Sussex Trials Report 
1/9/11
The 2011-12 season kicked off in Sussex last weekend with the hosting of the Sussex cadet and junior trials which was attended by 52 kids from across the county. It was the first event sponsored by our new sponsors for the 2011-2012 season: Ray Hole Architects, Griffin Security & Technology, Heritage Oil and Tees Sports. The sponsors have contributed a significant cash injection which will allow the SCTTA to provide a full program including 4 star, 7 x 2 Star and 5 x 1star/development events for Juniors and two 2 star senior events including large cash prizes. Sussex CTTA would like to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors for their contribution and look forward to promoting their brands at every opportunity.
The Cadet event got off to an exciting start with Daniel Pound playing Finny Wilson (Finny Wilson playing down an age category to get some extra match practice) in the first match of one of the 3 x 7 player groups. Daniel came out 3-1 winner in a close encounter. Both Daniel and Finny went on to come first and second in their group and the other groups saw Adam Corell, Marcus Bracey, Samuel Lu, Michael Stringer and James Arnold progress to the top group in the afternoons play.
Daniel went on to play Finny Wilson a second time and again came out 3-1 winner. Finny Wilson beat Adam Corell 3-1 which meant there was all to play for between Adam Corell and Daniel Pound. Daniel was 2-1 down but turned the match around to win a close match 3-2 meaning he finished with 100% record out of his 12 matches. Michael Stringer also impressed the selectors with a very creditable fourth place finish.
The girls event saw Emma Sheen defeat all before her in some very competitive matches with Ellie Stringer, Holly Holder and Kate Cheer and achieve a 100% record on the day.
David Pringuer from Brighton City attended his first Sussex CTTA event after only playing for 18 months and proved that he had made rapid progress with some notable wins including a win against Erik Van Mol. Erik himself had a very good win against Daniel Pound in a very high quality encounter for this stage of the season.
It was very good to see James Eaglestone from Hastings back playing after injury last season had prevented him for playing for a while. However, the Junior day belonged to Vinal Patel who swept all before him with 100% record against a number of established quality county players including Daniel Barna and Finny Wilson.
I believe Sussex demonstrated the strength in depth to hopefully repeat the outstanding success in last year’s county championships.
Sussex Junior First Team Player Review
6/4/11
The Sussex Junior First Team has just won the County Championships Junior Premiership. So a good time to make the wider public aware of the squad members have been achieving this season...
Da Shuai Zhang (known as “Dash”) 17 years old
Dash moved to Sussex from China approximately 3 years ago speaking no English. He was already a fantastic table tennis talent and at 11 years old was ranked in the top 30 for his age group in China. Dash is ranked in the top 10 juniors and top 60 seniors in the country and has recently been accepted as a graduate to Oxford university.
Helshan Weerasinghe – 14 years old
Currently ranked no-1 in England u-15’s and has represented England a number of times. He competes regularly with top playing adults and has recently beaten the Australia men’s no.7 and last weekend whilst playing up for Sussex senior 1st team beat Bryn Drinkhall (brother of Paul Drinkhall no.1 men’s in England). Bryn is currently ranked no.33 men’s in England.
Mark Scutts – 17 years old
Currently ranked no.22 Junior and no.132 men’s in England. Mark is also a highly talented player who finished runners up at the recent Derby 4 star junior competition.
Yolanda King – 16 years old
Currently ranked no.4 in the junior girls and 14 in the women’s in England. Has represented England on numerous occasions at u-15 level and has recently been selected at u-18 level. Yolanda also finished runners up in the recent Derby 4 star competition.
Lois Peake – 14 years old
Has improved enormously this season and represented Sussex juniors at 3rd, 2nd and 1st team this year. Lois has recently been invited to the England youth development squad.
Emma Torkington - 14 years old
Emma is ranked no.4 in England u-15 girls and has represented England on a number of occasions
