Other Reports

The recent Sussex 2 Star at the excellent Triangle venue (also known as Olympos Burgess Hill), attracted a large entry of 71 players (not including those who pulled out) playing in 9 events (U11s, U12s, U13s, U14s, U15s, U16s, U17s, U18s & Seniors). There were 129 entries in total, with players playing in almost an average of 2 events each. 15 tables were in use, which were recently bought by Sussex Table Tennis County Association with Sport England Funding along with the barriers, umpire tables & scoreboards.

There were 3 events being played at any one time & players could enter a maximum of three events. First up were U11s, U14s & U17s. The top seed in the U11s pulled out, which left a gap in the top half of the draw. Sam Lu (Lancing) took full advantage of this having lost to the now top seed Liam Grant (Sy) in the group, he went on to defeat Kate Cheer (Horsham TTC) in the quarters & then club-mate Marcus Bracey in the semis in a 5 set match. Liam was too strong for Amy Blagbrough (Ha) in the quarters & Jane Li in the semis, winning in straight sets. However Sam fared better in the final than he had done in the group against Liam, as he took a game & only lost 14-16, 11-7, 10-12, 8-11 in a well-contested final. All of the players in the U11s consolation event bar two were from Horsham. As it happens the final was contested by the 2 non-Horsham players & Alex Rahbani (Mi) was the victor over James Smith (K) 3 games to 1.

In the under 14s, there were 24 entrants (the largest event on the day). There were a few surprises here with first of all 5th seed Daniel Pound (Horsham) suffering an unexpected 5 set loss vs Oliver Hack (Ha) in the group & then making amends for this by having a straight sets unexpected win over 3rd seed, George Heath (Sy) in the last 16. He then made to the semis where he succumbed to no. 2 seed, Vincent Stacey (Mi). Vincent had beaten Harry Collins (East Grinstead) in the quarters. Harry had had an unexpected win vs Jake Goodchild (Ha) in the group. On the other side of the draw, top seed, Danny Lawrence (K) proceeded to the final with straight set wins over Matt Van Yperen (Horsham) & David Rahbani (Mi). Vincent then triumphed in the final by a scoreline of 11-8, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7. The U14s consolation was won by Joss Hole (Arundel), who outplayed Jake Goodchild (Ha) in 3 close games.

The U17s was 2 groups of 4 players. The top 2 seeds made their way to the final safely with 1st seed, Tyla Anderson (Mi) beating Andrew Lockwood (K) in one semi & 2nd seed Michael White (Littlehampton), beating Erik Van-Mol (Horsham) in the other. Andrew made Tyla work & pushed him to a 5th set. Mike on the other hand had a comfortable straight sets win. In the final Mike got an early lead winning 11-6, 11-8, but Tyla recomposed himself & took the next three 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 to take the title. Mike's club-mate, Garrett Scammell was the winner of the U17s consolation with a close 3 set win over Karl Rideout (Sy). Karl got an excellent win over Matt Byers (Ha) in the group.

The middle set of events were the U12s, the U15s & the U18s. 16 players contested the U12s. Top seed Vincent Stacey's path to the final included wins over James Arnold (Horsham) & Adam Corell (North Mundham), who had beaten 2 higher ranked players (Lara Esquivel (E) & Ryan Williams (Mi) in the group) but the 2nd seed, Charlie Rahbani (Mi) did not have the same fate. He lost 3-0 to no. 3 seed Liam Grant in the semi. Liam had beaten Lara in the quarters. The final went to Vincent 11-3, 12-10, 11-8, thus winning two successive events. In the U12s consolation event final, Ryan beat Kieran Kerr (Mi) 3-0.

In the U15s there were 16 players. Danny Lawrence the no. 1 seed beat Erik Van-Mol in the quarters, but was then defeated 3-1 by an inform 4th seed, David Rahbani (Mi), who had outpointed Matt Byers in the quarters. On the other side of the draw, 2nd seed Hugo Pang made short work of his opponents Oliver Hack & 3rd seed Daniel Barna (Horsham). The final was a close 3-setter with Hugo coming out on top 12-10, 11-7, 12-10. In the U15s consolation event, the finalists were Abdi Ahmed (Mi) & Jack Tubby (Mi). Jack won this encounter in three very close sets.

