Russell Grant Trophy (Middlesex County Junior Inter-League Competition)

Ellenborough Table Tennis Club, HQ in Enfield of the North Middlesex League, played host to the County of Middlesex’s major junior inter-league competition, on Sunday 8th March 2009.

The local league fielded two teams and in opposition were sides from the Staines and Wembley&Harrow Leagues.

In the first set of matches, both North Middlesex ‘A’ and Wembley&Harrow had no difficulty in polishing-off by 9-0 margins North Middlesex ‘B’ and Staines respectively.

Next, Wembley had to work a little harder to defeat North Middlesex ‘B’ by 7-2, the two North Middlesex victories coming from wins by Yvonne Yip over Ami Shah in the Girl’s Singles and Marios Leoidou and Yvonne Yip over Mikhail Papantoniou and Ami Shah in the Mixed Doubles.

In the third round Staines registered their only win of the day by beating North Middlesex ‘B’ by 6-3, Richard Varley and Tom Eastwood each gaining two victories.

The big match of the day then took place between Wembley&Harrow and North Middlesex ‘A’ but it has to be said that Wembley&Harrow were too strong for the local side. However, it should also be mentioned that the three North Middlesex boys, Bradley Tuttle, Connor Neenan and Peumal Thilakaratne were aged 14, 14 and 10 respectively, while the Wembley&Harrow boys, Tony Wilkinson, Rafi Marom and Mikhail Papantoniou were aged 16,17 and 15, a difference of more than 3 years in their average ages. More significantly, perhaps, is the fact that Rafi Marom is ranked No 34 in England, Tony Wilkinson 61 and Mikhail Papantoniou No. 163 (an average figure of 86) while the North Middlesex boys are ranked 84, 134 and 314 (an average of 177) – a very significant difference!

What is more important is that the Wembley&Harrow team was an outstanding one and richly deserved its victory while the standard of sportsmanship and skill demonstrated by them was of a very high order. Indeed, throughout the competition an atmosphere of good humour was shown by all the players and everybody, winners and losers alike, enjoyed the day. At its conclusion, Terry Wilson, Coaching Secretary of the host club, presented the superb Richard Grant Trophy and accompanying medals to the winners.

Alan Shepherd – Referee

Victor Barna Inter-League Competition played at Ellenborough Table Tennis Club on 10th February 2009

On Sunday 8th February, Ellenborough Table Tennis Club played host to teams from North Middlesex, Wembley & Harrow and Central Table Tennis Leagues who took part in the annual Victor Barna Trophy competition under the auspices of the Middlesex County TTA.

The two favourites of the five sides in action were the first choice squads of Central and Wembley & Harrow. Central League paraded Darek Zurowski, and Hieu Thanh Ngo who are respectively ranked at numbers 56 and 99 in England, together with the brilliant Klaudia Szadkowska, who is 20 in the women’s rankings. They apologised for the fact that their usual first choice, Remigiyus Petrosius, ranked 33, was unfortunately unavailable on the day!

Wembley & Harrow League had its own stars, their three players Dov Katz, James Sprackling and Koji Hirota carrying the ranked positions of 76, 95 and 140. When these giants met the North Middlesex League, who were unfortunately unable to field their strongest line-up, the result was a conclusive 9-0 victory for Wembley & Harrow, although the delayed arrival of North Middlesex star, Didier Ngoma, gave more hope for the clash with the Central League. Didier did not disappoint in that he defeated both Hieu Thanh Ngo and Klaudia Szadkowska, although he had to give best to Darek Zurowski.

The match of the day was undoubtedly between Wembley & Harrow, champions and holders of the trophy for the last 3 years, and as such favourites to retain their title and Central I. However, Central proved the victors in a very hard-fought match winning 6-3. Their outstanding player was the delightful, but very determined, Klaudia Szadkowska, who defeated James Sprackling 7-11, 11-9, 13-11,14-12 and Koji Hirota by 8-11, 11-8, 12-10, 8-11, 12-10, before losing out to Dov Katz by 10-12, 4-11, 11-7, 3-11.

The day ended with the presentation of the Victor Barna Trophy and winners’ medals to the victorious Central League players.