High Ho

There was a high quality entry in the Girls Grade 1 event, proven by the fact that the No. 2 junior girl in England only ended up in seventh place. Other than the junior masters, there are not many events in the season of such quality and number of competitive matches for all players, as all the girls had eight matches each.

In Group 1 the top seed for the event, Yolanda King of Sussex, lost twice-to Welsh Junior International, Angharad Phillips and also to the unranked ex-Hong Kong junior international now living in Sussex, Yuki Wat. In addition, Yolanda scraped a victory against Angharad’s twin sister Megan 11-9 in the fifth. When the twins faced each other, it was a close call as usual with Megan prevailing 11-8 in the fifth on this occasion.

There were some other tight matches with Angharad overcoming Jasmine Ould (K) in five sets and Wat getting the better of Lois Peake (Sx) also over the full distance. Megan topped the group by virtue of having beaten Angharad and third place went to Wat for having beaten King. The twins and Wat therefore entered the Group A for the afternoon. Ould (1 win) and Peake (no wins) joined King in Group B in the afternoon.

In Group 2 there were some more countback situations with both second seed Tressa Armitage (Ha) and Maria Tsaptsinos (Bk) ending up with three wins each and Emma Torkington (Sx) and Emma Tovey (K) banking two wins each. Tsaptsinos clinched runners-up spot in the group, as she had beaten Armitage and Tovey finished the higher of the Emmas, having been victorious over Torkington. Third seed, Tin Tin Ho was undefeated in the group despite at one point trailing 2-1 in sets to Tressa. She finished strongly in the last two sets winning 11-6, 11-3. This meant that Ho, Tsaptsinos and Armitage took their expected places in the Group A. Ella Patel (E) (no wins), and both Emmas joined Group B.

In Group A Tin Tin again emerged unscathed, this time with no five setters, although was pushed hard by Angharad Phillips. Her reward was £500 in cash! Runner-up berth went to Megan Phillips, by virtue of her earlier defeat of her sister, a match which cost Angharad £200, as Megan won £300 and Angharad £100. Tsaptsinos finished in fourth place and Armitage fifth.

In Group B, Yolanda got her game going and reeled off three straight set victories to top the group. Tovey and Torkington followed in second an third places respectively.

Savill Storms Through

There was another strong entry for Band 1 of the mixed event, headed by U13 international Luke Savill (K), Hong Kong player Bryan Kwan (Sx), winner of the last Sussex Series Band 1, Alex Forshaw (Sx) and Josh Robinson (Bd).

In Group 1 Adam Reed picked up from where he left off in the last Sussex Series, by exhibiting good form to beat the higher ranked players, Savill (3-1) and Robinson (3-2). The match for second place in the group went to Savill 7 in the fifth. Bringing up third and fourth in the group were Robinson and the lowest ranked player in the band, Armagan Huseyin (E), who had a great day, defeating six players ranked higher than him.

In Group 2 Forshaw continued his great run from the December event, to win all seven matches, including the higher ranked Kwan in five. Kwan won his remaining games to finish runner-up and was followed by Ryan Williams (E) and Charlie Bates (E) both on four wins. As Williams beat Bates, he took third. Bates though had done well to get the four wins, as he was the lowest ranked player in the group and he also took group winner Forshaw to deep in the fifth end.

In the afternoon the top four from each group went into Group A and the lower four into Group B. In Group A Savill beat all four opponents from the other group to end up with six wins. It did come down to the last match though with Savill outwitting Kwan 3-1. Forshaw won three to also finish on six wins. However with Savill having beaten Forshaw he was the champion and the 12 year-old went home happy with £200 cash for his efforts. Forshaw’s consolation prize was £125, so he will be happy with that on top of the £200 from the last event, which went towards buying a TT table and robot. Kwan and Reed ended up both with five wins, Kwan coming third as he had beaten Reed. Group B was won by Brian Gray, with Shane Clark runner-up.

Blair Pips Gritton

Band 2 Group 1 was topped by No.1 seed, Blair Phillip (K), although he was pushed to the fifth set by combination bat player James Arnold (Sx) in a match which contained a number of long rallies with neither player having the confidence to go for their shots. Phillip weathered the storm from being 2-1 down to win 11-6 in the fifth. Blair was also extended to five by both Mason O’Neil (K) and Sam Lu (Sx). Second place in the group went to Horsham’s Matt Van Yperen (Sx), whose tournament play has gone up a notch or two recently. He beat two players ranked higher than him, including a 3-0 win over Oliver Tyndall (Gs). Third was Sam Lu (Sx), whose level has also improved markedly recently.

