juniors - archived news 

national & county junior scene

Two more events (four competitions) were played on the new Sussex Circuit at Crawley and Hailsham in January and February, respectively. Although the Sussex Circuit is an U18 competition, it is banded by ability and gives all children the opportunity to play plenty of games keeping it fun as they learn. Emma, Davids L and T, Ed, Stuart Chambers, Marcus have all played in Band A and Sam Cooper and Sam George won gold and silver in Band D at Crawley.

The final rankings of the 141 players on the Sussex Circuit, which excluded the top 16 Sussex Junior Boys and the top 8 Girls (this exclusion has just been lifted) for our Juniors who took part were as follows: Emma (7), Stuart (9), Ed (19), David L (26), Marcus (28), David T (37), Toby (55), Harry Lodge (67), Hannah Alfred (84), Ben George (86), Matt Bristow (88), James Rennie (100), Jack Watson (114), Sam Cooper (115), Sammy George (121) and Toby Lodge (134). This is very encouraging given that this is an U18 circuit and all but Stuart have another four to seven years left on the circuit.

In the Sussex Championships, Michael was crowned Under 11 Champion when he defeated all of his opponents to take the boy’s title at the Six Villages Sports Centre in Westergate.

Helen, Michael and Emma train with the South East Region at Cranbrook in Kent. Emma was again selected to play in the Regional Team tournament this April as the South East No1 at U11 and won 4 out of 5. The South East won are now National Regional Team champions. Emma continues to train with England U12 and was runner-up in the National Trials U11 event in Bristol.

Helen ranked 4 and Emma ranked 5 in Sussex continue to represent the county at U15. Helen won 9 out of 12 (for the 2^nd team) and Emma won 8 out of 14 (2 for 2^nd team others in the 3rd) respectively in Division 1 of the County Championships. Sussex 2^nd team won the division and the 1^st team won the premier. Helen was outstanding in the County matches.

In the last issue I said that the boys are knocking on the door of Sussex selection and Michael was duly picked to play in the Sussex Cadet 3^rd team against Buckinghamshire 1^st and Surrey 2nd teams with Emma while Helen played for the 2^nd team against the same opponents. With Hannah Alfred also playing for Sussex 3rds earlier in the season, four of our Juniors have represented the county this season.

Stuart, runner-up in our Junior Championship, has made a solid start for Crawley in the National Junior League winning 19 out of 20 games. In the National Cadet (Under 15) League, Helen and Michael Rutherford rounded off a fine season by winning the Second Division and achieving fifth place overall in a field of 18 teams via the play offs.  Representing Chesham High School TTC, Michael finished with 19 wins out of a possible 30 (63%) with Helen scoring 24 out of 30 for a superb average of 80%. 

Please click here for a summary of individual performances in County and National Tournaments in 2006.