West Sussex Schools

The West Sussex Schools Individual Table Tennis Championships was held recently in Horsham TTC, Greenway School, Horsham. All players got at least 4 matches & were placed in groups against others of similar ability to make for a competitive event. Entry levels were very low compared with last year, with only 43 players in total entering & 31 of these players were from Horsham TTC or its satellite clubs in Horsham District.

Shock of the day came in the u13s boys, where no. 4 seed Matt Van Yperen (Horsham TTC) swept all before him to take the title, beating two good Arundel players, Adam Corell (3rd seed) & Joss Hole (2nd seed) & most impressively Daniel Pound (Horsham) 3-0. Daniel duly took 2nd place. Matt's no fear flicking & attacking style of play paid dividends on the day. Since then he has gone on to perform very well in the top divisions of NCL (Chesham) & NJL (Southall), proving it was not just his lucky day. Joss finished in 3rd place. The 2nd group was won by James Arnold (Horsham).

Sam Lu (Lancing) won the u11s boys with ease, beating all of his opponents 3-0, although Kieran Gray (Horsham) gave him a good run, losing 3 close sets. Sam's long pimple backhand & fast forehand style of play tied his opponents up in knots. Not many u11s play with long pimples & therefore the others were not used to playing against them. Kieran came 2nd, beating the rest of the players 3-0. Another Horsham player, Sam Dallas came 3rd. Alex Fox (Lancing) was victorious in group 2.

No. 5 in English Schools U11s girls, Holly Holder (Horsham) won the u11s girls very easily, with none of her opponents getting more than 7 points in any end. There was however an intense battle for 2nd place between Kate Cheer (Crawley) & Ellen Simmons & Lauren Pound (both from Horsham). Kate beat both of them in 5 ends, only just making it over the line 13-11 in the 5th vs Ellen. Ellen came 3rd. I decided to do a play-off match between the winners of u11s boys & girls & Sam beat Holly 11-8 in the 5th set.

There were only 2 entrants in the under 13s girls, but they were the top two in the county, which made it interesting. To give them some more matches to make the trip worthwhile, I put the 2 u13 girls in with the u16 boys. Emma Torkington (Warden Park TTC) excelled, beating Tejas Padalkar of Horsham (the top seed for the u16s boys) & also Finny Wilson of North Mundham TTC. Lois Peake (North Mundham) beat all 4 of the 2nd string u16 boys players in straight sets. In the match between the two u13s girls, Lois did push top seed Emma (ranked 3rd in u14s in England) & forced her into a 4th set, which Emma clinched 11-7 to win the right to represent West Sussex in the National Finals.

The under 16s Boys was a tight affair, with a 3-way count back between Tejas Padalkar, Daniel Barna & Finny Wilson. Tejas beat Daniel, who beat Finny, who beat Tejas. On count back the final order emerged as Daniel 1st, Finny 2nd & Tejas 3rd. The 2nd tier group was won by Michael Bridger.

The under 16s girls was run by Joe Comper in Holy Trinity School, seeing as all 6 entrants were from that school. They played a round robin & Carys Dunn took the title, with Rachel Halliday taking the runners-up spot.

There were 4 u19s boys. Da Shuai Zhang was in a league of his own. Mike White (Littlehampton) came 2nd with a last gasp 12-10 in the 5th victory over Joe Comper (Crawley).

There was no u19s girls event, as there were no entries.

Therefore the players who are eligible to represent West Sussex at the National Schools finals on 24th April in Doncaster on are as follows:

U11s Boys: Sam Lu (Lancing)
U11s Girls: Holly Holder (Horsham)
U13s Boys: Matt Van Yperen (Horsham)
U13s Girls: Emma Torkington (Lindfield)
U16s Boys: Daniel Barna (Horsham)
U16s Girls: Carys Dunn (Crawley)
U19s Boys: Da Shuai Zhang (Goring-By-Sea)
U19s Girls: Lois Peake (Chichester)-By default, as she is the highest U19 girl in West Sussex on the Sussex ranking list, who is eligible.

Could the players above please confirm if you will be attending the Nationals?

Full placings list below:

U11s Boys:

1st - Sam Lu (Lancing)
2nd - Kieran Gray (Horsham)
3rd - Sam Dallas (Horsham)
4th - Alex Fox (Worthing)
5th - Chris Purdy (Horsham)
6th - Paul King (West Chiltington)
7th - Kyo Kaneko (Horsham)
8th - Michael Brockman (Horsham)
9th - Ben Robinson (Horsham)
10th - Sam Dixon (Horsham)
11th - George Atkinson (Horsham)
12th - Dominic Hawkins (Horsham)
13th - Ryan Craig (West Chiltington)
14th - Tyler Shoare (Horsham)
15th - Daniel King (Horsham)

U11s Girls:

