12 April 2008

The first round of the fourth weekend of British League Premier Division League matches produced two rather tame encounters and an absolute humdinger of a battle between Ellenborough and Sycamore, two sides who were desperate to retain their Premier Division status, and who fought for every point as if their lives depended on it.

It was Ellenborough who shaded this match 5-3, having led 3-1 at the half-way stage. Jimmy Walsh scored an important 12-10 in the fifth set victory against Adam Frost to give the London  Club a 2-1 lead and Liam Pitchford extended the lead to 3-1 by beating Shaun Marples 11-8 in the deciding set. Sycamore weren’t finished and Stuart Crawford hit back by beating Lorestas Trumpauskas 3-1 whilst Kevin Dolder levelled the scores by getting the better of Jimmy Walsh 11-8, 15-13, 13-11. Sycamore were on a roll and fifteen minutes later they must have been thinking that they were about to get something out of this match. Shuan Marples was leading Jon Nilsson by two games and 9-5 having played quite superbly. Was Nilsson beaten ?. No Way !. Some how he dug even deeper to level the match at 2-2, and he eventually pulled clear in the fifth end to score a “famous” 14-16, 9-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-7 victory. Liam Pitchford who has probably played more big matches in the last three months than any other English player had the task of sealing victory for the London Club and after winning a tense opening end 12-10, he piled on the power to win the next two games 11-4, 11-4. Ellenborough look as if they are safe and with Liam Pitchford likely to be playing in the number one or two position next year, they may be an outside bet to win the title !.

Drumchapel Glasgow’s 6-2 win over BATTS Team Peniel means they are very strong favourites to finish second, and they may have been surprised with the ease that this victory was achieved. BATTS never hit the heights in this match and a poor opening four games left them with too much to do. Sau Ayemojuba’s 12-10, 11-9,

13-11 victory over Wang Zheng kind of summed up BATTS’s morning. It was Drumchapel who seemed to have that little bit extra.  Wang Zheng gave BATTS a glimmer of hope in the fifth game by beating Ryan Jenkins 6-11, 6-11, 11-6, 15-13, 16-14, his second win over Ryan in this year’s British League. However, BATTS were unable to make further headway. Stephen Jenkins sealed the Glasgow team’s victory by beating Craig Bryant 11-9, 11-9, 11-9 and Sau Ayemojuba beat an out-of-sorts Shuying Xu 7-11, 16-14, 11-8, 11-7. This was Shu’s second defeat after she had also lost heavily 4-11, 5-11, 8-11 to the ever improving Craig Howieson. BATTS at least finished on a positive note with reserve Neil Charles scoring an excellent 9-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-7 victory over Craig Howieson.      

A weakened TTK Greenhouse side were understandably overpowered by an Ormesby team of David Meads, Mike Marsden, Justin Ma and Nigel Eckersley who ran out 8-0 winners. Henry Medellin who took games off both Mike Marsden and David Meads fared best of the TTK players. However, it was Ormesby number four, the evergreen Nigel Eckersley who was awarded the Player of the Match Award. Nigel beat Jide Owolabi 11-8, 11-6, 11-3 and Daniel Basterfield 11-7, 12-10, 11-2.

With the epic Ellenborough versus  Sycamore clash over-running it’s allocated time slot players had plenty of time to amuse themselves. Unfortunately, Stephen Jenkins found a rather novel way of relaxing between matches. He managed to get locked in the Ormesby Toilets, a first in British League history (as far as we know) !. 

Image: Lorestas Trumpauskas (Ellenborough)