Sainsbury's School Games 2014-2015 Stroud District - Level 2
Stratford Park Leisure Centre - 5th December
Entries for this years School games competition were disappointingly low compared to last year. Stroud High School was the only school to enter the Girls U12 and U15 categories and so they progress unopposed to the County Level 3 finals.Marling and Katherine Lady Berkeley were the only entrants in the Boys competitions, possibly a reflection on the successful after-school clubs now running at these schools.
Marling dominated proceedings, take the first two places in the U12 and U15. The less experienced KLB players, most of whom have only recently taken up table tennis, gave a very good account of themselves however, and some of the matches were a lot closer than the scores suggest.
Boys U12 - Semi-final 1
In the first semi-final, Marling B beat KLB 5-3. Marlings points came from Ben Souter who won both his matches and one each from Oli Loe, Ben Chin and Oli Corbishley. For KLB, Joseph McCoubrie won both his matches and the other point came from Jack Woodall.Semi-final 2
The second semi-final was an 8-0 whitewash for Marling A over Marling C. The C team were not helped by only fielding three players and were shown no mercy as the more experienced Walter Lovell, Finlay Davis, Pablo Carrington and Daniel ONeil won each set 2-0.Final
The all-Marling final saw the A team convincingly beat the B team 7-1. Two wins each for Walter Lovell, Pablo Carrington and Daniel ONeil and one for Finlay Davies provided the A teams points. Oli Loe picked up the B teams only point and took Walter Lovell to three. Ben Souter and Ben Chin were also involved in three-setters only to miss out in the final game.Boys U15 Competition
Marling and KLB each provided three teams and the competition started with two groups of three fighting it out for a place in the final.Group 1
Marling B were short of a player but still managed to beat KLB A 5-3 in the first match in group 1. For the winners, Lucas Davies and Jethro Kingsley won both their matches and Jasper Dadhou picked the other point. KLBs Rory Farwell had a very good win against the more experienced Jasper Dadhou to pick up his teams only earned point.In the second group 1 match, KLB C fared slightly better than their A team, sharing the match 4-4 with Marling B. Hamish Kenny and Lucas Lingham each won a match for KLB, the other two points coming from walkovers. Hamish and Tom Barton made their opponents work hard before losing out in the final game of three. Jasper Dadhou was Marlings top scorer with two points, the other points coming from Lucas Davies and Jethro Kingsley.
KLB C needed to win the third match in group 1 against their A team 6-2 in order to pip Marling B to a place in the final. The C team put up a good fight but the unlikely didnt happen as the A team took the match 5-3 with two wins for Rory Farwell and Harry Parkinson and one for Patrick Gurmin. Joe Sands, Hamish Kenny and Lucas Lingham scored the C teams points.
Marling B win Group 1
Group 2
The experienced Marling A team of Marcus Holba, Louis Lovell, George Morris and Ethan Byrne were much too strong for KLB B winning 8-0 without dropping a game in the first group 2 match. For KLB, Harry Penfold played very well against Louis Lovell, going close in the second game 11-13.KLB B came up against Marling C in the second group 2 match and at 2-4 down with two to play a draw was possible. At this stage, Harry Penfold and Tom Page were KLBs point scorers. James Edwards and Jack Barton took the last two sets to a deciding game but Marlings James Edwards and Max Hardwicke closed them out. A 6-2 victory for Marling C then which included another win each for James and Max and two from Tom Judge.
Game three in group 2 proved to be another emphatic 8-0 win for Marling A this time against their C team. Again the A team didnt drop a single game but Tom Judge put in a good performances against Marcus Holba (12-14, 11-13) and Louis Lovell (5-11, 10-12).
Marling A win Group 2.
Final
The final was another all Marling affair which unsurprisingly went the way of the A team with a 7-1 victory over Marling B. With only three players, the B team had little chance of pulling off a surprise result but they gave it a go as Jasper Dadadouh beat Louis Lovell and took Marcus Holba to three, 9-11, 11-7, 6-11. Jethro Kingsley nearly caused an upset against George Morris and couldnt have got closer before losing out 8-11, 12-10, 10-12. For the victors, George and Ethan Byrne each won two and Louis and Marcus one each.Marling School will join Stroud High School at the County Level 3 finals to be held at YMCA Cheltenham on Tuesday 13 January 2015 running from 1 to 6pm.
Report by Jim Hurford
9 December 2014
Thanks from KLB
A nice note from Sharron Bates from KLB School. She says: A big thank you from KLB to Jim Hurford for all your work organising this tournament and for your leadership on the day. Also thanks to Dave Adamson and Alice Trinder (coaches at KLB) and Harry Joyce for support during competition to ensure it ran smoothly. Our students very much appreciated the opportunity to play in a competitive competition in a club setting.9 December 2014