30 players took part in the Jarvis Sports Burgess Hill Veterans and Senior 2 Star Ratings tournament in the Triangle Leisure Centre, Burgess Hill.

Veteran players were split into three bands of eight players. The senior event was made up of one band of eight players and one band of nine players. In his first ranking tournament, Tony Smith (Le) won Band 2, winning all of his matches.

Vets Band 1

No 1 seed Rory Scott from Ireland and host club, Horsham Spinners TTC, carried all before him, remaining undefeated in all seven of his matches, as he is now getting accustomed to doing in these tournaments.

In fact, he impressively only dropped two ends in total, one to eventual runner-up and third seed, Tony West (Np) and the other to Vadym Krevs (He). Other than losing to Scott, West’s only other defeat was to Paul May (Ha), who actually didn’t pick up any other wins and finished eighth.

Second seed, Richard Hayes (Le) came third with four wins, as he lost to both Scott and West, as well as to Dave Butler (IRL). Dave is English, but living in Ireland and as such has no England ranking, but was placed in Band 1, as he is known to the organiser.

Dean Rose (K) also had four wins, but came fourth, as he lost to Hayes. Butler came fifth with three wins. Krevs and photographer Mike Rhodes (Ha) both won twice, but Krevs got sixth and Rhodes seventh, as Krevs defeated Rhodes 3-2.

There were only four other five game matches (out of 28 matches in the group), which were Rose overcoming both Rhodes and Butler, and Rhodes being denied by both Hayes and West.

Vets Band 2

The top seed again won this band, although Smith was made to work somewhat harder than fellow long pips exponent Scott for the gold medal. He beat eventual runner-up, Fawzi Yousif (Sx), as well as both Jonathan Chernett (Sy) and Alan Stone (Sx), all in five games.

Yousif was only seeded fifth, but had three unexpected wins, only losing to Smith. One of his wins was in five games over bottom player, Simon Pells (Bu), who failed to win any matches.

Third place went to Ken Lewis (E), who won five times. Chopper, Bob Lowe (Sx), got four wins and finished fourth. He beat both Chernett and Stone in five games.

Stone, Chernett and Chris Pullinger (Sy) all won twice and so were involved in a three-way countback from which second seed Stone came out on top to finish fifth, while Pullinger got sixth and Chernett got seventh. The only other five-setter was Chernett defeating Pullinger 11-9 in the fifth.

Vets Band 3

Most players in this band were unranked. Top seed Lynne Trussell (Sx) won five matches to finish in second place. Minesh Agnihotri (Sx) also won five, but since he lost to Trussell (3-2), he finished below her in third place. He was extended to five games twice, by Paul Pells (E) and Adrian Radulescu (Bu).

The clear winner of the band was Stuart Vincent (Sx), who won all seven matches, with none going to five ends. There was another two way countback between Pells and Steve Reilly (Fiji), who both won four matches, but since Pells defeated Reilly (by 12-10 in the fifth), he came in fourth place, with Reilly in fifth. Reilly was the other player who defeated Trussell.

Alison Jordan (Sx) won two matches to get sixth place, ahead of seventh-placed Radulescu, who won one. Jordan overcame Radulescu in five, but lost to Pells in five.

Senior Band 1

As well as playing in the vets bands, 11 veteran players also took part in the Senior event. Of the eight players in Senior Band 1, seven of them played in vets bands, five in Band 1 and two in Band 2. As well as winning the Vets Band 1, No 1 seeded Scott also won Senior Band 1, winning a total of 14 matches out of 14 on the day. He only conceded three ends in winning the senior band, one each against May, Krevs and Richard Cosens (Sx).

Second seeded May had a nightmare, only winning two matches and finishing in seventh place, although he lost to Rose in five. He beat Cosens in five.

Krevs performed well above his fifth seeding to get the silver medal with three good wins, as well as three expected wins. Butler won four matches to finish in third place, including an 11-9 in the fifth set victory over Lewis.

There was a three-way countback for places four to six. Lewis defeated both Lowe and Rose and so came fourth and Lowe was fifth as he overcame Rose in the fifth end. Lowe also beat Cosens in five.

Senior Band 2

Four of the nine players in Senior Band 2 were also playing in vets bands, one in Band 2 and three in Band 3. Junior Brandon Bennett (Sx) won this event, although unlike all of the other winners on the day, was not undefeated.

He was going great guns with seven wins out of seven, only having dropped one end, until his final match against his summer league team-mate, Agnihotri, to whom he unexpectedly lost 3-0. He then had to wait it out to see if he won the band, needing Agnihotri to lose twice, which he eventually did, losing to Reilly and to Charlie Usher (Sx) both 3-0.

Reilly only lost one match as well (to Bennett) and so he finished in second place on countback. Agnihotri finished in third place with six wins and so just missed out on medals in both age groups.

Usher came fourth with five wins, while Freddy Goodall got fifth place with four wins, including a good win over Usher 11-9 in the fifth.

Incredibly, out of 36 matches in this band, there were only two five-game matches, the other being Radulescu overcoming Simon Pells 13-11 in the decider. Radulescu got three wins and came sixth, while Pells came seventh also with three wins. Darius Mayhew (Sx) got a single win and finished eighth.

Final Placings

Vets Band 1: 1 Rory Scott (IRL), 2 Tony West (Np), 3 Richard Hayes (Le), 4 Dean Rose (K), 5 Dave Butler (IRL), 6 Vadym Krevs (UKR), 7 Mike Rhodes (Ha), 8 Paul May (Ha)
Vets Band 2: 1 Tony Smith (Le), 2 Fawzi Yousif (Sx), 3 Ken Lewis (E), 4 Bob Lowe (Sx), 5 Alan Stone (Sx), 6 Chris Pullinger (Sy), 7 Jonathan Chernett (Sy), 8 Simon Pells (Bu)
Vets Band 3: 1 Stuart Vincent (Sx), 2 Lynne Trussell (Sx), 3 Minesh Agnihotri (Sx), 4 Paul Pells (E), 5 Steve Reilly (FIJI), 6 Alison Jordan (Sx), 7 Adrian Radulescu (Bu), 8 Tony Power (Sx)
Senior Band 1: 1 Rory Scott (IRL), 2 Vadym Krevs (UKR), 3 Dave Butler (IRL) , 4 Ken Lewis (E), 5 Bob Lowe (Sx), 6 Dean Rose (K), 7 Paul May (Ha), 8 Richard Cosens (Sx)
Senior Band 2: 1 Brandon Bennett (Sx), 2 Steve Reilly (FIJI), 3 Minesh Agnihotri (Sx), 4 Charlie Usher (Sx), 5 Freddie Goodall (Sx), 6 Adrian Radulescu (Bu), 7 Simon Pells (Bu), 8 Darius Mayhew (Sx), 9 Peter Vincent (Sx)