Liam takes nothing for Grant-ed
Junior Boy’s Band 1:
Top Seed Liam Grant swept all before him in winning the Junior Boy’s Band 1 event at the first Sussex Series 2 Star of the 2013-14 season.
His main test came against fellow Surrey player Olamide Wuraola. This went to five games, but Grant won 11-3 in the decider. Second seed Wuraola had a test of his own against the lower ranked Kleber Silva (E), which he only won 13-11 in the fifth.
Wuraola duly took the runners-up spot. Silva excelled to take third place, beating four players ranked above him in the process, including a fifth set win over third seed, Dan Pound (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC), who was not having the best of days. Mini-man Ben Foster (K) came fourth. Grant went home with £150 in cash and Wuraola took home £50 cash.
The prizes for the remaining boys bands were £100 Tees Sports vouchers for the winners and £50 Tees Sports vouchers for the runners-up. Thanks to Tees Sports for sponsoring the tournament.
Junior Boys Band 2:
As with Band 1, the top seed was imperious, this time Lucas Papantoniou (Mi) reaping the rewards of his time spent training. Impressively he only dropped two ends in his nine victories. Again mirroring Band 1 the no. 2 seed finished second as Ovi Eyarhono (Sy) won eight times.
He was twice extended to five games by Surrey players, no. 3 seed Gem Ryder and no. 4 seed Andrew Chapman, who finished according to ranking in third and fourth places respectively. None of the remaining players took Ryder or Chapman to five games.
Cadet Boy’s Band 1 and 2:
Due to low numbers the Cadet Boy’s Bands 1 and 2 were combined into one band. Contrary to what happened in the junior boy’s bands, in the Cadet Boy’s Band 1, the top seed Will Goodstone (Sx-Cavendish TTC), did not win.
In fact he lost four matches and ended up in fifth place. It started with a 12-14 in the fifth set loss to Kyle Murphy (Mi). Murphy ended up in third place on count back with four wins, including three higher ranked players.
No. 2 seed Stuart Herriott (Mi) was the victor in this event, going undefeated in his seven encounters. The only end he conceded was in a 3-1 win over Goodstone. The runners-up spot was taken by fourth seed, Dexter Sherin (Sx-Brighton City TTC). Third seed Harry Nicholls (Co) came fourth.
Cadet Boy’s Band 3:
There were two groups of seven players in this event. In Group 1 top seed Bertrand Siu (Sx-Warden Park TTC) came through as winner, winning five matches and losing only to fourth seed, Will Michell (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC) by 11-9 in the fifth. Michell had suffered two agonisingly narrow defeats in his first two matches 11-7 in the fifth to fourth seed Numahr Malik (E) and 12-10 in the fifth to fifth seed Joseph Noah (Sy). However, he recovered from this to defeat Sussex County player, Ryan Heselden (Hollington TTC) 12-10 in the fifth, despite surrendering a 10-5 lead in that game.
Heselden also had his fair share of five-enders, losing to Malik 11-7 in the fifth, losing to Siu 12-10 in the fifth and beating Noah 12-10 in the fifth. Luke Gallagher (Sx-Warden Park TTC) was another to go the distance a no. of times, losing to Noah 9 in the fifth, beating Luke Stewart (Sx-St. Michael’s TTC) 12-10 in the fifth and losing to Michell 11-8 in the fifth.
All in all, out of 21 matches 11 went to five! The final order in the Group was 1) Siu, 2) Malik, 3) Michell, 4) Heselden, 5) Noah, 6) Gallagher, 7) Stewart.
There were less five-setters in Group 2 (six of them), but it was no less competitive. There was a three-way count back for the top three spots, as they all had five wins and one loss. After count back the order emerged as 1) Hammad Ansari (K), 2) Sebastian Adler (Mi), 3) Scott Covey (Sx-Horsham Spinners TTC).
Two of the matches between these three players went to the decider, but the 3-0 victory for Ansari over Covey was the deciding factor. Overall second seed Bejay Arjan (Sy) finished fourth in the group.
After the groups were completed there were play-off matches, with all players facing the players who finished in the equivalent position in the other group. The final was between Siu & Ansari & it was a thriller. Ansari had the better start, going 2-0 up, but Siu was not finished yet and pulled it back to 2-2 and kept the momentum to scrape over the line 11-9 in the fifth.
The third/fourth place play-off was equally close with Adler edging past Malik also 9 in the fifth. Covey won the all-Spinners battle for fifth place.
Junior Girls:
The Junior Girls only had five entrants, so it was decided to run the event in two separate sessions (morning and afternoon), with the players playing each other twice over the course of the day. The £200 cash prize fund was also split, with half for each session.
Top seed Emma Torkington (Sx-Warden Park TTC) won the morning event comfortably, but did not stay for the afternoon event, leaving Evie Foster (K), who finished in second place in the morning, to win the afternoon event.
Hannah McErlane (Do) took Foster to a decider in the morning event, as well as losing 11-9 in the fifth to the lower ranked Eda Aydin (Mi), but getting a good win 12-10 in the fifth against Holly Holder (Sx-Horsham TTC).
Holder finished third on count back to come third in the morning, with McErlane in fourth and Aydin in fifth. In the afternoon, the finishing order was exactly the same (except that Torkington was absent), but this time there was no count back. Holder came back from two games down to get her own back on McErlane 11-8 in the fifth. Holder was also extended to five by Aydin.
Report By Rory Scott – Referee (November 11, 2013)
Final Finishing Positions:
Junior Boys Band 1:
1) Liam Grant (Sy)
2) Olamide Wuraola (Sy)
3) Kleber Silva (E)
4) Ben Foster (K)
5) Luke Carter (K)
6) Dan Pound (Sx)
7) Jake Mitchell (Sy)
8) Harry Collins (Sx)
9) Tommy Gritton (He)
Junior Boys Band 2:
1) Lucas Papantoniou (Mi)
2) Ovi Eyarhono (Sy)
3) Gem Ryder (Sy)
4) Andrew Chapman (Sy)
5) Andrew Jackson (Sy)
6) Aaron Setterfield (K)
7) Kudjo Kpordje (Sy)
8) George Wells-Martin (Sy)
9) Kyo Kaneko (Sx)
10) Freddy Goodall (Sx)
Cadet Boys Band 1 & 2:
1) Stuart Herriott (Mi)
2) Dexter Sherin (Sx)
3) Kyle Murphy (Mi)
4) Harry Nicholls (Co)
5) Will Goodstone (Sx)
6) Hamza Ansari (K)
7) Anthony Close (He)
8) Alistair Smith (Sx)
Cadet Boys Band 3:
1) Hammad Ansari (K)
2) Bertrand Siu (Sx)
3) Sebastian Adler (Mi)
4) Numahr Malik (E)
5) Scott Covey (Sx)
6) Will Michell (Sx)
7) Ryan Heselden (Sx)
8) Bejay Arjan (Sy)
9) Tharujan Sivarajah (E)
10) Joseph Noah (Sy)
11) Kunj Patel (Sy)
12) Luke Gallagher (Sx)
13) Luke Stewart (Sx)
14) Harry Filson (Sx)
Junior Girls AM:
1) Emma Torkington (Sx)
2) Evie Foster (K)
3) Holly Holder (Sx)
4) Hannah McErlane (Do)
5) Eda Aydin (Mi)
Junior Girls PM:
1) Evie Foster (K)
2) Holly Holder (Sx)
3) Hannah McErlane (Do)
4) Eda Aydin (Mi)