1st - Holly Holder (Horsham)
2nd - Kate Cheer (Crawley)
3rd - Ellen Simmons (Horsham)
4th - Lauren Pound (Horsham)
5th - Eve Chatham (Horsham)
6th - Rhianna Kemp (Horsham)

U13s Boys:

1st - Matt Van Yperen (Horsham)
2nd - Daniel Pound (Horsham)
3rd - Joss Hole (Arundel)
4th - Adam Corell (Arundel)
5th - James Arnold (Horsham)
6th - Ollie Salkeld (West Chiltington)
7th - Tom Brook (Horsham)
8th - Tim Craig (West Chiltington)
9th - George Laker (Horsham)
10th - Daniel Clark (Horsham)

U13s Girls:

1st - Emma Torkington (Lindfield)
2nd - Lois Peake (Chichester)

U16s Boys:

1st - Daniel Barna (Horsham)
2nd - Finny Wilson (Barnham)
3rd - Tejas Padalkar (Horsham)
4th - Erik Van - Mol (Horsham)
5th - Michael Bridger (Bolney)
6th - Harry Collins (East Grinstead)
7th - Max Smith (Haywards Heath)
8th - Adam Goacher (Worthing)

U16s Girls:

1st - Carys Dunn (Crawley)
2nd - Rachel Halliday (Crawley)
3rd - Jodie Hine (Crawley)
4th - Louise Noyse (Crawley)
5th - Claire Ward (Crawley)
6th - Jazmine Cook (Crawley)

U19s Boys:

1st - Da Shuai Zhang (Goring-By-Sea)
2nd - Michael White (Littlehampton)
3rd - Joe Comper (Crawley)
4th - Adam Turner (Bognor Regis)

U19s Girls:

No entries

U19 BOYS - Da Shuai Zhang
U19 GIRLS - No event
U16 BOYS - Dan Barna
U16 GIRLS - tbc
U13 BOYS - Matt van Yperen
U13 GIRLS - Emma Torkington
U11 BOYS - Sam Lu
U11 GIRLS - Holly Holder

Forest School, Horsham affirmed its growing reputation in the Sussex table tennis community, by taking the overall team honours in both the under 13 and under 16 age categories at the recent North Sussex Schools Table Tennis Championships.

Matt Van Yperen and Tejas Padalkar were Forest's standard-bearers coming out as winners of the top bands of the U13 and U16's respectively. Harry Maynard's star is also rising, demonstrated by his runners-up spot behind Van Yperen. Padalkar only dropped two sets all afternoon and with two more years left in his age band he is likely to remain the player to beat in the area for some time.

Commendable as Forest's performance was they will only go forward to represent the area in further English Schools table tennis competition at U13 level as at U16s local rivals Tanbridge House School accumulated more points with their top four players, the number of players required for the representative teams. Well done to Tanbridge's Dan Pound, Eric Van Mol, George Murrell and Luke Bennett for their achievement.

It was encouraging to see a number of girls playing in the Championships in a sport which is definitely calling out for more of them. Warden Park earned the right to go forward as the U13 representative team and well done to Clare Owen for winning the girls event. She certainly earned it, going to fifth set deciders in four of her five matches.

In the U16 event the girls to their credit mixed in with the boys event. Becky Mann earned a creditable 10th place in the U16 Band A and Holy Trinity School's quartet of Carys Dunn, Gemma Williams, Clare Ward and Rachel Halliday will have the option to go forward and 'mix it' with female opponents at the next level up.

As well as seeing their younger girls team do well Warden Park will have been delighted by the gutsy showing of Mike Bridger coming through to win a tough U16 Band B event, with a 13-11 deciding set win over Oli Kyndt from St Paul's College.

Holy Trinity's manager Joe Comper was delighted by the showing of his players on home ground. Alex Broadley, Joe Fox and Chris Richards all won their C bands to provide important contributions to their school's impressive overall team scores in both age groups. Comper has only just started after-school coaching; with excellent TT facilities at his disposal Holy Trinity could become a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.

Sackville and Imberhorne schools both represented East Grinstead in good style. Sackville's lack of player numbers limited its impact in the overall standings but what it lacked in quantity it made up in quality, particularly in the U16 representative stakes where second place was achieved. Brett Dawson excelled for them in winning the U13 Band B. Imberhorne brought a relatively young team which may have more to say in future years' honours chases. For now they can be content to have seen Jacob Allonby win one of the U16 Band B events.

St Paul's also suffered on the quantity front but from the players they did bring it was evident that they are not just dependent on the experience of their established county players, Dan Barna and Mike Rutherford.

All in all a total of 102 players took part in the two events. All the youngsters showed fantastic enthusiasm and sportsmanship in representing their schools. It was the first time that Holy Trinity's Ball Hall had had all of its new 16 tables in action at the same time and as such provided a great local showcase for the sport.