The U18s was 2 groups of 4 like the U17s. In group 2 Andrew Lockwood played a blinder to beat the higher ranked Mike White 12-10 in the 5th & then just to miss out 14-12 in the 5th vs 2nd seed, Pritesh Kakad (He), who is ranked a massive 615 points above him! Anyway in the semis, Mark Scutts (Brighton), the top seed beat Andrew & Pritesh beat Tyla Anderson. The final was an exciting 5-setter between the top two seeds, separated by only 10 ranking points. Of course it had to go the full distance, but Mark came out on top 11-5, 7-11, 13-15, 11-8. 11-7 to take the title. The U18s consolation final was between team-mates Mike White & Garrett Scammell & it was Mike who wanted it more, winning 3-0.

The late afternoon events were the U13s, U16s & Seniors. 18 entrants played in the U13s. Both of the preliminary rounds produced unexpected wins, with Joss Hole victorious over Ryan Williams & Oliver Ferris (K) knocking out Lara Esquivel. Joss fell to Danny Lawrence in the quarters & Oliver was beaten by 2nd seed Chrissie Slot (Ha). Danny won his semi vs Vincent Stacey 3-1, overturning the morning's result. However, Chrissie lost to 3rd seed Hugo Pang 3-0 in the other semi. The final was a contest, which seemed to hinge on a close 2nd set, which Danny won & then ran away with the next two ends. He won 10-12, 13-11, 11-4, 11-5. The U13s consolation event final was won by Jack Josephs (He) 3-0 over Jordan Ingles (He).

The under 16s consisted of just 7 players & the event was played as a Round Robin. Top player Tyla Anderson won all 6 of his matches without dropping a single set, taking a brace of winners trophies home with him! In 2nd place with 5 wins was 2nd seed, Andrew Lockwood. He dropped just 1 set in his 5 wins. The remaining 5 players had very close competitive matches. 3rd place: Matt Byers, 4th: Oliver Hack, 5th: Jake Goodchild, 6th: Erik Van-Mol, 7th: Abdi Ahmed.

The Senior event had 16 participants, 6 of these being juniors. The 3 top players who had entered, pulled out before the competition, so I had got in 3 reserves to make it up to 16 players to ensure that it would still count for bonus ranking points. There were 3 clearly higher ranked players on the day; in order Gary Wilson (Lancing), Pritesh Kakad & Mark Scutts & these 3 topped their groups, although Mark had a real battle on his hands to even qualify from his group. In his first match he squeezed through 2 tight games with Horsham's Mark Collins 11-5, 12-10, 12-10 & then he found himself 8-11, 12-14 down against unranked 'ringer' Swedish player Fredrik Nilsson. However he picked himself up & sorted out his consistency to win 11-8 & then a comfortable 11-3, 11-4. His final group match was vs Ed Slot (Ha) & that was also a struggle, which went to 5 ends, with Mark emerging the winner 11-5 in the 5th. Mark was not the only seed to endure a 5 setter in the group. The same happened to top seed Wilson, who was extended to 5 sets by Littlehampton junior Mike White. Group 4 was a 3-way count-back with Alan Taylor (K) the winner, Charlie Lance (Brighton), 2nd place & scratch entry Ken MacLeod (Ha) missing out in 3rd position. In the quarters, Gary struggled again for form, scraping through 11-7 in the 5th vs unranked Daniel Herlin (K), whereas Pritesh, Mark & Fredrik won their quarters in straight sets. The semi finals produced two upsets with Mark beating the higher ranked (in senior points) Pritesh 11-8, 11-8, 11-8. Wildcard Swede Nilsson managed to repeat his feat in the Crawley 2 Star in April, where he downed the top seed David Williams, by again defeating the the top seed, in this case Wilson by 8-11, 12-10, 13-11, 11-8. So the final was a repeat of the group 3 game between Scuttsy & Fred. Could Fred overturn the earlier result to win his first 2 Star event in England? No, but Scuttsy did win his first ever Senior Ranking Singles Event by 12-10, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8 & his 2nd title of the day.

