Matuzevicius Vicious in Victory:

65 players competed in the Sussex Series 2 Star on Saturday 18th May at the Triangle Leisure Centre, Burgess Hill.

Junior Boys:
This was a round robin group of eight players. There were some very interesting matches here. Third ranked player Martin Matuzevicius (Ha) excelled to win all seven matches to win the event. He beat club mate and top seed Jimmy Yeung (Ha) in three very tight games and no. 2 seed Jack Josephs (He) in three games, two of which were decided by only two points. Impressively, he only conceded two games in his seven victories. Josephs beat Yeung for the first time ever 12-10 in the fifth, having trailed 6-9. However, earlier Josephs had lost to James Mason (Ha) 3-1, which meant that Yeung and Josephs both had five wins. The fact that Josephs beat Yeung got him the silver, while Yeung had to settle for bronze. Matuzevicius also got £75 for winning the event and Josephs won £25. Other intriguing results were Josephs being extended deep into five sets by both Ezra Myers (Sy) and Evie Foster (K), who had to be put in with the boys, as there were no spaces left in the girls event, when she entered. Myers himself won twice 11-8 in the decider over Foster and Jake Coombes (K).

Junior Girls:
This was a round robin group of seven players. Top seed Kate Cheer (Crawley) won all six of her matches. Impressively, she only dropped one end in the competition, and that was in her first match vs the lowest ranked player, Juliette Moussarie (Mi). Moussarie did extremely well to overcome three of her higher ranked opponents and only lost to second seed Holly Holder (Horsham) in the fifth set. Isabelle Joubeily ranked third, won five matches to finish second. She defeated Holder in straight sets. Third place went to a count back between Holder, Moussarie and Jasmine Chan (Mi) and it was the latter who had the better games ratio to get the bronze medal, with Moussarie finishing fourth.

Cadet Girls:
In the cadet girls, it was the six of the same players, except now competing for cadet ranking points not junior points. Cheer did not take part in this vent, but the other junior girls entrants all did. Joubeily again won five matches and topped the group. Like Cheer, Joubeily only dropped one end in total and as with Cheer, it was in her first match vs Moussarie. Second place went to Chan, who had a close encounter of the fifth kind, beating Holder 11-9 in the fifth. Top seed Holder did take the bronze, although only in a two-way count back with Moussarie.

Cadet Boys Band 1:
This consisted of a group of six and a group of five, with the top three from each group going into the top group in the second group stage and the rest of the players going into the lower group. Group 1 was won with some ease by no. 1 seed Liam Grant (Sy). Connor Russell (K) took the runners-up spot. There was a count back for third place between George Coulson (He), Naphat Boonyaprapa (Nk) and Marcus Bracey (Lancing). Coulson clinched third place in the group. Second seed James Smith (K) suffered two unexpected losses in this group, although feeling under the weather. After winning his first three matches Smith lost 3-1 to Luke Carter (K) and then 11-9 in the fifth to Ben Foster (K). Foster won the group with a full complement of five wins. He also took five games to beat Carter. Smith came in third place, but pulled out at that point, due to feeling unwell.

In the next round, Group A was won by Grant, who beat Foster and Carter in straight sets. Russell took second place with a five game win over Foster, who claimed the bronze. With Bracey pulling out with a sore knee, the only remaining matches in Group B were Boonyaprapa’s three matches and he had to play them in quick succession. Despite this, he came out on top in all three encounters, going to five twice to win Group B.

Cadet Boys Band 2:
There were 17 players in this band with two groups of six and one group of five. The top two from each group would progress in the second round to Group A, third and fourth into Group B and the rest into Group C. There was a count back for the top three spots in Group 1. James Knudsen (E) beat top seed Mason O’Neil (K) in five, William Goodstone (Cavendish) beat Knudsen in five, but O’Neil won the group as he beat Goodstone 3-1. Knudsen was second and Goodstone third. In Group 2 Daniel Ozokolie (Mi) had a good win over George Hazell (Horsham) in three games to top the group. Hazell was second with three wins. Combination bat player, Harry Trawley (Bu) triumphed in Group 3, with two unexpected wins over Andrew Chapman (Sy) and Regan O’Neil (K). O’Neil beat Chapman for the right to advance to Group A. Ozokolie continued his winning ways in the second round, with two more unexpected wins over both of the O’Neil brothers, as well as defeating club mate Trawley and Knudsen to gain the gold medal. Silver went to Trawley, who picked up three 3-0 victories. Hazell also had three more victories to get the bronze. Chapman won all of his Group B matches, as did Zaiim Premji (Mi) in Group C.

