The second Grand Prix of the season is upon us in Guildford this weekend and, if the drama experienced last time out at the Tees Sport City of Liverpool Grand Prix is anything to go by, then we’re in for a classic weekend of shocks, spills and entertaining table tennis.
In Liverpool it was Irishman Paul McCreery who won his first ever Grand Prix title, defeating England’s Chris Doran in an epic five-game thriller 3-2 (12-10, 10-12, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7) in the final to put an end to the dramatic proceedings, which had earlier seen last season’s overall Grand Prix Champion Ryan Jenkins (WAL) fall at the quarter-final stage to 9th seed David Meads.
Throughout the 2011-12 season Jenkins was in unstoppable form with five titles out of six Grand Prix attended – the other resulting in a semi-final finish, so his defeat at the quarter-final stage was a real shock.
Jenkins will once again be back in action in Guildford and he’ll be determined to make amends with another title to add to his impressive collection. Standing in his way will be both McCreery, who also won the under-21s title at the Tees Sport City of Liverpool Grand Prix, and Gavin Rumgay – Jenkins long-term Grand Prix rival from Scotland.
Rumgay is making his first appearance of the season and will hope to de-throne Jenkins at the end of the campaign to win back the overall title that he dominated a few years back. As the number 1 and 2 seeds respectively, they could meet in another high-class final.
In the women’s singles, following the absence of 2011-12 overall Champion Yuko Tsuji, it will be left to English international Hannah Hicks to take up the top seeding at the Bribar Guildford Grand Prix.
Hicks, who will play for England on Tuesday night in Slovakia and then travel back, will not have to face either finalist from Liverpool as both Champion Karina Le Fevre and runner-up Ashley Givan have not travelled to the event. Hicks’ main rivals instead will come from the Welsh twins of Megan and Angharad Phillips.
There will also be the banded events on Saturday for players of various abilities to compete against similar-strength opponents, all for trophies and cash prizes, while the doubles event will get its second outing after the first event was won by Chris Doran and Damien Nicholls at the Tees Sport City of Liverpool Grand Prix.
This time, however, at the Bribar Guildford Grand Prix, there will be a completely new event added to the playing schedule for all to join in. Trialling for the first time will be a ‘sudden death’ tournament. It’s a singles shot tournament where all players put in a small fee to the ‘pot’ and round-by-round players are knocked-out on the basis of a single point of play.
Anyone can enter and because it’s just one point – anyone can win. The event will take place before the Men’s Quarter-finals and should take just 20-30 minutes to complete. Anyone can join so have a go and, you never know, but you might be the one winning the percentage of the total pot at the end of the day.
To see the full Bribar Guildford Grand Prix draw click here