Sussex Series 2-Star Events
18/12/11 Report
At the recent Sussex Series 2 Star, 79 players contested five ability bands on 18 tables over nine hours in the excellent K2 Leisure Centre venue in Crawley. Each player got at least 10 matches over the course of the day. There were many surprises and none of the top seeds won their band.
The best finishing position for any of the top seeds was third. In most bands there were initial groups of up to eight players, with the top four going into the top section of the band and the rest into the lower section, where more group matches took place.
There was a large cash fund of £1000, as well as a fund of £700 Tees Sports vouchers. Thanks go to sponsors Tees Sports, Heritage Oil, Griffin Security & Technology and Ray Hole Architects. The prizes were spread throughout the bands with at least three players in each band receiving prizes. Pictured are the Band 5 top 3 players from left Jake Coombes, George Tester and William Goodstone.
Forshaw Uses the Force
In Band 1 the top seed was Tyrone ‘Konnich’ Wells (Mi) of the BBATT club. He duly won all six of his matches in his initial group, with Gabriel Achampong (Mi) taking second place in the group. Hugo Pang (Do), the second seed did not fare as well, finishing in fourth place in Group 2. Joseph Langham-Ferreira (Sy) took advantage of this to top the group, beating Alex Forshaw of Crusaders and Horsham TTCs into second place.
However in the top group, it was Forshaw who emerged the winner, as he won all of his remaining games. Four of Forshaw’s wins were in five sets. This was quite an achievement when you consider that he was only the sixth highest ranked player in the event. He went home with £200 cash for his efforts. Another success story of the day was Adam ‘Read-the-Spin’ Reed (Mi), only the ninth highest ranked player in the event, who finished in second place, beating club-mate Wells into third. Langham-Ferreira and Achampong were fifth and sixth respectively.
Gray's Day
In Band 2 the rankings were thrown out the window from the word go. Top seed Liam Grant (Sy) ended up sixth in his group (and eventually tenth overall in the band), which was won by his Crusaders club-mate George Harris (Sy). Ryan Williams (E) punched above his weight to take runners-up spot in the group. Leon Thomson also performed well to finish third in the group.
It was a similar story in Group 2 with second seed Jamie Trevillion (Do) only managing fifth place with four wins. In fact there were four players with four wins in this group and they had to be separated by number of sets won. Brian Gray (K) topped the group, with Zachary Mandell (Mi) taking second spot. Gray continued his winning ways in the top group and won it out, being one of the three undefeated players on the day with 11 straight wins; all the more impressive when you realise that he only dropped three ends all day! Second place in Band 2 went to Harris, who lost to Gray and also to Thomson. Williams took a creditable third.
King of the Khassal
Band 3 was simply a group of 12 players with all playing each other. Again the top seed was condemned to a low position as Jack Anthony (Sk) finished in sixth position with six wins. Second and third seeds, Andrew Lockwood (K) and Timur Hashimi (Mi), also finished down the order. First place was contested by three players, each with nine wins - Charlie Bates (E), Karim Khassal (Mi) and Jimmy Yeung (Ha).
A countback was required to separate the players and by virtue of a better sets difference and fifth-seed Khassal was pronounced the victor. He had two five set matches and interestingly one of these was against the player who ended up last in the band, which shows how close things were. Second place went to Yeung and third to Bates. For Band 3 downwards Tees Sport Vouchers were awarded as prizes with £100 for the winners.
Martin Makes his Mark
In Band 4 the rankings would have been more accurate if they had been turned on their head. Top seed Erik Van-Mol (Sx) of local club Horsham, had a decent start with a couple of easy wins, but after his first loss to Ovi Eyarhono (Sy), he went downhill from there, with only two more wins to his name out of his remaining matches. He eventually finished in 18th place out of 24 players. Eyahono went on to win the group and Nathan Knowles (Mi) was runner-up. Another Horsham player, James Arnold (Sx) did well to finish third in the group.
Group 2 was also a big upset with the lowest ranked players - David Pringuer of Sussex and Martin Matuzevicius of Hampshire - finishing third and first respectively. Second place in the group was taken by third seed for the band, Kareem Bandaogo (Mi).
The trend continued in Group 3 with second lowest ranked player, James Mason (Ha), winning all of his matches, and second place being contested by Harry Collins (Sx) and Matt Van Yperen (Sx) from Horsham TTC. They both had five wins, but since Van Yperen won the encounter between the two he ended up pre-eminent.