Many thanks to volunteers Ian Ford, Alan White & Steve Chambers for helping with the organising & umpiring, without whom the tournament could not have happened. Please note that the next ranking tournament in Sussex will be on 15th August 2010 & will again be staged at the Triangle in Burgess Hill. Events included will be: U8s, U9s, U10s, U11s, U12s, U13s, U15s, U18s & U18s Girls. The 4 youngest events will be 1 Star Grading, in order that the youngsters do not need to pay out for single day licences, but the remaining events will be of 2 Star Status. All entrants will need to become Individual Members of the ETTA. The entry forms should be on the website very shortly, so keep an eye out.

Summary of Results:

Main Events:

U11s: Liam Grant (Sy) beat Sam Lu (Lancing) 14-16, 11-7, 10-12, 8-11
U12s: Vincent Stacey (Mi) beat Liam Grant 11-3, 12-10, 11-8
U13s: Danny Lawrence (K) beat Hugo Pang (Do) 10-12, 13-11, 11-4, 11-5
U14s: Vincent Stacey beat Danny Lawrence 11-8, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7
U15s: Hugo Pang beat David Rahbani (Mi) 12-10, 11-7, 12-10
U16s: Winner: Tyla Anderson (Mi), Runner-up: Andrew Lockwood (K)
U17s: Tyla Anderson beat Michael White (Littlehampton) 6-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-5
U18s: Mark Scutts (Brighton) beat Pritesh Kakad (He) 11-5, 7-11, 13-15, 11-8. 11-7
Seniors: Mark Scutts beat Fredrik Nilsson (Sweden/Crawley) 12-10, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8

Consolation Events:

U11s: Alex Rahbani (Mi) beat James Smith (K) 12-10, 13-11, 6-11, 11-8
U12s: Ryan Williams (Mi) beat Kieran Kerr (Mi) 11-8, 11-2, 11-7
U13s: Jack Josephs (He) beat Jordan Ingles (He) 11-8, 11-7, 11-3
U14s: Joss Hole (Arundel) beat Jake Goodchild (Ha) 11-8, 11-9, 11-7
U15s: Jack Tubby (Mi) beat Abdi Ahmed (Mi) 11-9, 11-8, 11-9
U16s: N/A-was a Round Robin
U17s: Garrett Scammell (Littlehampton) beat Karl Rideout (K) 11-9, 11-8, 11-8
U18s: Michael White beat Garrett Scammell 11-9, 11-5, 12-10
Seniors: Ed Slot (Ha) beat Ken MacLeod (Ha) 4-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-3

The Horsham 2 Star on 23rd May attracted a full entry of 50 players (68 entries) & indeed many players had to be turned away, as the event was oversubscribed. This time there were 4 events (u11s, u13s, u15s & u18s). In the under 18s event both of the top 2 seeds (Da Shuai Zhang (Sx) the 1st seed & Danny Lawrence (K) the 2nd seed), progressed to the final with ease, both dropping just one set along the way. Danny lost his set to the Matt Van Yperen (Horsham) in the group & Dash lost a set in his semi final vs Zaid Doraid (Mi). There was 1 minor upset in the knock-out stages, with Finny Wilson (Sx) overcoming Tejas Padalkar (Horsham) in 4 sets. Dash defeated Matt Van Yperen in the quarters & Danny knocked out Matt Byers (Ha) in the quarters & Finny Wilson in the semis. The final went according to ranking, but not without the diminutive Lawrence putting up a fight, eventually succumbing 4, 8, 9 to a player at least twice his size. Horsham player Erik Van-Mol was the winner of the consolation event, defeating Michael Bridger (Sx) in the final 3-0. Michael had had a good win over another Horsham player, Mark Collins 3-2 in the semi final.

