The 2012-13 Grand Prix season’s points have been tallied up and the full lists are available now at the link below. A brief summary of interesting results following the final GP at Medway are also listed.
Men’s Singles
Chris Doran won his maiden Men’s Singles title after an excellent season which included wins in Newcastle, North Herts, Jersey and Blackpool and several other final and semi-final finishes. Scotsman Gavin Rumgay was the runner-up with wins from Bristol and London to his name, while early leader Paul McCreery had to settle for third despite triumphs at Liverpool and Cardiff. Defending Champion Ryan Jenkins finished fourth while Mike O’Driscoll recorded a comfortable fifth position on his full return to Grand Prix action.
Women’s Singles
Karina Le Fevre was also a respective first-time overall champion after securing the Women’s Singles title. Winning the events at Liverpool and Newcastle, she was able to hold off runner-up Emma Vickers with neither competing at Medway. The Welsh twins of Angharad (third) and Megan (fourth) Phillips both earned a place in the money, while Yolanda King rounded off the top five. Two wins at the last two Grand Prixs gave Joanna Parker enough points for fourth spot, although she did not meet the qualification criteria.
Men’s Band 2
Danny Lawrence was the overall champion from the 2012-13 season but not before he endured a nerve-wracking end to the season at the Bribar Medway Grand Prix. Having decided not to enter, he could only sit and watch as main rival Adam Harrison made his way to the final – eating away at Lawrence’s 38 point lead. With the number-crunching ongoing, Harrison won the final and earned himself… 37 points in the process, leaving himself just one short of his rivals 120 point tally – much to the relief of the Kent youngster.
Men’s Band 5
Surprisingly, the one-point margin in Men’s Band 2 was not the closest result of the 2012-13 season. That honour, in fact, went to Gabriel Achampong in Men’s Band 5. Neither he, nor closest challenger, Adam Jepson, played in Band 5 in either of the last two Grand Prixs, leaving Jepson just 0.5 pts shy of the overall prize!
Achampong was victorious in Guildford and Newcastle before Jepson won in Doncaster and came runner-up in Blackpool. The crucial result came at the Sussex Satellite Grand Prix where Jepson only managed a semi-final finish – earning him 14.5 points rather than the finalist’s 16. Middlesex player Achampong won both Bands 5 and 6 as he ended up in Band 1 come the end of the season.
Sudden Death
This season saw the trial of the new single-point ‘Sudden Death’ competition – the results of many of these you can now find on YouTube. No player has yet retained the title displaying it’s true unpredictability while players such as Paul ‘The Octopus’ Beck can make the final. The winners in 2012-13 were: Paul McCreery (Bribar Guildford), Steve Foster (Bribar Bristol), Joe Killoran (Tees Sport Doncaster), Colin Dalgleish (Tees Sport Blackpool), Tyla Anderson (Bribar London) and Luke Walsh (Bribar Medway). In many ways Anderson has already shown the ‘perfect’ way to win by landing five unreturnable serves.
With compliments
The Grand Prix season could not have been achieved without the support of many fine individuals and companies. Thanks go to out title sponsors; Tees Sport and Bribar, our string of excellent volunteer staff which includes referees, umpires, tournament organisers and anyone else who spared their time to help out – without these people the series would never have come to fruition. Thank you also to our photographers who have spent their time and efforts to get all the wonderful pictures – most of which you can find right here on Flickr. Finally thanks to the players and coaches whose attendance make it all worthwhile.
We look forward to seeing you all next season!