A total of 59 players took part in the Horsham Spinners 1* on January 17. Many thanks to Ray Crockford (CU) for stepping in to referee the tournament at short notice and also to the parents who assisted him with the running of the event on the day.
The day ran very smoothly and was very successful. As with the regular 2-stars, there were six age groups, with main and consolation events in each.
Under-11
There were two groups of four in this event. The top seed, Bertie Kelly (So), won all of his group games in straight sets, with James Henry (Mi) beating Eddie Gillhouley (K) in four sets to get second place in the group.
However, second seed Marco Plate (He) lost two matches in the group, to clubmate Thomas Palmer (Mi) in four and to Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) in five sets and was thus relegated to the consolation event. Maric-Murray beat Palmer in three to win the group.
In the semi-finals, Kelly beat Palmer in three very close games (12-10, 11-9, 12-10) and Maric-Murray defeated Henry in four. Kelly was again too strong in the final, winning 3-0 against Maric-Murray, meaning he didn’t drop an end all tournament.
Palmer won the bronze medal match 3-1 at the expense of Henry. Plate recovered from his earlier defeats to beat Gillhouley in the consolation final 3-0.
Under-12
There were two groups of four and two groups of three in this age group. Group 1 was won by Kelly, who was top seed once again. Second seed Ollie Michell (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) did win Group 2, but only by the smallest of margins, by the rather strange scoreline of 3-2 (14-12, 12-10, 7-11, 1-11, 12-10) against Maric-Murray.
In Group 3, third seed Plate again experienced defeat at the hands of a lower-ranked player, this time by clubmate Max Chowdhury (Mi), by the very close scoreline of 3-2 (13-11, 13-11, 8-11, 10-12, 9-11). These two went through the group in second and third place respectively.
Finally, Group 4 was won by the fourth seed, Sheel Malde (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC), who was part of the team which won gold at the English Schools U11s Team National Championships (the other players were Charlie Graham-Adams and Ollie Michell, who also feature in this report and Zach Hodges).
In the quarter-finals Kelly, defeated Maric-Murray in the deciding end, Plate made amends by taking out Malde in three games, Chowdhury continued his good run accounting for Millie Rogove (He) in four and Michell knocked out Palmer in straight sets. Both semi-finals were 3-0, with Kelly getting the better of Plate and Michell ousting Chowdhury.
In the final, Kelly started out the stronger, taking the first two games, but Michell pegged him back to 2-2, only for the momentum to switch again, with Kelly running out the winner.
Plate won the bronze medal by virtue of his ‘revenge’ win over Chowdhury three games to two. In the consolation final, Henry bettered Blake Sanderson (Ha) 3-0.
Under-13
In this category there were three groups of four and two groups of three. There was only one ranking upset at the group stage, which was a defeat for fifth seed, Joe Newman (Mi) by Owen Brown (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC), who is now playing for Sussex third U15s team and has won more than half of his matches. Brown went on to have a quarter-final tussle with the fourth seed, Michael Tunubu (Sy), which he lost valiantly in the fifth end.
The other quarters consisted of top seed Graham-Adams (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) being too strong for Jacob Evans (Sx-Horsham TTC), third seed Fraser Kent (Sx-Weald TTC) ending the run of Joe Gillhouley (K) and No 2 seed Will McCarthy (K) putting paid to Max Shah (Mi), all with 3-0 scorelines.
In the semi-finals, Graham-Adams showed why he was the No 1 seed, by making short work of Tunubu, while McCarthy was slightly delayed by Kent, who nabbed the second game of their tie. In the final, Graham-Adams got his second successive win over McCarthy, who had previously always beaten him 3-0 and this time the score was 3-0 to Graham-Adams.
Tunubu won the bronze medal match against Kent 3-0. Ed Cozens (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) did well to win the consolation event, beating Daniel Zeffie (E) 3-2 in the final.
Under-14
This age group contained four groups of four. Three of the four seeds topped their groups with relative ease. However, third seed Thomas Arnott (K) cam unstuck against Newman, who won in four sets.