In Group 2 the player on form was Oliver Gritton (He). Towering above all of his opponents, he made short work of most, but was taken to 11-9 in the fifth by both Geme Ryder (Sy) and Toby Bartram (K). Ryder was second in the group and Bartram third. Top seed for the group was Jack Merton (K), who left the venue in the afternoon with three games still to play, without informing the organisers, after a string of poor results.

Group A in the afternoon saw a number of close matches for Blair. He beat Marcus Bracey (Sx) 9, 10, 9 and Bartram 11-8 in the fifth. He lost 12-14, 13-15, 13-11, 11-13 to Ryder. In the crunch match, against Gritton, Phillip won 11-4 in the deciding set. Gritton’s remaining matches were pretty straight forward. This meant that Blair and Gritton both had six wins in the top group, but as Blair had won when they met, it was he who was announced the band champion. Third place went to Ryder and fourth to Bartram.

Group B was topped by Yochai Johnson (K), who did very well, as he was the second lowest player in the band. James Arnold was second.

Webb-Dixon Docks Opposition

Band 3 consisted of two groups of 10 players. Third seed Jordan Ingles (He) won Group 1, winning eight of his matches, but losing 3-0 to Andrew Chapman (E). Darnell Hooper (K) also won eight matches, but was runner-up on countback. Chapman came third with seven wins.

Top seed Shaquille Webb-Dixon (K) won all of his matches to top Group 2. However Tiana Dennison (E) pushed him all the way to 11-9 in the deciding set. Unranked Jake Coombes (K) won seven matches to come second in the group and another unranked player, Jake Mitchell (Mi), won six to claim third spot in the group. An off-form second seed Ben Worley (Sx), struggled to live up to his new ranking and finished ninth in the group.

After the initial groups, all players played two additional play-off matches against players who finished in a similar position in the other group to give each player his/her finishing position in the band. The battle for the top four positions went to Dixon-Webb, as he beat both Ingles and Hooper 3-0 to deservedly take the winners £100 Tees Sport voucher. There was a countback between other three players and Ingles ended up runner-up and Coombes third and Hooper fourth. Maxwell Allen (Sy) won the contest to take fifth spot.

The next Two Sussex Series events in K2 are on 25th February (Junior) and 26th February (Senior). Then there is the Sussex Satellite Grand Prix also in K2 on 31st March and 1st April. Forms are available on the entry forms section of the ETTA website or the calendar section of the Sussex Alliance www.sussextta.co.uk.

Finishing positions for all players in all bands:

Girls Grade 1:

1) Tin Tin Ho (Mi)

2) Megan Phillips (WAL)

3) Angharad Phillips (WAL)

4) Maria Tsaptsinos (Bk)

5) Tressa Armitage (Ha)

6) Yuki Wat (Sx)

7) Yolanda King (Sx)

8) Emma Tovey (K)

9) Emma Torkington (Sx)

10) Jasmine Ould (K)

11) Lois Peake (Sx)

12) Ella Patel (E)

Band 1:

1) Luke Savill (K)

2) Alex Forshaw (Sx)

3) Bryan Kwan (Sx)

4) Adam Reed (Mi)

5) Josh Robinson (Bd)

6) Armagan Huseyin (E)

7) Ryan Williams (E)

8) Charlie Bates (E)

9) Brian Gray (K)

10) Shane Clark (Mi)

11) Finny Wilson (Sx)

12) Daniel Pound (Sx)

13) Adam Corell (Sx)

14) Jack Josephs (He)

15) Oliver Hack (Ha)

16) Olamide Wuraola (Sy)

Band 2:

1) Blair Phillip (K)

2) Tommy Gritton (He)

3) Geme Ryder (Sy)

4) Toby Bartram (K)

5) Matt Van Yperen (Sx)

6) Marcus Bracey (Sx)

7) Oliver Tyndall (Gs)

8) Sam Lu (Sx)

9) Yochai Johnson (K)

10) James Arnold (Sx)

11) Mason O’Neil (K)

12) Emma Sheen (Sx)

13) Regan O’Neil (K)

14) Josh Gallen (Bk)

15) Jack Merton (K)

16) William Goodstone (Sx)

Band 3:

1) Shaquille Webb-Dixon (K)

2) Jordan Ingles (He)

3) Jake Coombes (K)

4) Darnell Hooper (K)

5) Maxwell Allen (Sy)

6) Andrew Chapman (E)

7) Jake Mitchell (Mi)

8) Ashone Hooper (K)

9) Marley Cross (Sy)

10) Ryan Gregory (Sx)

11) Vatsal Raina (Sy)

12) Vyas Raina (Sy)

13) Tiana Dennison (E)

14) Michael Tunubu (Sy)

15) Luke Stewart (Sx)

16) David Busari (Sy)

17) Ben Worley (Sx)

18) Becky Hancock (K)

19) Ruth Marsden (K)

20) Kieran Bonner (Sx)