Mixed Cadet Band 3:
This consisted of two groups of eight players. In Group 1 top seed Kieran Bonner (Horsham Spinners TTC) won five of his seven matches, although had a five-setter vs Roddy McGillivray (St. Michael’s). Bonner lost a close four game match vs Spinners club mate, Will Michell, who is unranked. Michell performed very well to also win five matches, including two 11-9 in the fifth victories vs another Horsham Spinners player, Joe Worskett and McGillivray too. However fourth seed Ben Towers (K) proved too strong for the rest of the field, winning all of his matches. Worskett pushed him the hardest, losing a close four-setter, but no-one else managed to steal an end from Towers. Michell finished second in the group, by virtue of his win over Bonner. Bertrand Tsun Hang Siu (Sx) was fourth in the group. Group 2 commenced with a tight five-ender between eventual group winner, Sam Wray (St. Michael’s) and no. 2 seed, Scott Covey (Horsham Spinners). Covey started the stronger, winning the first two games, but Wray hit back & won the fifth despite having trailed 3-7. From there Wray, who is unranked, never looked back, winning his remaining six matches all 3-0! Covey did not fare as well, as he lost to Horsham Spinners club mate, Anish Padalkar 3-1 and to eight-year-old super-kid, Naphong Boonyaprapa (Nk). Boonyaprapa came second in the group with five wins. His other loss was vs Padalkar. Covey, Padalkar and German Ocampo-Barrera (MMJ East Grinstead) all ended up with four wins. On count back they finished in the order listed. One to impress the organisers was Alice Hazell (Horsham), who had an impressive win over Padalkar in five sets.

After the group stage, each player had one more play off match vs the player who finished in the equivalent position in the other group. The final was contested by Towers and Wray and the former proved too strong, winning in straight games 11-5, 11-7, 11-9. Boonyaprapa denied Michell the bronze medal in a deciding set match. Club mates Bonner and Covey fought out a good match for fifth place, but Bonner won the decider comfortably. There was another fiver-setter for seventh place, with Siu overcoming Padalkar.

Final Positions:
Junior Girls:
1) Kate Cheer (Sx)
2) Isabelle Joubeily (Sy)
3) Jasmine Chan (Mi)
4) Juliette Moussarie (Mi)
5) Holly Holder (Sx)
6) Jess Jarvis (He)
7) Shristi Ghosh (Bu)

Cadet Girls:
1) Isabelle Joubeily (Sy)
2) Jasmine Chan (Mi)
3) Holly Holder (Sx)
4) Juliette Moussarie (Mi)
5) Shristi Ghosh (Bu)
6) Jess Jarvis (He)

Junior Boys:
1) Martin Matuzevicius (Ha)
2) Jack Josephs (He)
3) Jimmy Yeung (Ha)
4) Ezra Myers (Sy)
5) Evie Foster (K)
6) James Mason (Ha)
7) Jake Coombes (K)
8) Ryan Gregory (Sx)

Cadet Boys Band 1:
1) Liam Grant (Sy)
2) Connor Russell (K)
3) Ben Foster (K)
4) Luke Carter (K)
5) George Coulson (He)
6) James Smith (K)
7) Naphat Boonyaprapa (Nk)
8) Jordan Ingles (He)
9) Sam Liu (Bk)
10) James Corner (Mi)
11) Marcus Bracey (Sx)

Cadet Boys Band 2:
1) Daniel Ozokolie (Mi)
2) Harry Trawley (Mi)
3) George Hazell (Sx)
4) Regan O’Neil (K)
5) Mason O’Neil (K)
6) James Knudsen (E)
7) Andrew Chapman (Sy)
8) William Goodstone (Sx)
9) Dexter Sherin (Sx)
10) Jaycee Chan (Mi)
11) Ben Naylor-Smith (Bu)
12) Kyle Murphy (Mi)
13) Zaiim Premji (Mi)
14) George Long (Mi)
15) Alistair Smith (Sx)
16) Josh Selby (Ox)
17) Cacherel Mirjah-Mercer (Mi)

Mixed Cadet Band 3:
1) Ben Towers (K)
2) Sam Wray (Sx)
3) Naphong Boonyaprapa (Nk)
4) Will Michell (Sx)
5) Kieran Bonner (Sx)
6) Scott Covey (Sx)
7) Bertrand Tsun Hang Siu (Sx)
8) Anish Padalkar (Sx)
9) Joe Worskett (Sx)
10) German Ocampo-Barrera (Sx)
11) Roddy McGillivray (Sx)
12) Alice Hazell (Sx)
13) Jago Manning McGeorge (Sx)
14) Harry Filson (Sx)
15) Josh Patel (Sx)
16) Talia Patel (Sx)