In 2010 Sussex County Table Tennis Association perceived that there was a lack of top quality events in the South East of England and decided to embark on presenting a Junior/cadet 4 star tournament.
Finally the tournament arrived with fantastic support from 262 entries. A huge thank you to the sponsors of the tournament: Tees Sports, Ray Hole Architects, Griffin Technology & Security and Heritage oil who underwrote the tournament so that Sussex CTTA could confidently take on such a challenging undertaking. Also Sussex CTTA would like to publicly thank all the volunteers for their hard work in delivering the tournament.
The tournament kicked off on the Saturday with the Cadet boys Band 1 singles which ended up with an all Middlesex final between Zachery Bull and Gabriel Achampong which resulted in a victory for Gabriel 6-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-6.
In the U-13 Girls open singles Denise Payet from Middlesex upset the seeding by beating the number 1 seed Jane Li 3-0 in the semi-final and then beating her close rival Kate Cheer the number 2 seed from Sussex 3-1.
The tournament committee also broke new ground by introducing Band 2 events for players with less than 130 ranking points which was a resounding success. In the u-13 final Joe Franklin beat Che Marshall 3-1 in an all Middlesex final. The u-15 band 2 event was won by Kareem Bandango and second place was Zihad Wardell both from Middlesex. The U-18 band 2 event was played as round robin of 8 players with Joseph Miller in 1st and again Zihad Wardell finishing 2nd.
The under 13 boys saw an early upset in the 1st round with a great victory for Josh Bennett from Sussex over Matthew Leete from Linclonshire however Josh succumbed to Luke Savill in the semi-final. The final went to seeding with Tom Jarvis (no 1 seed) victorious over Luke Savill (no 2 seed) .
In the u-15 girls band 1 event Zahana Hall overcame number 1 seed Holly Holder in the group stage with a nail biting close 5 set match. Zahana then went on to the final but was defeated by the number 2 seed Hiba Feredj in 3 straight sets.
The number 1 seed from Sussex Helshan Weerasinghe who was the clear favourite for the event U-15 boys open won 3-1 in the final against Jack Bennett , also from Sussex after beating Danny Lawrence 3-1 in the semi-final. Jack Bennett having beaten the number 2 seed Tyrone Wells in the other semi-final. The girls u-15 open event was won by Maria Tsaptsinos against Lois Peake 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9.
Sunday morning started with the Junior Girls which was wide open due to the withdrawal of number 1 seed Yolanda King with a virus . Megan Knowles had a very tough Quarter-final encounter with recent arrival from Hong Kong, Yuki Wat of Sussex which finished 11-9,9-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9 to Megan. However, she ran out clear victor with straight sets victories in the semi-final against Maria Tsaptsinos and in the final against Emma Torkington.
The junior Boys event had a massive entry of 98 competitors and had some notable victories for Danny Lawrence against Sam Mabey and Liam Mctiernan against Jared Patel. Reece Placid looked destined to have a massive upset when he went 2-0 up against favourite Lewis Gray but Lewis’s experience took its toll and Lewis came out victor in 5 sets with the scores 9-11,9-11,11-9,11-6, 11-8. Lewis went on to the win the final against 14 year old Helshan Weerasinghe 8-11,11-6. 11-5, 11-5.
The afternoon session started with the Junior boys band 1 which saw all 4 top seeds reach the semi-final: Michael Fraser, Dominic Sussex, Ashley Facey-Thompson and Jack Bennett . However number 1 seed Michael Fraser was defeated by Ashley who then went on to lose in the final to Dominic Sussex.
The Girls under 18 band 1 event went in favour of the number 1 seed from Sussex – Yuki Wat who won 3-0 against Jane Li from Essex.
Hope you all come back next year when the tournament will be played at the bigger venue at K2 Crawley.
