April 21^st Sussex Circuit at K2

The fifth Sussex circuit tournament in the 2011-2012 season kicked off at K2, Crawley on Sat 21^st April with 46 competitors, which was a really good turnout considering many players had other engagements with the schools and regional finals being played in Doncaster over the same weekend.

Band A was particularly strong with three senior players signing up for our strategy of including adults to bolster the standard for top junior/u-21 players. These included Tim Holtam, Rory Scott and Steve Pound. In the morning session Rory Scott, Tim Holtam and Steve Pound finished as expected in first, second and third respectively with Mark Collins taking the gold position for the U-21’s . The silver and bronze positions were awarded on count back between Paul Bergin, David Pringuer and Daniel Pound with Paul and David taking silver and bronze respectively.

In the afternoon band A session there were some real surprises with Daniel Pound beating Steve Pound 11-9 in the fifth and Mark Collins beating Rory Scott 3-1. All four players went through to the final round of matches and all final round matches going the full five game distance. Rory Scott beat Daniel Pound 11-9 in the decider and Steve Pound beat Mark Collins 11-8 in the fifth. This meant that the last two matches would decide the positions. Daniel Pound raced to a 2-0 lead against Mark Collins as he had done earlier in the day only to be pegged back to 2-2. However, this time he picked up his performance and came through 12-10 in the last game.

In the other match Steve Pound offered to concede to Rory Scott as Pound was too tired. Rory refused and so the match went on. After a slow start Pound took a 2-1 lead and at 14-13 up in the fourth missed an easy smash only to lose the game 16-14. Again in the fifth he found himself with two advantage points and this time closed the match out 11-8. This meant that Daniel Pound was outright winner and took gold and Mark Collins took silver. Michael Bridger took the bronze after count back with George Tester. The strategy of including seasoned adults for band A is clearly working and the young band A players are really stepping up to the challenge.

In the morning session for Band B we had a new comer to the event in Marley Cross. He was seeded no.1 in his group and justified his seeding with four victories including a close 11-7 in the fifth victory against the much improving Bart Rayson. In group 2 Hai Duong was no. 1 seed and came out winner after two close five-game matches against Ryan Gregory and George Hazell, the latter being 12-10 in the fifth game.  In the final group of matches Marley Cross came out victor in gold medal position with Hai Duong second and George Hazell third. Bart Rayson being particularly unlucky after 11-8 in the fifth loss to George Hazell and 11-9 in the fifth loss to Hai Duong.

The afternoon band B session looked a little stronger with the addition of James Arnold to the field. In the group 1 James came first with Marley Cross second to qualify for the final group . In group 2 Ryan Gregory stepped up his performances with three good victories to head up the group ahead of Freddy Goodall in second. In the final group James Arnold proved his quality to take the gold and Ryan Gregory continued his great performances with a 13-11 in the deciding game victory against the morning winner Marley Cross to take silver and Marley in bronze position.

Band C in the morning had 9 competitors paying round robin. The competition was dominated by the girls with Lauren Pound coming third after losing 11-9 in the fifth to Oliver Storey who came second after losing 11-9 in the fifth to Evie Quiroga . Evie took gold with seven victories and this is the second tournament in a row that Evie has taken gold and I’m sure she is one to watch for the future.

In the afternoon Band C session the players were split into two qualifying groups. In group 1 Kieran Bonner upped his performances from the morning to take first spot with Chris Daly second. In group 2 Joe Widdowson took first position against Benedict Smith on count back. Benedict continued his good performances with a 3-0 victory in the third/fourth play-off match to take bronze. In the final Kieran Bonner took the gold with a 3-0 victory over Joe Widdowson.

Many thanks to everyone that took part, the coaches and all those that helped. The next Sussex circuit will be on Sunday 24^th June 2012 at K2.

The final positions were:

Morning Band A

1st Rory Scott

2^nd Tim Holtam

3^rd Steve Pound

4^th Mark Collins

5^th Paul Bergin

6^th David Pringuer

7^th Daniel Pound

8^th George Tester

9^th Sam Lu

10^th Erik Van Mol

Morning Band B:

1st Marley Cross

2^nd Hai Duong

3^rd George Hazell

4^th Bart Rayson

5^th Sam Dallas

6^th Ryan Gregory

7^th Sam Wray

8^th Joe Russell

9^th Alex Bryant

10^th Luke Stewart

11^th Rory Fraser

Morning Band C:

1st Evie Quiroga

2^nd Oliver Storey

3^rd Lauren Pound

4^th German Ocampo

5^th Emily Gibbons

6^th Kieran Bonner

7^th Cameron Parfit

8^th Hugo Hawes

9^th Jonathan Grainger

Afternoon Band A:

1st Daniel Pound

2^nd Steve Pound

3^rd Mark Collins

4^th Rory Scott

5^th Michael Bridger

6^th George Tester

7^th Paul Bergin

8^th David Pringuer

Afternoon Band B:

1st James Arnold

2^nd Ryan Gregory

3^rd Marley Cross

4^th Freddy Goodall

5^th Bart Rayson

6^th Annabel Bridger

7^th Alex Widdowson

8^th Joe Russell

Afternoon Band C:

1st Kieran Bonner

2^nd Joe Widdowson

3^rd Benedict Smith

4^th Chris Daly

5^th Kate Bridger

6^th Oliver Storey

7^th Jake Sinclair

8^th Louis Zanden

9^th Scott Covey

10^th Emily Gibbons