JUNIOR COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
ROUND TWO REPORT.
A young Berkshire county junior team won the Junior County Championships Division 2D in some style at Cippenham on 20 February.
Victories in all five second round matches, against Buckinghamshire 2 (by a 10-0 score line), Cambridgeshire (9-1), Sussex 2 (6-4), Sussex 3 (8-2) and Essex 4 (10-0), secured the league title and promotion to Division 1.
The stars of the show were Daniel Moses (aged 16) and Liam McTiernan (14) who won all ten of their matches and Megan Knowles (13) and Maria Tsaptsinos (12) who only lost one of their matches.
Two players did well on debut, with Hanson Xu (14), a very late replacement for Jarrod Knowles, winning seven out of ten and Newbury based Maria Shazard (14) picking up one win from her three matches, unluckily losing two at deuce in the deciding set.
Berkshire Table Tennis Association Secretary, Sylvia Brutton, passed on her warmest congratulations to the team. She also thanked Alan Dines, Brian Halliday and the parents for their support.
The medals will be presented at a later date, whereupon a celebration party will be arranged for all eight players, including Jarred Knowles and Daniel McTiernan, both of whom played in the first round of matches last year.
ROUND ONE REPORT.
A young Berkshire team started their 2009-10 junior county championships campaign in blistering fashion, taking their first match 9-1 against an experienced Essex 3 team. The match saw the debut of 10 year old Daniel McTiernan, who was substituting for his older brother Liam. Daniel got off to a fine winning start with a 3-0 win over Adam Dukes but couldn't quite get the better of Scott Dowsett in the last game, losing 3-1 and thus giving Essex 3 a consolation win. The other four Berkshire players (Daniel Moses, Jarred Knowles, Megan Knowles and Maria Tsaptsinos) all recorded very creditable maximums.
The second round saw Berkshire pitted against one of the favourites, Surrey 2. With Jarred Knowles having lost the opener against their No 1, Alois Clair, we were given a boost when both Daniel McTiernan and Megan Knowles pulled off superb 3-0 wins. Enter Daniel Moses who just about won an epic five setter with Gobi Sriparen (11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 3-11, 12-10). This set us up for a 6-4 victory with every player contributing at least one win and Daniel Moses managing two. A fine team victory against worthy opposition.
In the last match of the day, Berkshire held an immediate 2-0 lead as Kent 2 could only field one girl - the other having succumbed to illness earlier in the day. Despite this head start, the Kent side raced out of the blocks winning both openers in the fifth, with the Daniels being the unlucky casualties. This was followed up by a tense encounter between Jarred Knowles and Gregory Kaddock which went one way then the other until Gregory finally got home by the narrowest of margins, 13-11 in the fifth. When Maria Tsapisinos subsequently lost to the highly talented, Danniella Gray, the team found itself 4-2 down. Whilst things improved later with good wins for Daniel Moses and Jarred Knowles, it proved too much to pull back as Berkshire crashed to a 6-4 loss, only their second in two years.
Berkshire are currently in joint second place in Division 2D, behind leaders Sussex 2 who althogh unbeaten still have yet to play us and with Liam back for the next round, the championship race should go down to the wire.