Danny (the top seed this time) continued his winning ways in the U15s event, this time going one better than he had done in the U18s, by winning the U15s title & not dropping a single set along the way. This was despite playing Daniel Barna (Sx) the 2nd seed in the final, a player whom he had never beaten before. Daniel himself had had a satisfying win in the semi-final over Horsham TTC club-mate, Tejas Padalkar (the 2nd seed), whom he had not beaten in competition for a no. of years. In the quarters Daniel also had an intense battle with talented server Micah Salmon (Mi), with Daniel's consistency triumphing over Micah's impressive serving ability over 5 ends. Danny's victims were Dominic Murphy (Sy) in the quarters & David Rahbani (Mi) in the semis, who had beaten the higher ranked Salmon in the group stage in 5 ends. The score in the final was a comprehensive 11-7, 11-8, 11-6. The U15s consolation event was contested by Aaron Serfaty (Sx) & Matt Van Yperen (Sx). They had already met in the group, where Aaron had won 3-1. Both players had good wins in the consolation semis, with Aaron beating Matt Byers (nearly 200 points above him) & Matt beating Lucy Zhu 11-9 in the 5th, who is nearly 100 points above him. The final was a closer contest than the group match, with Aaron coming through 11-9 in the 5th, having trailed 2-1 in games.

In the U13s Charlie Austen (Mi) of the London Academy had a great tournament. He came from an unseeded position to go through to the final, beating 2 players ranked higher than him on the way. Runner-up in his group to Lucy Zhu (Sk) the 4th seed, he then went on to have excellent wins over 3rd seed Charlie Rahbani (Mi) 8, 9, 9 & impressively 2nd seed Bradley Osborne (E) -7, 10, 10, -6, 10. To win 3 games 12-10 against a player ranked almost 300 points above him shows good belief, focus & determination. On the other side of the draw Danny Lawrence (K), again the top seed, was untroubled. He only dropped one set in the event in the semi final vs Liam Grant (more on him later). In the final Danny won 11-7, 11-7, 11-7, which for those interested in minor details, was the same no. of points Danny conceded in the U15s final & also the U18s semi final. The U13s Consolation final was between Joss Hole (Sx) & Jon Abbott (Bk). Joss won convincingly 5, 5, 3, despite Jon being ranked about 70 points higher.

In the under 11s Omar Khassal (Mi) of London Academy, who was unseeded, had a similar tournament to club-mate Charlie Austen & excelled to reach the final, also beating 2 players ranked above him in the process. He defeated 3rd seed Anthony Close (He) in the group, Marcus Bracey (Sx) in the quarters & then 2nd seed Jon Abbot in the semi-final 11-8 in the 5th. Unranked Bracey did very well to get through his group on count back, beating Marcus Hensher, who toppled 4th seed Jane Li (E). Hensher won the group with Jane going into the consolation event. Top Seed Liam Grant (Sy) was in a class of his own in this competition, not dropping a set in the entire event. In the final Liam trounced Omar 11-4, 11-2, 11-3 to win his first ever 2 Star Tournament. The U11s consolation final was between two girls, Jane Li & Kate Cheer (Sx). Jane won in 3 games 11-6, 11-9, 11-7.

My pick for player of the tournament is Charlie Austen, for his 2 impressive wins in getting to the final of the U13s. The next 2 star, which is being organised in Sussex is the Sussex Open with events for U11s, U12s, U13s, U14s, U15s, U16s, U17s, U18s & Seniors. Entries close on 12th March for this & the form is on this website.

Unfortunately the scheduled Horsham 2 Stars in July & August have had to be cancelled due to venue unavailability.

by Rory Scott

Brighton City TTC's Tim Holtam had a dream tournament on Friday 16th April at the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley. The event attracted over 50 entrants in Cadet, Junior & Senior categories & all events were full up. Tim had no less than 3 maximum wins in the Seniors event, making a mockery of his lowly ranking of a mere 1709 points. First up he stepped up against the experienced combination-bat skills of 3rd seed Jogenes (Jojo) Senorin (Middlesex). Tim clinched this in 5 sets & also in the group he had a good 3-0 victory over unranked Swedish player Fredrik Nilsson of Crawley Community TTC (more on him later). In the quarter finals Tim faced talented TTK junior Emre Ibatoglu (another under-ranked player), and came through with a 3-1 scoreline. His semi-final adversary was club-mate Marc Burman. This was a close affair, with Tim picking up his second max win vs the no. 2 seed, 11-7 in the 5th. In the final Tim faced another club mate in 4th seed Wen Wei Xu. Wen Wei's route to the final had been at the expense of Ed Slot (Ha) in the group & then group 5 winner Mike Robinson (Worthing) in the quarters & Fredrik Nilsson in the semis. Fredrik had taken out the top seed, David Williams (Fusion) in the quarters, despite being 2-0 down in games & 5-1 down in the 3rd. Tim's attacking style of play proved too powerful for consistent penhold blocker, Xu & Tim prevailed 11-9, 11-8, 11-8. The senior consolation final was contested by 3rd seed, Jojo Senorin, who had a very successful tournament in Cippenham recently defeating the likes of Hari Gehlot & Neil Wright to get to the final & Sussex no. 3 Junior, Mark Scutts. Senorin had been beaten 3-2 by Nilsson in the group & Scuttsy had been beaten by Williams & Ibatoglu in the group. Both finalists had straight set wins in getting to that stage & the final went to 5, with Jojo the winner.

