Busy start to 2012

29/01/2012

The first weekend of January was a busy one, with a number of Rugby members playing in Competitions. Most of the top Cadets were taking part in the Warwickshire closed competition at St Nicholas Park in Warwick, the top juniors were in Grantham, competing in the East Midlands Junior 4 star and Adrian Pilgrim was playing in Hereford at the Veterans Western Masters competition.

At the Warwickshire closed there was plenty of success for Rugby. Milly Bradshaw won the Cadet girls’ competition and was runner-up in the Under 13 girls’ event. She then teamed up with her opponent in both of these finals, Olivia Fletcher from Lillington, and was runner-up in the Junior Girls’ doubles.

The cadet boys also had a good day. Both finalists in the Cadet boys’ event were from Rugby, Paul Lilley had beaten Anshul  Satsangi earlier in the day, but Anshul, not disheartened by his earlier loss, played very positively to win the final. Paul also reached the semi-final of the Junior boys’ competition as did Niall Herbert, both having some tough matches along the way. Paul and Anshul played together in the Junior Boys’ doubles and lost in four close sets to finish runners’ up.

In Grantham, Matt Outhwaite reached the quarter-finals of the Junior open competition. He didn’t quite manage to go a stage further, but made George Downing, who went on to lose the final in 5 sets, work hard for his  3-1 win.

Meanwhile, Adrian Pilgrim was flying the Rugby Flag in the opposite direction in Hereford. In the over 40’s mens’ singles he reached the quarter finals before eventually losing in 4 close sets to the number 3 seed, Keith Williams. However, the highlight of the weekend for Adrian came in the men’s doubles. Paired with Darren Griffin for the first time, they hoped their styles of play would complement one another and this certainly proved to be the case, progressing through the rounds until they won the final 3-0 against the number 1 seeds!

End of 2011 Report

05/01/2012

Happy New Year!

There have been so many excellent achievements by Rugby Premier Table Tennis Club players during 2011 that it seems worth looking back at some of the highlights that we might have forgotten or you might never have even known about! Our club and the players’ successes certainly put Rugby on the map. It is only when putting a list together like this that you realise just how much players have achieved this year, be it at local league, county, national or international level. Let’s hope that looking back over the year inspires us all to great things in 2012.

In March, the Club won the Club of the Year award at the Rugby Borough Council Sports Awards and the results below show just why we deserved it!

Daventry League
Division 1: Winners Rugby A (Dave Daniels, Peter Moffatt, Ben Holvey and Don Pritchard)
2^nd Rugby Junior A (Liam Victoros, Ben Meakin and Danny Ricks)
Division 2: Winners Rugby Junior B (Anshul Satsangi, Sam Ricks and Billy Kyle)
Division 3: Winners Rugby Junior C (Joe Sheen, Jake Lovell and Richard Massie)
2^nd Rugby C (Mark Wilson, Graham Harvey and Peter Kent)

Leamington League
Division 1: 3^rd Rugby A (Adrian Pilgrim,100%, Matthew Outhwaite, Ian Randle, Elson Costa,  Jack Randle and Jesse Kendrick-Hill).
Division 2: 2^nd Rugby B (Ben Holvey, Ryan Lines, Dave Daniels, Peter Moffatt and Don Pritchard)
Division 4: Winners Rugby D (Danny Ricks, Sam Ricks, Jo Outhwaite and Grace Newman)
2-a-side Division A: Winners Rugby E (Niall Herbert, 100%, and Paul Lilley)

National Junior League
Rugby A came 3^rd and Rugby B finished 5^th. Top player was Paul Lilley who won 75% of his matches. In the 2011/12 season so far, Rugby A (Anshul Satsangi, Niall Herbert and Paul Lilley) are in 2^nd place after2 days of competition.

National Cadet League
Rugby A finished in 4^th place and Rugby B in 6^th place, both in Division 1. The oustanding performance was Liam Victoros who won 75% of his matches. In the NCL so far this year Rugby A is placed at the top of the table with Anshul leading the averages on 90% and Paul and Niall close behind in 2^nd place on 80%.

Heart of England Cadet League
Rugby A (Liam Victoros, Paul Lilley and Niall Herbert) were winners and Rugby B (Joe Sheen, James Allington and Billy Kyle) runners-up. Liam only lost once in the league matches and then went on to win the individual competition on the final day.

