TTPro

Watford Grammar - dates of close.

Watford Grammar school will be shut tonight for table tennis, and this will continue through to the 4th January.

First sessions for the new year will commence on the 6th January 2010.

Have a merry christmas, and a happy new year!

Scottish Braveheart Niall Cameron tackles England

Day two at the Tees Sport supported Newcastle Grand Prix witnessed upsets galore in the Men’s Open where the atmosphere was electric with a whole packet of top seeds falling by the wayside.

Firstly Stewart Crawford S2 took an early bath after succumbing to the French hotshot Wilson Huart in the round of the last sixteen, followed by Darius Knight S1 making his way back to Sheffield after a dramatic and unexpected loss to Flying Scotsman Niall Cameron 9-11 in the fifth after leading 6-2 in the deciding end. Wow what a dramatic match then total silence followed! With Cameron S5 safely through to the last four, this left the remaining quarter final match between Damien Nicholls S3,(who had earlier been responsible for the departure of Scott Barton) and Craig Hardie (who had a famous win over Ben Barlow and was on cloud 9 from yesterday) in the top half of the draw to be played.

The two remaining quarter final encounters in the lower half of the draw were between Matt Ware S4 opposing Euan Liddle with Ashley Willetts up against Wilson Huart. The Frenchman came through 3-1 over Ashley Willets to book his semi final place whilst Matt Ware took a straight sets win against Euan Liddle to meet Monsieur Huart for a place in the final.

Damien Nicholls was simply superb in blasting away yesterday’s hero Scotsman Craig Hardie in straight sets to set up a last four clash with Niall Cameron (on a high after displacing Darius Knight in the previous round). This meant that three out of the four semi finalists hailed from the Grantham College Academy! The Scotsman Cameron was probably playing his best ever table tennis and was in the zone throughout his semi final battle with Nicholls taking the match 3-0 to await his final opponent. Two tables away Matt Ware was also finding top form to halt the Frenchman’s dramatic progress coming through in three close sets to set up an England v Scotland final.

Ware took first blood in the opening set of the final, however it was once again the Flying Scotsman Cameron who soaked up everything that Ware could throw at him countering spectacularly with top class back from the table pinpoint topspin rallies that the audience were in awe of. Niall levelled at 1-1, and then followed probably the finest set of wall to wall class from both finalists. Cameron then took that all so important 3rd set 15-13, which he then followed up 11-8 in the 4th leg to secure an unexpected but thoroughly well deserved victory to be crowned Newcastle Men’s Open Champion together with a nice cheque for £300.

Watford Boys Table Tennis Club Open

Wahay.

Go to TimeTables tab to check out times you can attend.

See you soon!

Urban Progress New Hub Nearly Live.

First look at the New Watford Boys Grammar School(WBGS) - Urban Progress TTPro Table Tennis Academy... Wednesday 7th October.. tables arrived, unpacked, final details thrashed out on timings and sessions... Below is some videos of a few members playing on a table we set up, and there was even a surprise visit from a Blog Fan who takes the Met. train up to the venue from HARROW to check it out (Adam... plays with Steve Levin in the Wembley League). On that note, the WBGS is just a short walk from the Watford Met. train station.

I'm sure you'll agree it looks pretty fantastic... what a boost for Table Tennis in Watford and the local area!! This now completes the 5 hub locations for the first urban progress unit, other locations include Hendon School, Finchley catholic school, Ravenscroft school and Ellenboro' Table Tennis Club.

Sessions officially start on Wednesday October 14th timings as previously reported. Unofficially if you'd like to check out the venue we have an open evening on Friday 9th... why not come on down and see the venue for yourself and get more information... click here for Map to WBGS - Urban Progress TTPro Table Tennis Academy

British League Div 1 South

Division One South

Relegated Fusion I are the clear leaders with a maximum eight points and after beating their three closest challengers - DHS Greenhouse Progress I, Woolwell I and Pavillion Brighton all by 5-3 margins they look to be in a commanding position. Mark Smith was very much the “top-man” against DHS Greenhouse Progress powering his way to a 11-3, 11-3, 11-7 win over Koji Hirota and a 11-7, 11-5, 11-4 victory against Henry Medellin. No mean performance as Hirota beat Tommy Cutler 3-1 in his second singles.

Mark Smith was again on fine form as Fusion beat Woolwell, defeating both Darren Reed (11-6, 11-7, 11-2) and the still improving Chris Smith (11-9, 11-9, 11-9) with another fine display. It was Marketa Myskova who caused the South Londoners the most problems. She used all her experience and tenacity to beat both Remigius Petrosius (12-10, 13-11, 8-11, 6-11, 11-9) and Thomas Hughes (11-9, 9-11, 14-12, 7-11, 11-6). On an entirely different note, full marks are extended to the Devon team for fielding a 100 % local side - something of a rarity in the higher Divisions. It is also very pleasing to see Chris Smith graduating to their first team after competing so well in the second division for the last two years.  

