A total of 87 players contested the 5th Jarvis Sports Horsham Spinners 2 Star on November 22. There were six age groups with consolation events in each and Aadil Anand (K) again won two gold Medals.

Under-11

There were 13 players in this event in four groups. The top three seeds all won their groups. The fourth seed Thomas Palmer (Mi) lost to the fifth highest ranked player, his club-mate Marco Plate (Mi). Plate continued his good form to defeat Eddie Gillhouley (K) 3-2 in the quarter-final, second seed Jake Grayson (Mi) 3-1 in the semi-final and third seed Brandon Sangchin (Mi) 3-1 in the final.

Sangchin had knocked out Palmer 13-11 in the fifth in the quarter final, and top seed Arthur Bracken (K) 3-1 in the semi-final. Bracken beat Grayson 11-9 in the fifth for the bronze medal. Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) won the consolation event at the expense of Charlie Nabarro (Mi) in the final 3-2.

Under-12

There were 24 players in seven groups in the U12s and top Seed Sophie Chiang (Sy) carried all before her. She won her group, beating Plate 11-8 in the fifth set. She then got a bye to the quarters, where she beat Benedict Vincent (Mi) 3-0, then accounted for Grayson in the semis 3-1 and Bracken in the final 3-0.

Third seed Bracken had beaten Spencer Blyth (Sy) 3-0 in Round 1, followed by a win over Mikaeel Toosy (Sy) also 3-0 in the quarters, before another 3-0 win over Sheel Malde (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) in the semis.

Malde had a couple of good wins to get to the semi-final. After coming second in his group, he then defeated the No 7 seed, Palmer 3-2 and the No 2 seed Ollie Michell (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) in straight sets in the quarters. Grayson beat Malde 3-1 in the bronze medal match. Maric-Murray won his second consolation final of the day, this time with a very good 3-0 win over U11s winner Plate.

Under-13

This event consisted of 26 players split into seven groups. There were two seeding upsets at the group stage, both involving girls who were seeded. Scarlett O’Neil (K) the fifth seed lost to both Valerio Bucci (Mi) and Jacob Evans (Sx). Seventh Seed Chiang lost to Natalia Ianau (Mi), who is not far below her in the rankings.

Aadil Anand (K), the No 1 seed, had it all his own way in this age group, never looking like even dropping a single set to any opponent. He defeated Aryan Shrivastava (Mi) in the quarters, Mahmood Kelani (K) in the semis (11-1, 11-1, 11-9) and Charlie Graham-Adams (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC), the No 2 seed in the final.

Charlie didn’t have such an easy run and was extended to five sets in the group, by Richard Holmes (K), before putting out Ianau in straight sets in the quarters and getting a first ever win over Will McCarthy (K) 11-9 in the fifth in the semis, who had previously always beaten Graham-Adams 3-0. McCarthy beat Kelani 3-0 in the bronze medal match. O’Neil unsurprisingly won the consolation event, beating Joe Newman (Mi) in the final in four sets.

Under-14

This event had six groups and 22 players. There were four upsets at the group stage. Ben Palmer-Jones (Mi) had a massive victory over second seed Graham-Adams in the fifth set, Newman defeated third seed McCarthy in four, but McCarthy still won the group on countback, Fraser Kent (Sx-Weald TTC) beat fifth seed Ianau 3-2 and finally Bucci beat sixth seed Will Michell (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) 3-2.

Top seed Anand yet again oozed class and again never really looked like conceding an end in this category. He knocked out Michell in the quarters, Graham-Adams in the semis and Palmer-Jones in the final. The latter did put up a bit of a fight, especially in the first two games, losing 11-8, 11-8, 11-2.

In the knockout stages Palmer-Jones put paid to Ianau 3-2 and Bucci 3-1. Bucci had had a very good five-set win over McCarthy in the quarters and Graham-Adams had overcome fourth seed, Jamie Blair (Do) 3-1 in the other quarter-final. Graham-Adams beat Bucci in straight sets for the bronze medal. Sacha Chowdhury (Mi) beat Shrivastava 3-0 in the final of the consolation event.