by Rory Scott

Scutts Scoops the Title

In the Junior event, the no. 1 seed did not turn up and Mark Scutts (Hollingbury TTC), now the no. 2 seed, took full advantage. He lived up to his seeding, with 3 easy wins in the group, followed by a 3 straight win over Dean Robertson (Sy) in the quarters. He then faced the top seed Antoney Patten (TTK) in the semis. In their previous encounter in JBL, Antoney had won 3-1, but this time Mark made no mistake & dispatched Antoney comfortably 8, 5, 5. On the other side of the draw, Mike White (Littlehampton) benefitted from the no show of the top seed & won the group. He then had 2 hard fought victories both in the 5th end. The first was vs Leo Assisi of Brighton City TTC & the 2nd was vs Finny Wilson of North Mundham TTC. The latter match was a nail-biter, with Mike scraping through 12-10 in the 5th. Mike proved himself a worthy runner-up, as he was the only player to take a set of the Champion Scutts, who won 12-10, 10-12, 11-3, 11-6. Brighton City TTC had further success in the junior consolation event & provided both finalists, Majid Jafagholi & Henri Assisi. Both of them had 5 set wins in their semi finals, with Henri overcoming Dong Ming Lau (Sy) & Majid disposing of Joss Hole (Arundel). In the final the underdog, Majid (ranked 128 points lower) won out in 4 sets.

Barna Barges Through

The cadet event had the most entrants, with 25 players involved. As with the other two events, the final was an All Sussex affair. In each event the highly ranked London players went out before the final. The top seed in the cadets was Horsham TTC's Daniel Barna & he duly made it to the final in confident style, making short work of all his opponents 3-0 en route to the final. His opponents included: Paul Wrintmore (East Grinstead), Ben Smith-Bortey (TTK) in the quarters & James Eaglestone (Hastings) in the semis. Making steady progress on the other side of the draw was 2nd seed, Finny Wilson (semi-finalist in the junior event). He defeated Nathan Hodd (Hastings) in the quarters & 3rd seed, Lobsang Lama (TTK) in the semis in a hard fought 4 setter: 18-16, 7-11, 11-7, 12-10. The final was competitive, but Daniel had too much for Finny & ran out a 6-11, 11-6, 12-10, 12-10 winner, justifying his higher Sussex County ranking (no. 4 cadet). In the cadet consolation event, there were no major shocks & the final was contested by Joss Hole & Harry Collins (East Grinstead). Harry was victorious by an 11-3, 11-8, 11-9 scoreline, having had a tougher 5th set semi vs Adam Corell (North Mundham), who recently had 2 close wins out of 2 when playing for Sussex cadets.

All 3 winners of the main events were awarded with £20 vouchers to be spent on Donic, Yasaka or Nittaku table tennis equipment. The runners-up got £10 vouchers & the consolation winners received £5 vouchers.

Full Finals Results Below:

Seniors: Tim Holtam (Brighton City) beat Wen Wei Xu (Brighton City) 11-9, 11-8, 11-8.
Juniors: Mark Scutts (Hollingbury) beat Mike White (Littlehampton) 12-10, 10-12, 11-3, 11-6.
Cadets: Daniel Barna (Horsham) beat Finny Wilson (North Mundham) 6-11, 11-6, 12-10, 12-10.
Senior Consolation: Jogenes Senorin (Mi) beat Mark Scutts (Hollingbury) 8-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7.
Junior Consolation: Majid Jafagholi (Brighton City) beat Henri Assisi (Brighton City) 2-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9.
Cadet Consolation: Harry Collins (MMJ East Grinstead) beat Joss Hole (Arundel) 11-3, 11-8, 11-9.
The next 2 Star events in Sussex are 23rd May in Horsham (form on website) & 27th June in Burgess Hill (The Triangle) (form out soon).