Midland Junior League
The Rugby team won the Midland Junior League title for the 3^rd consecutive year despite good challenges from Birmingham, Leamington and Coventry. Various juniors played in these matches

School Teams
The Lawrence Sheriff School teams, having won both county competitions, Under 16 (Liam Victoros, Anshul Satsangi, Joe Sheen and Billy Kyle) and Under 19 (Matthew Outhwaite, Jesse Kendrick-Hill, Jack Randle and Ben Meakin), won their Zone finals at Cheltenham to progress to the Regional finals. The team event in November this year saw Lawrence Sheriff teams qualify for the Zone Finals again in January 2012.

School Individual
Matthew Outhwaite (U16) and Ryan Lines (U19) both qualified for the ESTTA National finals in Doncaster, where Matthew went on to win the bronze medal. Following this he was selected to represent England Schools at the Secondary Schools’ International Competition in Lilleshall, where he and team-mate Igor Morais won the Gold medal, beating Scotland, Ireland, Guernsey and Wales on their way to the title.

County representatives

·         Cadet – In Spring Jesse Kendrick Hill and Niall Herbert represented Warwickshire in the county cadet team. At trials in September 2011 three of the four semi-finalists were Rugby players and Paul Lilley, Anshul Satsangi, Niall Herbert and Millie Bradshaw have already represented the county in the first round of matches this season.

 ·         Junior – Matthew Outhwaite was part of the Warwickshire team who gained promotion to the junior Premier division for the 2011/12 season.

·         Senior – Adrian Pilgrim and Rachel Pilgrim were part of the senior county A team and won all their matches to gain promotion to Division 1. Matthew Outhwaite represented the county at senior level for the first time and has been selected for the Warwickshire team with Adrian and Rachel for the current season.

English Leagues Cup Competition
Jesse Kendrick-Hill paired up with Luke Spencer and Matthew Outhwaite with Laurence Sweeney as the two junior teams representing the Leamington League. Jesse and Luke came up against tough opposition in their early matches and were unable to progress to the finals. Matt and Laurence played in the finals and came third overall.

Individual tournament achievements

Paul Lilley came 3^rd in the West Midlands regional Trials to qualify for the Under 14 Nationals

Leamington closed:
Danny Ricks reached the final of the mens’ grade 3 competition narrowly losing 11-9 in the 5^th set
Sam Ricks won the U15 boys competition
Sam and Danny were runners-up in the junior doubles.
George McGowan reached the final of the U13 boys’ competition and was beaten in 5 very close sets.
Dave and Niall Herbert won the parent and child doubles.

Lillington Graded tournament
October: Emma Kilpatrick won the beginner competition in her first tournament

Burton Uxbridge 1 star events
July: Jesse Kendrick-Hill won the junior competition from 2-0 down in the final
September: Ryan Lines won the Junior event and Niall Herbert was runner-up in the cadet competition

4 star competitions
Matthew Outhwaite was runner-up in the Junior Band 1 competition Cheltenham (Cotswold) 4 star and reached the semi-final of the open Junior competition at the Derby 4 star, losing in 3 deuce sets to the overall winner.

But it wasn’t all juniors...
Adrian Pilgrim is currently ranked in the top 20 veteran men and was runner up in the National competition held in March at Hinckley beating very tough opposition and only losing to the winner in a tight final.

 If you can think of any other achievements of club members during 2011 let me know by emailing matt@rugbytabletennisclub.net and I will include them in our news.

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Ryan Under-Lines his Class

26/09/2011

Ryan Lines powered his way to victory in the Junior Event in the Burton 1 Star on Saturday 17th September. He easily won his group and moved effortlessly through the quarter and semi finals out-playing his opponents with heavy spin serves and powerful looping and driving on both backhand and forehand wings. In the final he faced Alex Meade who posed a much stiffer test. Although going the full 5 set distance Ryan managed to mix control and power and pulled clear early on in the fifth set when his opponent netted a backspin serve and was unable to block a number of powerful top-spin drives. An excellent result and sweet 'revenge' for the club as Alex had earlier defeated Niall Herbert in the final of the Cadet event.

Winner Ryan Lines and Runner-up Alex Meade

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New Website Up and Running!

22/09/2011

The new website features all the same content as the old website however the links are now categorized for easier navigation.

In the Fixtures section, you will be able to access the fixture charts, lists and team contacts for the Daventry and Leamington Leagues. Also, matches to be re-arranged at the end of the season will be shown in this section.

In the Information section, you will be able to find membership information and the committee.

The News section will show the achievements of the club members in tournaments, as well as important announcements made by the committee.

The Tournaments section will give the dates and links to entry forms for all club, county and ETTA events for both junior and senior members.

The Links section will give you access to the league websites, as well as the ETTA and Warwickshire TTA.

If you have any problems finding anything, please do not hesitate to contact me at matt@rugbytabletennisclub.net.