Under-15

There were 21 players in five groups. The only major surprise at the group stage was unseeded Justin Rathe (Mi) beating two players ranked above him, third seed Ali Malloch (Do) by 12-10 in the fifth set and also Will Michell, also in the fifth set.

In the knockout stages second-seeded George Long (Mi) beat Ellis Crockford (Sx-Arundel TTC) in the quarter-final 3-0, fourth seed Robert Pelc (Sy) in the semi-final 3-2 and top seed Vitor Marquiori (Sy) in the final 3-1.

Marquiori had put out Malloch in the quarters 3-2 and Blair in the semis 3-1. Blair had beaten Rathe in the quarters 3-0 & Pelc had knocked out Palmer-Jones 3-2. Pelc beat Blair for the bronze medal in straight sets. Chowdhury beat Michell in the final of the consolation event 3-0.

Under-18

The largest event saw 29 competitors divided into eight groups. There weren’t any seeds defeated in the groups, but three seeds did pull out, paving the way for others.

One of these seeds was replaced by Richard Pelc (Sy), who got a scratch entry and made full use of it, first beating Benjy Zentner (Mi) 3-0, but then taking the scalp of Eren Gozcu (Mi), the top seed, in four sets in the quarter final. He went on to beat fourth seed Guarav Aravind (Mi) 3-2 in the semi-final and then lost 2-3 to second seed Jake Mitchell (Sy) in the final.

On the other side of the draw, Mitchell had overcome club mate David Busari (K) 3-1, then Malloch in the quarters 3-1 and Abdur-Rahman Kelani (K) in the semi-final 3-0.

Kelani is my pick for player of the tournament, as with a low ranking of just 469 points, after winning his group, he went on to beat Lee Clark (Mi) (547 points), then Jack Stockdale (E) (758 points), before winning the bronze medal match vs Aravind (786 points) in the deciding game.

The consolation final was a battle between Brighton City TTC players Ollie Guile and Matt Johnson (both Sx), which the former won in straight sets.

The next Horsham Spinners 2 Star tournaments at Collyers are on January 17, February 14 and April 3 and the forms are available on the Table Tennis England website.

Results

U11
Main: Marco Plate (Mi) beat Brandon Sangchin (Mi) 3-1 (12-10, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7)
Consolation: Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) beat Charlie Nabarro (Mi) 3-2 (11-9, 11-13, 11-4, 9-11, 11-6)

U12s
Main: Sophie Chiang (Sy) beat Arthur Bracken (Sx) 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 12-10)
Consolation: Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) beat Marco Plate (Mi) 3-0 (12-10, 11-7, 11-7)

U13s
Main: Aadil Anand (K) beat Charlie Graham-Adams (Sx) 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-4)
Consolation: Scarlett O’Neil (K) beat Tom Newman (Mi) 3-1 (11-7, 8-11, 15-13, 13-11)

U14s
Main: Aadil Anand (K) beat Ben Palmer-Jones (Mi) 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-2)
Consolation: Sacha Chowdhury (Mi) beat Aryan Shrivastava (Mi) 3-0 (11-4, 11-9, 11-7)

U15s
Main: George Long (Mi) beat Vitor Marquiori (Sy) 3-1 (11-7, 7-11, 12-10, 11-6)
Consolation: Sacha Chowdhury (Mi) beat Will Michell (Sx) 3-0 (13-11, 11-5, 11-7)

U18s
Main: Jake Mitchell (Sy) beat Richard Pelc (Sy) 3-2 (11-9, 11-5, 7-11, 8-11, 11-5)
Consolation: Ollie Guile (Sx) bt Matt Johnson (Sx) 3-0 (11-3, 11-9, 14-12)