The winners group was dominated by club mates Matuzevicius and Mason, the former showing his mental toughness in winning all four of his five-set encounters. Van Yperen will be pleased with his third place finish.
Tester Passes the Test
In Band 5 most of the players had no ranking points, so it was likely the the seedings were speculative at best...and so it proved, although all but one of the ranked players did end up in the top group in the afternoon.
In Group 1 William Goodstone (Sx) won all of his encounters, with Andrew Chapman (E) taking second and Ricky Roberts (Mi) third. In Group 2 George Tester (Sx) beat all before him and Jake Coombes (K) and Sophie Tofalides (Mi) took second and third places respectively.
In the top group Tester continued from where he left off, although he did have to survive a scare against Roberts, when he found himself 2-1 down in games, but he stepped up a gear and won 11-3, 11-3 to remain unbeaten on the day to win the title. Coombes also won his remaining matches to clinch second place in the band and Group 1 winner, Goodstone, took third. A special mention should be given to Kieran Bonner (Sx) of Horsham, who although he did not win any matches, took it all in his stride and enjoyed himself and will learn from the experience.
Report by Rory Scott
Placings
Band 1
1. Alex Forshaw (Sx)
2. Adam Reed (Mi)
3. Tyrone Wells (Mi)
4. Joseph Langham-Ferreira (Sy)
5. Gabriel Achampong (Mi)
6. Daniel Barna (Sx)
7. Hugo Pang (Do)
8. Charlie Austen (Mi)
9. Josh Bennett (Sx)
10. David Rahbani (Mi)
11. Jonathan Meikle (Dy)
12. Daniel McTiernan (Bk)
13. Finny Wilson (Sx)
14. Daniella Gray (K)
Band 2
1. Brian Gray (K)
2. George Harris (Sy)
3. Ryan Williams (E)
4. Vinal Patel (Sx)
5. Shane Clark (Mi)
6. Leon Thomson (He)
7. Zachary Mandell (Mi)
8. Finn Morgan-Bayliss (Do)
9. Omar Khassal (Mi)
10. Liam Grant (Sy)
11. Jamie Trevillion (Do)
12. Jack Josephs (He)
13. Daniel Pound (Sx)
14. Tom Windram (K)
15. Adam Corell (Sx)
16. Oliver Hack (Ha)
Band 3
1. Karim Khassal (Mi)
2. Jimmy Yeung (Ha)
3. Charlie Bates (E)
4. Armagan Huseyin (E)
5. Andrew Lockwood (K)
6. Jack Anthony (Sk)
7. Blair Phillip (K)
8. Timur Hashimi (Mi)
9. Jamie Diddams (K)
10. Musa Sharif-Ali (Mi)
11. Emma Sheen (Sx)
12. Kester Pardoe (Mi)
Band 4
1. Martin Matuzevicius (Ha)
2. James Mason (Ha)
3. Matt Van Yperen (Sx)
4. Kareem Bandaogo (Mi)
5. Ovi Eyarhono (Sy)
6. Nathan Knowles (Mi)
7. David Pringuer (Sx)
8. James Arnold (Sx)
9. Harry Collins (Sx)
10. Hiba Feredj (Mi)
11. Regan O’Neil (K)
12. Josh Gallen (Bk)
13. Toby Bartram (K)
14. Mason O‘Neil (K)
15. Chris Clifford (He)
16. Sam Lu (Sx)
17. Hannah McErlane (Do)
18. Erik Van-Mol (Sx)
19. Nathan Hack (Ha)
20. Marcus Bracey (Sx)
21. Holly Holder (Sx)
22. Bart Rayson (Sx)
Band 5
1. George Tester (Sx)
2. Jake Coombes (K)
3. William Goodstone (Sx)
4. Andrew Chapman (E)
5. Sophie Tofalides (Mi)6
. Ricky Roberts (Mi)
7. Vyas Raina (Sy)
8. Vatsal Raina (Sy)
9. Ben Naylor-Smith (Mi)
10. Alistair Smith (Sx)
11. Alex Widdowson (Sx)
12. Dominic Hawkins (Sx)
13. Nathan Wadey (Sx)
14. Kieran Bonner (Sx)