The Horsham Banded 2 Star Junior Open took place on 9th August in Greenway School. We had a full entry of 48 players, two of whom played in 2 events. As there was 1 space in band A & 1 in band B, I decided to offer the spaces to the players I thought would win the B & C bands respectively. As it turns out, I was correct in my predictions & both of the players who played up won their own bands.

Band A was won with some ease by top seed Da Shuai Zhang (Horsham TTC), as I forecast in my last report. This is his 3rd Horsham Junior Title. He only dropped one set in the tournament this time, that against his final opponent Liam McTiernan (OLOP). The score was 11-2, 11-5, 6-11, 11-4. There was quite a strong entry this time, with the Band A winner from the 2nd Horsham 1 Star, Tejas Padalkar (Horsham), only being seeded 6th this time. Tejas finished runner-up in his group to Liam, with a reverse of 3-1 vs the no. 3 seed. He then progressed to the quarters, where he ended 4th seed Anthony Kent's run in a 5-set marathon. Harpal Juttla (Greenhouse Progress), who finished runner-up to Dash in group 1, had an excellent quarter-final victory over George Downing (Isle of Wight), the 2nd seed, who had topped group 2. Liam went on defeat Harpal 3-1 in the semi final. The other semi was a straight-forward 3-0 victory for Dash, (who had just returned from China, having done some training there) over Tejas. Other unexpected results in band A included a win for Brandon Wilson (Greenhouse Progress) over George Heath, wins for both James Meyers (Hollingbury) & Garrett Scammell (Littlehampton) over out of sorts Daniel Barna (Horsham), who ended up pulling out, Kedar Dutia's (Crusaders) win over James Miller (Lancing) & Krishan Sareen's (Crusaders) wins over Bradley King (Greenhouse Progress) & Michael White (Littlehampton). The consolation event was keenly contested & Tyla Anderson (Holloway) came very close to cause a major upset, losing 11-7 in 5th to Bradley King (Greenhouse Progress), who has almost 500 points more than Tyla. Bradley went on to the final where he lost 12-10 in the 5th to Carl Haines (Hollingbury).

Band B was won by Brandon Wilson, who was seeded 1 for the event. However, unlike Dash, it was not an easy task for him. His first match vs the unranked Nathan Hodd (Hollington), the band C winner, went all the way to 11-8 in the 5th & Christian Savage (OLOP), who ended up 5th in the group also took Brandon to 5 sets. He also dropped a set to Mark Collins (Horsham) & Aaron Serfaty (Weald). His semi final vs James Eaglestone (Hollington) was a-nail biter, which Brandon won 13-11 in the 5th. By comparison, his final victory over Lewis MacFarlane (Ashford) was relatively easy, with the score line being -10, 8, 7, 9. Lewis's road to the final was also a difficult one. The 4th seed finished runner-up to Eaglestone in the group & then beat Owen Warren (Legra), who had defeated the 3rd seed (Tom Eastwood of Ashford) in group 3. In the semi-final, Lewis knocked out 2nd seed, Baljeet Singh (Greenhouse Progress), who had had comfortable wins up to that point. In the consolation event, Hodd & Joss Hole (Arundel) met in the final & Joss emerged the winner 7, 7, -7, 8. Joss had earlier beaten club-mate Adam Turner 11-9 in the fifth. Hodd had wins over ranked players Collins, Savage, Jon Abbot (Sonning Common & Peppard) & Bradley Osborne (Havering), so should surely get on the ranking list for his efforts?

