Darius Knight picked up his third Superleague title of the season at BATTS on April 15th. He won decisively 5,4,4 against the popular Indian player Omkar Torgalkar in the final. Mind you he had to work hard to get there with Peter Radford pinching the first leg in round 2, Craig Bryant losing out in 4 close games a round later, and the irrepressible Gareth Herbert 2 -1 up in games in the semi final before losing 8 in the fifth. Omkar to reach the final beat Lewis Gray in 4 tight games and then had a wonderful semi final win over Gavin Rumgay 9,5, 11. Gareth completed a great night by beating Gavin 9,4,12 in the third place play off.
Maciej Nakielski who lives close by in Waltham Abbey had a night he’ll never forget . He beat Costas Papantoniou in the first round and was finally stopped by Rumgay in the quarters but still managed to beat Lewis Gray to gain a remarkable seventh place finish in this international field. Evangeline Collier had a superb three straight win over seeded Mindaugas Sinkus in round 1 which meant that she played top 16 players for the rest of the evening. Soon afterwards her great form was confirmed with a call up for the England junior team. Other stand out results included Jake Collins taking Gareth Herbert to five in round 2.
Good to see London Academy players Charlie Austen, Omar Khassal, Zachary Bull, and Gabriel Achampong all make their debuts and show much promise for the future.