Cippenham Five by Two Cadet and Under-13 1-Star Open (20.4.13)

Stewart and Vydelingum take the titles

A small entry for the annual Cippenham Five by Two Cadet and Under-13 1-Star Open meant that some groups were comprised of six, and in one case even seven, rather than five players, giving all the contestants a hard but enjoyable day’s table tennis. There was a distinct lack of local interest amongst the participants with the winners coming from Kent and Middlesex.

The morning kicked off with the younger under-13 age group. The 19 players were split into three groups, the winners of which were Artur Caltabiano, Reiss Vydelingum and George Coulson. All three then won their quarter-final matches and were joined by Ben Naylor-Smith in the semi-finals. At that point Caltabiano beat Coulson 3-1 and Vydelingum beat Naylor-Smith 3-0. Vydelingun then kept his form going in the final as he beat Caltabiano 3-0 although the second and third games were only decided after deuces.

Many of the same players took to the tables for the Cadet (under-15) Singles event in the afternoon, being joined also by some older players. Of the U13 finalists, only Caltabiano contested the cadet event and he was dismissed by Romayne Stewart in the quarter-final.

Stewart, who had been beaten by Guy Thomis in the preliminary stage group, was now finding his touch and in the semi-final came through a deserved winner against top seed Sam Liu 3-2. Thomis, meanwhile, was making his way through the bottom half of the draw, easing past Patryk Polanski in the quarters and Regan O’Neill in the semi-final.

Thus Stewart and Thomis met in the final for the second time in the event and this time the result was reversed with Stewart beating Thomis 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-7).

	Winner:	Runner-up:
Cadet Singles	Romayne Stewart (Mi)	Gus Thomis (Bk)
Cadet Consolation	Ben Naylor-Smith (Bu)	Dexter Sherin (Sx)
Under-13 Singles	Reiss Vydelingum (K)	Artur Caltabiano (Ha)
Under-13 Consolation	Jamie Liu (Bk)	Michael Tunubu (Sy)

By Graham Trimming