Fifty four youngsters took part in the Northumberland Junior Tournament at Sporting Club Cramlington with Junior, Cadet, Under 13 and Under 12 events being held. Twelve groups of three took place in the Juniors with the winner of each group going into the K.O. stage. Last year’s Cadet winner, Arran Kent was number one seed with Robert Renton at two, Thaaqib Sallen three and twelve year old Peter Smallcombe at four and all of them progressed safely into the Knock Out.
Kent then defeated Alex Creighton, Renton was victorious over Francis Guthrie, Saleem beat Adam Butler and Smallcombe put out Blair Carmichael. In the Semis Kent and Renton were too good for Smallcombe and Saleem respectively to reach the final and do battle for the Norman Moore Memorial Cup.
Kent proved to be the stronger and took the title and the Cup, winning 11 –7 11 –7
Smallcombe was the number one seed in the Cadet Singles which was played on a straight knock out basis and he duly reached the final to play for the Harry Dignan Cup with comfortable wins over Israel Shodeinde, Will Capps, Jack Caliskan, and Andrew Cockerill.
In the other half of the draw thirteen year old Troy Maddison edged out Tom Firth, beat Oliver Thompson and then defeated the number two and three seeds, Adam Butler and Andrew Matfin to get the chance to take on Smallcombe in the final.
Smallcombe, however, was never really troubled and ran out the winner 11 – 7 11 – 4
Top seed, Sree Kanakala made a good start in the Under 13s with victories over Adam Webster and Will Wigham but was then surprisingly beaten 12 – 10 in the decider by Ted Armstrong who had previously failed to get through his group in the Under 12s. Troy Maddison reached his second final after successes against Ben Wilkin, Matthew Mastaglio and Jack Caliskan and made up for his defeat in the Cadet final by overcoming Armstrong 13 – 11 11 –5
The Under 12s had two groups of three with the winners competing in the final. Alfie Stokes got through with straight games victories over Charlie Halliford and Layton Meek while his twin brother Archie came top of the second group on count back after losing to Jay Smith 2 – 1 but beating Armstrong 2 – 0, Armstrong having defeated Smith 2 – 1
The battle of the twins in the final saw Alfie beating Archie in a close encounter 13 – 11 10 – 12 11 – 4
With every competitor playing in two events and twelve tables in use a total of 102 best of three matches was played in just under three hours and thanks are expressed to all the volunteers who made this possible.
Aubrey Drapkin
March 24, 2015