals for Tower Hamlets.
A similar pattern of events was seen in the eight Boys Groups, where 29 of the 48 matches ended in 5-0 results. However, the eight most powerful teams duly emerged from their original groups to contest the two "Groups of Death", from which the Gold medals would be decided.
The very first match of the Knock-Out Groups was between Tower Hamlets (Emran Hussain and Ryan Viegas) and Ealing (Daniel Basterfield and Sullivan Morais). All of these boys are highly ranked nationally at Junior level (in the top 65) and it was Emran, the Essex no. one Junior, who got his team off to a great start by beating Daniel Basterfield, the very talented Middlesex Junior 7-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-8. However, with Sullivan Morais ranked some 200 points below Ryan Viegas, beating Ryan 3-1 the score reverted to 1-1. Emran/Ryan took the Doubles, and Emran secured the win for his side by beating Sullivan Morais, again by a 3-1 margin.
An inform Emran was again undefeated in both Singles and Doubles when his team defeated the strong Lewisham side by 4-1. Lewisham's team consisted of no. 57 ranked Jide Owolabi and T.J. Jaiyola, both from Kent. As Tower Hamlets also defeated Haringey (Suchira Gallage of Ellenborough and Robbie Payne-Inglis of Three E's) it was Tower Hamlets who were the first Qualifiers for the "Gold Medal match".
The team with the highest nationally rated players in Play-Off Group two was Barnet - (Guy Ben-Aroya at no. 42 and Rafi Marom at 35) and they saw off Newham and Barking both by 5-0 margins, and then Brent 3-0, to book their Final appearance.
On paper the Gold Medal match looked a little disappointing as Tower Hamlets won 3-0, but in fact it was a really well contested affair and could well have gone the distance. Emran Hussain, at his very best, gave a masterful display to beat Rafi Marom 11-3, 11-6, 11-7 but Guy Ben-Aroya made Ryan Viegas work really hard for his 11-13, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10 victory. The Doubles produced a really great battle before the Tower Hamlets lads clinched victory 9-11, 11-3, 9-11, 12-10, 12-10.
So, it was the Gold Medals for Tower Hamlets, Silver Medals to Barnet, with Lewisham clinching third place by beating Barking and Dagenham 3-1 in the Bronze medal match. Further proof of the very high standard of this year's event was illustrated by the fact that Ealing (Daniel Basterfield and Sullivan Morais) finished outside of the top four places.
Alan Shepherd
London Youth Games Referee
Photo: Dipa Tamang
ETTA Article