WELSH SUCCESS AT JBL
The second weekend of the Junior British League was held on 13 and 14 February in the Fenton Manor Leisure Complex, near to Stoke-on-Trent-and it proved a highly successful one for teams including Welsh players. Two teams gained promotion to higher divisions, albeit in very different circumstances.
The Ael-y-Bryn team of Daniel O’Connell, Jonathan Evans, Josh Jenkins, and Alex O’Connell contesting boys division 2b had a commanding 4 point lead following the first weekend of JBL.
The team quickly set to work on the Saturday morning building on their lead beating Halton, and DHS Progress. By the end of Saturday’s matches, the team had achieved their objective and won the division 2 title, whatever results came on the Sunday.
However, there was to be no easing down in their performances and by the end of the final day, Ael-y-Bryn had amassed the maximum 20 points after winning all ten matches over the two weekends. Daniel O’Connell maintained a100% player average, whilst Jonathan and Josh were also in the top 5 in the individual averages.
The boys won their league with some comfort; however, it was a completely different scenario in the Girls 1st Division. The BATTS team, who comprised this weekend of Chloe Thomas, Angharad and Megan Phillips had only won two of their matches during the first weekend back in October and were a distant third in the league. They realized that, if promotion was to be achieved, every match had to be won and that other results had to go their way. As the weekend progressed, the Welsh trio played superbly and beat all the other teams; their dominance exemplified by winning 25 out of the 30 matches. Promotion all depended on the last match and, playing some of their best table tennis of the weekend they defeated the Bridge Club, the team with the highest combined ranking points by 6-0!!
It was truly a team effort with all three players finishing in the top 5 in the individual averages of players who played regularly over the two weekends. Amongst Chloe’s wins were remarkable comebacks from 2-0 against Tin Tin Ho and Vicky Smith, whilst Megan claimed notable scalps against Rachel Farquhar, Vicky Smith and the in-form Evangeline Collier. Meanwhile, Angharad, who finished top of the player averages had notable wins against Rachel Farquhar and Sara Dolan.
Parc Premier Sports, the other Welsh team in Division 1, battled hard all weekend and their hard work paid dividends when in the very last match of the weekend they gained the points which guaranteed their status as a Division 1 team for next season. It was a another highly tense affair with their final position remaining in the balance until their excellent win against Peniel. The team which comprised Hannah Avery, Natasha Rees and Beth Roberts were involved in a number of close matches. This was particularly the case for the resurgent Natasha who claimed some very good wins including an excellent victory against Irish number one, Ashley Givan.
Meanwhile, in the Premier Division a 50% win record for Charlotte Carey included good victories against Jess Dawson and Jas Ould and some narrow losses against Yolanda King and Karina Le Fevre. Despite her brave individual efforts, Charlotte’s team, Burton Uxbridge, could not gain the required number of points and were relegated to Division 1.
It was also a 50% win record for Cameron Thomas playing for Horsham who will remain in Division 1 next season.