Elsewhere, two players to catch the eye were former England international Sean Gibson (BATTS Team Paniel) and Cris Sladden (Pavilion Brighton), an integral member of the dominant London Progress teams of seven /eight years ago. Gibson was a class apart as BATTS lost 6-2 against DHS Greenhouse Progress. His wins against Jerome Jonah (11-2, 11-5, 11-6) and Koji Hirota (11-6, 11-4, 11-3) need little further comment whilst Gibson also came out on top in a real thriller against Urban Progress’ Tibor Kadar. Sean won this one: 8-11, 6-11, 15-13, 11-9, 12-10 in a match which finished level.

Sean won another hum-dinger in the match against Pavilion Brighton, beating Ashley Stokes

11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 6-11, 12-10.  Gibson’s one defeat came in the match BATTS won, when he succumbed to Generation 2’s Adam Proszko (13-11, 11-6, 10-12, 8-11, 8-11). His team-mates helped console him and Oscar Selfridge‘s wins against Roger Hookey (3-2) and Daniel Lucking (3-1) ensured that the Essex side took both points. Proszko acquitted himself very well, also seeing off Martin Kubrt 13-15, 12-10, 6-11, 12-10, 11-9.  

After a six year break from Table Tennis and a tentative return to League Table Tennis last Season Cris Sladden must have approached this weekend with some trepidation. It didn’t show. He won seven of his eight singles with  wins over the BATTS Team Peniel pairing of Oscar Selfridge and  Martin Kubrt, Urban Progress’s Anthony Constantinou and Gergely Urban, the Cippenham duo of Cedric Brion and Robert Hansell and most impressive of all Fusion’s Tommy Cutler. His one defeat came against Fusion’s hard-hitting Remigius Petrosius.

Urban Progress I with a mere two points look a pale imitation of the team of last year, surprising when you consider their squad includes the likes of Tibor Kadar, Gergely Urban and Zoltan Hosszu. They managed to draw against Cippenham, in a match where Tibor Kadar was easily the best player on view. He beat both Martin Adams (11-5, 11-6, 11-8) and newcomer Cedric Brion (14-1 5-11, 11-8, 11-4).

Cippenham just missed out 5-3 against Woolwell II despite both Robert Hansell and Lee Dredge managing to drill some holes in Marketa Myskova’s usually impregnable defence. Lee Dredge appears to have hardly put a foot wrong as he won 11-7, 11-5, 13-11. Darren Reed and Richard Marshall were both unbeaten for Woolwell with Reed in particular playing very well. Reed beat both Martin Adams (11-7, 11-3, 11-6) and Cedric Brion (11-5, 13-11, 11-7).

Urban Progress II struggle at Ashford (Day 2)

The second day of the South and West division 2 round 1 weekend was no better for Urban Progress II than day 1. Losing both Zoli and Csaba to the first team, two juniors were drafted in to support the old veterans Roger Pyle and Chris Ogle. Chris was playing at No.1, Roger at 2, with the Juniors playing lower down the order with a hope they might pick up some wins.

The first match was against Horsham where we narrowly lost 5-3, the two juniors picking up all three games with some great performance from both Pritesh and Antony. Roger narrowly lost to Peter Bartram after leading 2-1 and 7-3 up in the fourth set. The second match saw us outgunned 8-0 by a strong Ashford side. Some footage of the Horsham match below :-

Pritesh British League Table Tennis 6th Sep 09 Vs Horsham

Antony British League Table Tennis 6th Sep 09 Vs Horsham

Antony British League Table Tennis 6th Sep 09 Vs Horsham - Part 2

Roger British League Table Tennis 6th Sep 09 Vs Horsham

Urban Progress II struggle at Ashford

The weekend of the 5th / 6th of September saw the start of the 2009/10 Table Tennis season with the first round of the British League. In Division two South and West the second team played at Ashford. Due to injuries and also players being away out of the country we had a weakened side out on both days. On the Saturday we went down 6-2 to York Garden and 5-3 to Horsham. A strong performance by player / coach Zoli Hosszu winning 4 out of 4, brave performances by Csaba Balint and Roger Pyle but all of us a bit off the boil. Roger was playing his first competitive matches for 24 years at this level, and Csaba who has only been playing for just over 18 months put in a superb performance only narrowly losing out on a couple of occasions. Below is footage of the first days play...

Csaba British League Table Tennis 5th Sep 09 Vs York Garden

Csaba British League Table Tennis 5th Sep 09 Vs Cippenham

Zoli British League Table Tennis 5th Sep 09 Vs Cippenham

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