Fourth seed Will Michell (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) had a very good tournament. First he defeated Sacha Chowdhury (Mi) (to whom he has previously lost), very easily in the group. He then went on to defeat Arnott in four sets in the quarter final, before the upset of the tournament (in terms of ranking). In the semi-final Michell beat top seed, Graham-Adams 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-6), having the advantage of getting used to Graham-Adams’ unorthodox style by playing against him a lot, as they are from the same club. Graham-Adams had put out Louie Rogove (He) in the quarters by a 3-0 scoreline.
On the other side of the draw Chowdhury knocked out Newman in one quarter-final 3-0 and second seed McCarthy overcame Max Shah (Mi) in four games in the other. McCarthy then beat Chowdhury in four in the bottom half semi-final.
In the final, Michell could not repeat his earlier form, going down to McCarthy 3-0 (9-11, 8-11, 7-11). Graham-Adams won the third/fourth place play-off against Chowdhury in four sets. The consolation event was won by Varun Jain (Sy), who ousted Jon-Vai Chung in three in the final.
Under-15
There were two groups of four and three groups of three in this event. There was just one upset at the group stage, with Jared Schaller beating No 4 seed Will Michell 3-0 (12-10, 13-11, 14-12).
In the quarters, top seed Ali Malloch (Do) beat Michell 3-0, Arnott beat Chowdhury 3-1, Schaller beat Jain 3-1 and second seed Damien Gray (Sy) beat Ted Kelly (So) 3-1.
Malloch won his semi against Arnott in three and Gray defeated Schaller, also in three. Malloch went on to win the final 3-1 over Gray.
Schaller continued his rich vein of form, seeing off Arnott in the fifth set in the bronze medal match. James Yianni (Mi) overcame Rorie Leonnard (Sx-Arundel TTC) in the final of the consolation event by three games to love.
Under-18
There were two groups of three and two groups of four in this event. Schaller again performed well at the group stage, beating No 3 seed Ollie Guile (Sx-Brighton City TTC) in three close games. The other seeds won their groups although fourth seed, Matt Johnson (Sx-Brighton City TTC) had a fifth-set tussle with clubmate Billy Keegan.
In the quarters, second seed Malloch saw off Kelly in four, Keegan ended Schaller’s run in three, Guile overcame Johnson in five and top seed Andrew Jackson (Sy) knocked out Mohammed Raqueeb (E) in three. In the semis, Malloch accounted for Keegan in three close ends and Jackson put paid to Guile’s chances in three.
Jackson won the final surprisingly easily in three to get gold. The bronze medal match was won by Guile in four games over Keegan. Joe Worskett (Sx-Horsham TTC) won the consolation event, beating Lewis Gardner (Sx-Arundel) 3-1 in the final.
The next Horsham Spinners 2* tournaments at Collyers are on February 14 and April 3 and the forms are available on the Table Tennis England website.
Results
Under-11
Main: Bertie Kelly (So) beat Ollie Maric-Murray (Sy) 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8)
Consolation: Marco Plate (Mi) beat Eddie Gillhouley (K) 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 12-10)
Under-12
Main: Bertie Kelly (So) beat Ollie Michell (Sx) 3-2 (11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 3-11, 11-5)
Consolation: James Henry (Mi) beat Blake Sanderson (Ha) 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-5)
Under-13
Main: Charlie Graham-Adams (Sx) beat Will McCarthy (K) 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 11-8)
Consolation: Ed Cozens (Sx) beat Daniel Zeffie (E) 3-2 (10-12, 11-6, 7-11, 13-11, 11-6)
Under-14
Main: Will McCarthy (K) beat Will Michell (Sx) 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-7)
Consolation: Varun Jain (Sy) beat Jon-Vai Chung (Sy) 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-7)
Under-15
Main: Ali Malloch (Do) beat Damien Gray (Sy) 3-1 (11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8)
Consolation: James Yianni (Mi) beat Rorie Leonnard (Sx) 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-7)
Under-18
Main: Andrew Jackson (Sy) beat Ali Malloch (Do) 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-7)
Consolation: Joe Worskett (Sx) beat Lewis Gardner (Sx) 3-1 (11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 11-7)