Saturday 27 November saw the National Junior League's second match day with both Warrington junior teams in action against the best of the North West.

Warrington Junior's A team, starting the day forth in division one, faced Halton, Wirral, Formby, Stockport and Wigan and impressed throughout, achieving three wins, one draw and one loss - an improved performance over match-day-one.

In an unchanged team, a determined Alex Storey went on a day-long frenzy of winning performances and, for the second match-day running, won nine of his ten matches, including a good win against Halton's Jack Hunter-Spivey. Alex's single loss and his most tricky match of the day came against an in-form Matthew Clewitt, which he lost narrowly having won in the opening day of the season two weeks earlier. Clewitt is currently the in-form junior in the region having won back-to-back two-star tournamemts, including an U18s win in Blackpool.

Adam Tomlinson started the day wanting to improve on his four wins on day one. His team manager, Kevin Eden, said: "when Adam won against Halton I had a feeling we could be in for a good day." Adam went on to win five matches and with Martin Brown, who impressed to deliver three important wins, helped the team to climb to 3rd place in the league.

Kevin Eden added: "Today was a good all-round team performance. Alex, Adam and Martin had to be at their best to secure our three wins and a draw. And to have only lost one match all day, to the league leaders, is very encouraging. Well done to all of the team."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Junior League Div 1
Warrington Table Tennis Club Juniors A team
Top Left: Adam Tomlinson
Above: Alex Storey
Left: Martin Brown

 

 

 

 

 

In division two, Warrington's B team had three wins against Halton, Warrington Boetler and Tameside and two losses against Wirral and Farnworth.  

"We had to contend with some very tricky matches, particularly against Halton, Tameside and Wirral, which could easily have gone either way. The team had to stay focused on the task in hand to make sure they secured their wins. A strong performance from Andrew Rhodes helped us get off to a winning start," said team manager and head coach, Sue Harper. Warrington came close in their match against Wirral: Daniel Clarke narrowly lost to Joe Pilkington, the top-ranked under 13s player in the region and another David Eden-David Eckl five-gamer this time went Eckl's way.   

Sue Harper went on to praise Liam Laurence's junior league debut, in which he took a game off an experienced Sam Kydd and pushed Nathan Patel in three close games. "Liam Laurence stood in for Andrew Rhodes at very short notice in three of the day's matches. It gave him valuable experience of playing some of the top juniors in the north west," added Sue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Junior League Div 2
Warrington Table Tennis Club Juniors B team
Left to right: Andrew Rhodes, David Eden
Daniel Clarke, Liam Laurence
 

Warrington's attentions now turn to the National Cadet League in two weeks time, when its three cadet league teams will be looking to build on their achievements in the season's opening matches.