Band C was conquered by the aforementioned Hodd, who was untroubled en route to the final, beating Oliver Ferris (Weald) into 2nd place in the group & then Max Sweetman in the quarter final. The runner-up & top seed, Tim Priddis (Horsham TTC), had a much rougher ride to get there. He lost a match in his group vs 11 year-old Olamide Wuraola of Dulwich TTC, (son of the renowned Abdul Wuraola) in 4 sets. He therefore went through as group runner-up. In the quarters, he met group 2 winner, Elliott Jeffery (Hollingbury) & won a close 5 ender. Group 2 winner, Jonathan Realpe was no match for Tim in the semi, going down in straight sets. The other semi was contested by Wuraola & Hodd & again resulted in a comfortable victory. So to the final: Tim upped his game to give Nathan, who last season played in the JBL, a bit of a match, with the final score being 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 11-8. The band C consolation event final was contested by Zach Attfield (Sonning Common & Peppard) & Jessica Wen (Weald), with the former coming through with a 3-1 score line.

The next tournament I'm refereeing/organising is the Abdul Sports Dulwich 2 Star Senior & Junior Open on 26th Sept in Dulwich TTC, in conjunction with Abdul Wuraola. Entry forms on the website now.

by Rory Scott

The Abdul Sports Horsham 2 Star Senior Open on 9th August was arguably the highest standard we've had so far. There was strength in depth this time & even the unranked players who entered were strong. One such example is cadet Liam McTiernan (Berkshire), who beat me 3-0 & beat Simon Dilkes (9th seed-Kent) in the 5th to finish runner-up in the group to Niall Cameron (Scotland). A second unranked player, who progressed from the group, was Martin Richens (now resident in Aberdeen, but formerly of Surrey). The winner of his group was Umair Mauthoor (Essex), but Martin beat 6th seed, Everton Wilson (Nottinghamshire) & also Geoff Ware (Dorset) & Tejas Padalkar of Horsham, who was another unranked player to do well. Tejas had an excellent win in his group over Everton Wilson. He was unlucky to be on the wrong end of two 11-9 in the 5th matches in the group vs vs Richens & Ware. However he made up for this in the consolation event, by beating me 3-0 (was not my day really) & then Everton Wilson Junior (Everton Wilson's son, who lives in Trinidad). His run came to a halt in the consolation final, where he lost to Zayd Mauthoor (Essex). Zayd had beaten Wilson Senior in the semis of the consolation.

Zayd had had a closely contested match vs high-flyer Helshan Weerasinghe (Sussex) in the group, which Helshan scraped at 12-10 in the 5th. A good win for Helshan, as Zayd is 322 points above him. By virtue of this win, Helshan finished runner-up in the group to Abdul Wuraola (Surrey), who was untroubled at this stage. 4th in this group was George Downing, who was seeded 2nd for Band A of the Junior event on the same day. He lost to Helshan 11-9, 11-9, 11-9! The final group was a strong one, which contained the 4th seed, Joe Chacholiades (Middlesex) & 5th seed, Da Shuai Zhang (Sussex), the clear winner of the Junior Band A earlier on. The match between these two went to the higher-ranked player 3-1.

The 1st quarter was between the 2 Scots Cameron & Richens. Cameron won through in 3 sets. Next up Helshan vs Joe. On paper an easy match for Joe, but Helshan paid the rankings no attention & despite a gulf of over 600 points separating the two, it was the underdog who triumphed 11-9, 4-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-5. Umair beat Liam 3-1 & the 4th quarter was between Wuraola & Zhang (last month's final). The match had the same end result as last month, with Abdul victorious in 4 sets. Cameron had a straight-forward semi-final vs Weerasinghe, but the 2nd semi between Umair & Abdul was anything but straight-forward. The result was an 11-9 in the 5th set win for 2nd seed Wuraola. This was an exciting match with great topspin rallies & had the spectators glued to their seats.

So the final was between the top 2 seeds Cameron & Wuraola. Abdul started off well in 3 of the sets but in 2 of these he lost, despite having an 8-4 lead. Cameron was topspinning very well & consistently & pegged the points back. The final score in this match was 11-6, 11-9, 11-13, 11-6 to Cameroooooooon! 3rd place went to Helshan, as Umair conceded. Picking player of the tournament was not easy with Liam, Martin, Tejas & Helshan all in contention. In the end I decided it had to go to Helshan for his 2 outstanding wins vs higher ranked opponents.

The next event which I will be refereeing, will be the Abdul Sports Dulwich 2 Star Senior & Junior Open on 26th September. The entry form for this is already on the website, in the entry forms section.

by Rory Scott